The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Guys: Collective Guilt Is Not Sexy

Posted on | April 15, 2011 | 34 Comments

A couple weeks ago, there was a lot of buzz surrounding the “Dear Woman” video — hell, no, I’m not gonna embed it here — in which a bunch of New Age dudes profess their intent to compensate for the historic oppression of women. Melissa Clouthier’s reaction:

My initial response was to laugh so hard I cried. My stomach hurt. . . .
My second response was that they were full of crap. These guys probably have porn stashes that make Larry Flynt blush. Why do I say that? Because when someone has to tell me how much he thinks/feels/believes something instead of live his beliefs, I’m suspect. Ever been told by someone, “you can trust me”? Do you trust them now?

Bingo. This should be every woman’s basic street-smart hunch about guys who make a big show of their sensitivity: “What’s his angle? What’s in it for him?”

In general, women can’t go wrong by operating on the assumption that all guys are always on the make, but you should be especially suspicious of any dude who ostentatiously presents himself as a White Knight of impeccable nobility. I’m not saying that there are no White Knights out there, but when a guy starts parading his moral rectitude — “Admire me! I’m virtuous!” — it should automatically trigger your bullshit detector.

Two words: John Edwards.

What is so stunningly wrong-headed about the “Dear Woman” approach is its social-justice sensibility, which replaces individual responsibility with collective guilt — a mentality that Thomas Sowell critically examined in The Quest for Cosmic Justice. 

The same mentality is displayed by people who think that past ills in American racial history can somehow be remedied by admission quotas at Harvard: “Hey, black America, we’re really sorry about that slavery and segregation stuff, so we’re going to send the children of Salvadoran immigrants to Ivy League universities. All better now?”

It’s a scam, is what it is. And it’s also un-Christian.

“Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man,” we are told in Ecclesiastes 12:13, and the various biblical commandments that we should do justice and be charitable in dealing with our fellow man are incumbent on individuals. The “cosmic justice” concept of collective guilt is an invitation to imagine some hope of collective salvation through a utopian man-made Heaven on Earth.

As I am sometimes compelled to point out, when the Good Samaritan heard the cry of the injured man on the road to Jericho, he didn’t run back to Jerusalem and form a political action committee to lobby the Roman Empire for taxpayer-funded emergency health-care to travelers waylaid by robbers. No, he personally intervened at his own expense to help the man in need.

The reason that the “cosmic justice” mentality is un-Christian is that it relieves individuals of the duty to act justly in their own lives, by transferring responsibility to that vast amorphous entity, “society.” And instead of people acting personally to help those in need — showing kindness, mercy, charity and hospitality to others — the “cosmic justice” mentality tells people that it is more virtuous to express morality through politics, including such political sermonizing as the idiotic “Dear Woman” video.

Cheryl Wetzstein of The Washington Times reports that the guys responsible for this travesty are a couple of California-based New Age gurus, “awakening coach” Aruja Ardagh and Gay Hendricks (don’t laugh yet). This is from the mission statement at the Hendricks Institute site:

We are an International Learning Center that teaches core skills for conscious living and conscious loving. Our work over the past three decades has been to assist people in opening to more creativity, love, and vitality through the power of conscious relationship and whole-person learning. We are passionately committed to creating a worldwide community of people with whom we can explore new heights of love, creativity, and well-being.

The Hendricks Institute provides training in “opening to more creativity, love, and vitality” (sarcastic eye-roll) and, y’know, I’m guessing they don’t provide that training for free. In fact, I’m guessing that Ardagh and Hendricks have made out like bandits while doing their New Age hustle over the years. Given that the fee for the Hendricks Institute’s “Conscious Loving 5-Day Advanced Training” is $1,295, it doesn’t take a mathematical genius to see that if they attract 1,000 such customers a year, that’s $1.3 million in annual gross revenues.

THE HENDRICKS INSTITUTE
For Suckers Who Don’t Deserve an Even Break

Ah, but what about this pompous exercise in collective guilt known as “Dear Woman”? Allahpundit:

 Of the half-dozen or so women I’ve seen comment on it on Twitter, not a single one has been receptive. The cruel fate of the beta, my friends.

Some guys, like John Edwards, can get away with the “Mr. Sensitive” play, especially if the object of their play is “fiercely devoted to astrology and New Age spirituality.” (C’mon, guys: The minute a chick asks your zodiac sign, that’s a big neon sign flashing “Easy,” right?) But no halfway decent guy pursues that kind of easy action, and no halfway decent woman would ever want to be that kind of easy action.

So what’s up with these dudes in the “Dear Woman” video advertising their beta-hood? Melissa Clouthier gazes into the abyss:

The Western world is utterly, completely doomed. The National Organization of Women have been continually pumping out anti-male propaganda for two generations. Now, some men apparently feel the need to apologize for simply being.
As per usual, the liberals are bending history and culture to their own view. The conquering, civilization-building, daring-do of men is lost in a haze of pillaging, raping, and aggression. The traits typically attributed to men are wholesale demonized — and these men buy it. . . .
Who, pray tell, will defend Western Civilization from true brutality if men aren’t willing to stand up and defend it? . . .

Read the whole thing. But if you watch that creepy video, guys, don’t blame me when your gonads shrivel up.

UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers!


Category: Feminism, Melissa Clouthier

Comments

Comments are closed.