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!


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Category: Feminism, Melissa Clouthier

Comments

  • http://pointofagun.blogspot.com/ Dave C

    And here I thought it was a scam for those guys to try and get laid.

  • Smitty

    By burly women who go by “Butch”?

  • JeffS

    So did I!

  • JeffS

    And have a mustache.

  • Anonymous

    Dude: The viral video is free advertising for their seminars.

  • Polichinello

    I literally could not stand 20 seconds of that video before I had to click it off. I cannot see how anyone could spend days on end with these douche nozzles.

  • Malenid

    I just wanted to slap them silly. Instead of questioning why women, who are individuals, don’t like these men, who are also individuals, they attribute it to history. It’s all because some man way back was mean to some woman.

    Hey, presto! No need for self reflection or personal responsibility! Teh Patriarchy, in the form of masculine men, is to blame for everything, and they themselves need never change or grow.

    Collective guilt is comforting, not just for eternal victims, but also for the people who wear it like a shroud. It means that they can dilute their own inadequacies in historical injustices – “that woman/black person doesn’t like me? I’m not even gonna consider my own personality; it must be because of all the OTHER men/white people who were mean.”

  • LibertyLover

    DISCLAIMER: What appears below is Satire. So don’t go off on me for being a leftist girlie-man. Please.

    BEGIN SATIRE:
    Now, now. Such insensitive, Neanderthal Rightist comments! These sensitive, appropriately guilt-ridden heroic yet unmanly male-persons (they’re sure not men) are doing the–well, not the Lord’s work–Gaia’s work. Or Gloria Steinem’s work. Well, whoever’s work it is, it would be Divine, if we believed in such things.

    Remember this related fact, currently big on the pop-psych scene: men today are historically odious scum, far above their histroical (admittedly high) levels of scuminess. For the first time ever, an entire generation of women is reaching age 40 never having been married, and of course it’s totally, absolutely, 100% the men’s fault for not being worth marrying (see scum reference above).

    Every day, I thank my lucky crystals that a job forcibly transplanted me to the Bay Area of California, where Enlightenment reigns and everyone (except for the few stray conservatives who haven’t been exterminated yet) are One with the Cosmos.

    O, I am unworthy male pond scum. Peace, out.

  • LibertyLover

    As with everything Leftist/New Age, follow the money.

  • Anonymous

    So you are telling me men pay $1,295 to be castrated and it takes five days?
    They didn’t cover that angle on Trifecta.
    http://www.pjtv.com/?cmd=mpg&mpid=105&load=5246

  • Mikey NTH

    New Age will be the death of us all. It is against reason and The Enlightenment, thus it is against the West.

  • Dr Spank

    If those 2 dudes aren’t polishing each others knobs then there is no Allah.

  • http://thatmrgguy.wordpress.com/ Mike

    It was a pathetic video. Can’t believe I watched it three times…just kidding, i only watched about a half a minute of it before my eyes glazed over and I had to get some fresh air.

  • http://thecampofthesaints.org Bob Belvedere

    Quite and very true, but they do believe the crap. As Stacy writes: 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.

    The whole purpose of the Leftist philosophy is to Immanentize The Eschaton – if they can scam the existing and horrible and unjust [in their eyes] system while they do it, then they can sit in their mental circle jerks and giggle about it like the little Nancy-Boys they are.

  • http://thecampofthesaints.org Bob Belvedere

    Great minds think alike, Dr. Spank – my same reaction too.

    But, hey, they were just exploring new heights of love, creativity, and well-being.

  • Anonymous

    “I just wanted to slap them silly. ”

    They’ll take alot slapping to make them any sillier. Enjoy.

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  • http://rantvillereborn.blogspot.com/ Mayorjimmy

    The only Hendricks Institute I want to be a part of is The Christina Hendricks Institute for Motorboating. OH!!! *hip thrust*

    Yeah but seriously though, these guys are tools.

  • Nga

    “It’s a scam, is what it is. And it’s also un-Christian.”
    Ugh.
    You know, you had a perfectly good argument going there based on straightforward reasoning. Why did you have to go and muck it up by mentioning your religion? That weakens your argument, not strengthen it.
    Used this way, saying ‘my religion says it bad’, add a whiny note to what you are saying that is every bit as bad as the ‘cosmic injustice’ whine.

  • Anonymous

    The Christina Hendricks Institute for Motorboating.

    Ba-da-BOOM! That deserved a rimshot.

  • Anonymous

    But you see that this kind of “social justice” mentality is a perversion of Christian ethics, which is why it is only in the West that this guy of guilt-ridden attitude — “I must abase myself because of the sins of the past!” — has any traction.

  • Anonymous

    But you see that this kind of “social justice” mentality is a perversion of Christian ethics, which is why it is only in the West that this guy of guilt-ridden attitude — “I must abase myself because of the sins of the past!” — has any traction.

  • Anonymous

    But you see that this kind of “social justice” mentality is a perversion of Christian ethics, which is why it is only in the West that this guy of guilt-ridden attitude — “I must abase myself because of the sins of the past!” — has any traction.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1044093663 Pete Hallman

    When I look at these two, my first thought is ‘Marshall Applewhite’.

    Ugh.

  • Nospam

    So- you had a good arguement there, Nga, then you had to spoil it by mentioning your religous hatred. Your bigotry weakens your arguement, not strengthens it.
    Used that way, saying “your religon is bad”, adds a whiny note to what you are saying taht is every bit as bad as the “cosmic injustice” whine.

  • Anonymous

    Stacy,
    You smacked the nail squarely on the head with your comment that “it relieves individuals of the duty to act justly in their own lives, by transferring responsibility to that vast amorphous entity, “society.””.

    There’s more truth in that paragraph than many might initially realize. Deserves further discussion and exposition.

    Good article!

  • Anonymous

    I reckon they all deserve to be in the video.

  • Reagan Fan

    Consider the irony: The apologize for slavery. They apologize for wars. However, they fail to apologize for wars that ended slavery.

  • Jeff Jefferson

    They are removing comments on YouTube that don’t agree with their B.S. so I’ll say it here:
    These eunuchs are not man enough to apologize on my behalf.

  • Anonymous

    Well, I would have to seriously question the quality of the pussy that would hop into bed with a couple of dweebs like that anyway

  • http://www.portsmouthhomecenter.com Jim Lee

    I searched for a kinder, gentler way to say it but these guys are just full of shit. Grow a pair and use them.

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  • Nga

    You’re either insane or very immature. At no point in my comment did I say anything about hating religion. By your ‘reasoning’, if I’d commented that the writer used a quote from Goethe that added nothing to his thesis, you’d accuse me of hating Germans.

  • Anonymous

    “Awakening coach!” 2012′s Word Of The Year; betcha.

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