I have had the opportunity to study a number of movements in the course of work, and have found that those that actually make headway have a few things in common. Perhaps the most important ingredient in a successful movement is martyrdom. And I mean martyrdom in the most literal sense, as in losing one’s head as opposed to losing one’s livelihood. There is nothing that brings out the primal passions in humans quite like death (this is actually common to most social creatures — watch what crows do when they see one of their own shot down). This is why suicide bombings are so perfect for sustaining movements: one instantly creates martyrs on both sides, thus raising the stakes and perpetuating the movement.
Next, there is money. Without funds, movements peter out fairly quickly. Not only do people need to be fed and sheltered; they need to be equipped with the tools of the trade, whatever they may be. Without these essentials the fellow travelers will soon fall away like autumn leaves.
Finally, there needs to be some kind of organized leadership, which usually develops quickly enough in the presence of the first two conditions.
So what I am going to say right here is that there is no MRA movement. And, quite frankly, we don’t even want one. I will also say that there never really was a Feminist movement. There was a real anti-war movement in the 1960s and 70s, and there is still an anti-abortion movement, but the struggle between the genders is actually little more than a drama played out on the national stage. What counts here is not bodies hitting the floor or exhortations to sacrifice, but rather who controls the discourse.
Fundamentally, we are engaged in a cultural arm-wrestling match, and women have been winning more from sheer volume of content than anything else. It is as though we are all witnessing a national episode of marital discord, and the wife is doing all the talking. Somewhere along the way, men became culturally complacent, allowing others to do the talking and thinking for them, and we became a nation of hen-pecked men. Mass media had a lot to do with this – probably more than anything else – but fortunately the paradigm has shifted. It is no longer just a few networks that have a national voice, but now thousands of people writing blogs, producing their own videos and making themselves heard. Additionally, women are now working as much as men. We now have the time to bring our own voice to bear.
In this struggle, we don’t need men to lay down their lives in a war against Feminism. We don’t want them to, because when it does happen it is an exceedingly tragic thing.
Take the case of Perry Manley, for example. Here was a man whose life fell apart after he was left by his wife. He was jailed for child support arrears, lost jobs and ran into brick walls when he tried to go to court over the issue. Eventually, he lost it and started threatening judges, which eventually led to scrutiny by federal agents. This drove him over the edge, and at the age of 52 he carried an inert hand grenade into the federal courthouse in Seattle, inevitably getting himself shot dead.
Ultimately, Manley’s death must have caused a great amount of pain for his family, but it had little effect otherwise. Rather than galvanizing a movement, he most likely caused more sober reflection amongst people on both sides of the issue. His case may have caused some judges to reevaluate punitive child support orders and jailings, but Manley evidently didn’t follow proper procedure while in court so we can’t be sure whether it had any effect at all. Above all, his death was a demoralizing flash in the pan.
Part of the problem is that women don’t wage war in the same manner as men. They do it through lies, slander, emotional manipulation, hysteria and evasion of consequences rather than through straightforward assaults on an enemy position. Manley, a veteran, did not understand this, and went about fighting for his cause as though he was in a contest between men.
What we have to understand that this is not a traditional movement, but rather a drama. We shouldn’t see ourselves fighting some monolithic conspiracy – as Perry Manley did – but rather as people who can learn to survive despite the innumerable petty conspiracies and vicious lies that abound in our complex society, and who can learn even to tame them.
Rather than martyrs like Manley, we need masters like Petruchio:
Another way I have to man my haggard,
To make her come and know her keeper’s call,
That is, to watch her, as we watch these kites
That bate and beat and will not be obedient.-The Taming of the Shrew
