Shlomo’s comment prompted me to think about why men aren’t making much headway in promoting their political interests. The obvious answer is that men compete with each other and tear each other down, but then again women do the same. However, men and women compete in a different manner. Women compete as individuals. For example, girls who are friends quickly stop cooperating when both want the same thing, but they bond together as a big group in their collective interest. Men, on the other hand, are pretty good at bonding on an individual level – often selflessly – but they compete as small groups — teams in other words. This is the basis of warfare, economic competition, hunting (in paleolithic times) and many other activities. The ability to work as a team is hardwired in men. Nerds, jocks, criminals, police and even politicians do it.
The thing is, teams of men instinctively compete with other teams of men. Men have an aversion to joining one big group where everyone toes the line. They like to divvy up and compete. Herding men is very difficult. But it’s easy for women. Trot out some authority figure and women will obey as a single group without open dissent. They walk, talk and act in unison.
In our democratic political system, herds are more effective at the ballot box. Voting rules out individual competition, so women can all happily vote in their own and their fellow women’s interests (or what they perceive as such) without any conflict. We have, in essence, “herd rule.”
So how do you fight it?
Instead of trying to herd men, why not work with men’s strengths? Winning through sheer numbers will never work if we can’t effectively herd men, so let’s abandon that idea. Instead, we should be the cowboys rather than the cattle. Teamwork is a force-multiplier. By working intelligently and purposefully, a dozen men can be more effective than a thousand-strong herd.
So I propose a new form of organization for MRAs. Develop local political teams, and give men roles. A few spokesmen running blogs is really pretty useless if people can’t cooperate on the ground. I may be able to educate people and spread the message, but what can I do about some problem judge in Sacramento? Not much besides expose him online, and although that might bother him, there’s little chance I could influence the vote there without having someone in local media on my side.
If a few bright, energetic men in Sacramento got together and thought of ways to remove him from the bench, that judge might be in trouble. These few men could even work to replace him with someone who supports fathers’ rights. The herd that casts the votes wouldn’t even have to know. They wouldn’t be paying attention in any event.
So, instead of focusing on building a few herd-oriented organizations to “reach out to men” or whatever, what I and others who are putting work into changing the current state of affairs ought to be doing is offering some means for facilitating team formation. We should channel our efforts toward enabling men to work on solutions and concrete achievements. One way to do this is to encourage meetups, like the one I had in San Francisco. Let guys get to know each other and enjoy each other’s company, and give them a basic action plan. Start by practicing on easy targets (e.g. get some writeup in the local paper), and move onto bigger game as you get better at it. Sounds like fun to me.
I’m going to keep putting some work into this concept, but I could use some help from those who like to organize and lead projects (not my strong suit). Perhaps someone with military experience would have some valuable experience in that regard. I know there’s interest out there, so I’ll keep at it until we see some results.
