Patriarchy is Inevitable

I had the great pleasure to interview Steven Goldberg, former chairman of City College of New York's Sociology Department, on the subject of Why Men Rule.  This was a fascinating discussion of how testosterone distinguishes men, most significantly in terms on aggression, which drives them to compete more for those positions which are highly valued in a given society.  We also discussed gender fluidity and gender realism, as well as the ridiculousness of PC culture and those groups who wish the state would hinder or assist the development of patriarchy.

I highly recommend his books - The Inevitability of Patriarchy or the later, updated version, Why Men Rule: A Theory of Male Dominance.

What I Love/Hate About James Bond

I remember my first Bond movie – Goldfinger.  I was enthralled by the boyish charm, whimsically taking off a wet suit to reveal an ivory dinner jacket with black tie and lighting up a cigarette just his bomb lights up the sky from the view of some exotic club window.  The tone is lighthearted, the music is upbeat and rich, the British humour is there wherever possible and Bond is a Nietzschean hero – spirited, noticeably feeling fear but sticking his tongue in cheek, right in the face of death.  The James Bond I remember had too much fun drinking, smoking and screwing his way into situations where he was obliged to save the world to ever rationally reflect on how he might be more careful in future.  In short, this little boy’s mind was witnessing the modern equivalent of an ancient epic, some hero gloriously defeating some blatantly unrealistic foe, the gods or lady luck just as blatantly on his side.  What’s more, he looked like a man who enjoyed a nice whiskey…with breakfast.

But, today is the release of Spectre on DVD.  I will not be purchasing.  I was neither shaken, stirred or anything other than resentful.  I cannot recall ever having felt such resentment, although I keep having these strange flashbacks – Harrison Ford, a dusty hat, a whip, George Lucas was laughing, I was crying…anyway.  In short, Bond does not look like a lesser-envied extra from Magic Mike, he is not some brooding, vulnerable, adolescent Feminist.  Can you imagine what would happen to Bond these days if he were to cheerily spank Moneypenny on the way out?  He'd be done for sexism, whichever –ism you would care to invoke, but don’t forget racism.  In fact, Bond’s character, the epitome of masculinity, has been so downtrodden by the empowered, #killallwhitemen minorities that just to cover up this fact, they need to introduce all the multiculti nonsense they think people should want instead.  We can’t have him being a loveable rogue so let’s just copy the dark, grittiness of the Bourne series and hope people are still entertained.  Let’s make him black and hope that it gets some attention, certainly it will stop any accusations of racism for the sheer crime of being white.  Let’s just make Bond a transgender, little Philippino in a wheel chair who will do all he can to ‘fight’ for the country which empowers him to maintain the status quo, especially when he has so much angst to deal with.  Let’s get him a safe space while we’re at it.

The truth is, however, this was all inevitable.  Statism in the 20^th century became Democratic, that is, judicial monopoly became publicly owned and it has turned government power into a free-for-all, much like the tragedy of the commons wherever private property is prohibited by the State.  Democracy has failed and been ripped to shreds, over-legislated; Bond is just the public manifestation of what it has done to those men who supported the State having such power.  No man, men, or otherwise, should have the power Bond had.  But, he does have a nasty habit of surviving.