The US society does not impose any behavioral requirements on people and is not guided by any humanitarian rules. It is guided by only one principle: you can do anything to anyone as soon as you are not poor. In order not to be poor you surely can also do anything to thyself.
Most of the US men are poor though. They are working poor. As such they constantly balance while "looking around in fear' That occupation consumes all of their energy and nothing is left even for sex. The mythical sexual prowess of the American men is what it is -- a myth. Eat your checkers.
But what about hard work? Isn't it the cornerstone of the US manhood, the internal unbreakable ethics of the US worker, the primary beacon of the US society, the one that shines the light of freedom on the whole humankind? That's a myth too. Or rather it is a curved mirror image. Americans do work hard. But their jobs are meaningless.
A paycheck does not mean that your job makes you smarter or better qualified. In the vast majority of cases it requires minimum thinking power. Whether you are in on the production line or in the Wall- Mart, in the Insurance palace or in the Yellow palace, on the Capitol Hill or just on the Hill- the malaise is the same; you spend your working time doing absolutely nothing with your head. In fact, it is even harmful to use your head in most cases because that immediately presumes asking questions and that is what is strictly prohibited; maybe the one and only real prohibition in the Land of the Free.
Consider a striking example. 11 years ago a catastrophic event happened in our country: three commercial airplanes hit WTC and Pentagon bringing down the Twin Towers and afflicting a major damage and loss of life. It was obvious even from an official explanation that major institutions of our government failed miserably. The proper question to ask would be if those responsible would resign in disgrace and whether a special criminal indictment of them would be appropriate.
THOSE QUESTIONS WERE NEVER ASKED! Not even one of the primary responsible people resigned, nobody was prosecuted for negligence. They ALL continued to enjoy power and instill mayhem on the world in the form or atrocious wars and other crimes. Now most of them are in comfortable retirement or in teaching(!) positions, publishing books and giving speeches. None of them is poor and none of them is expressing any remorse. The only official who openly acknowledged his and government's guilt and resigned, Mr. Clark was publicly ridiculed and scolded for THE MANLY BEHAVIOR he exhibited. What kind of conclusion can our little boys make out of that?
They made their conclusion long ago- stay out of trouble. The worst possible trouble is to alienate the powerful. Who are the powerful? Those are the people with money. You can become poor if you alienate the people with money. Thus you should pamper the rich and tramp on the poor. That simple. Now let's paraphrase this , "In order to stay out of trouble you should lick the butt of the powerful and bully the weaklings." That's the message. Whoever thinks it is a manly behavior should send me a postcard.
Staying out of trouble requires surrendering of your own integrity first and foremost. As such the process is unnatural; it can only be achieved by force, by a form of spiritual self- castration. The process is not new, it takes over many people but only in the US we have a very interesting phenomena- it is officially treated as a blessing. People without integrity are praised as flexible and adaptable, as the ones who know where and how to compromise. They are presented as role models for others to follow.
If we follow the media closely this particular message is paramount. The worst possible sin in the eyes of the media is to express an outrage on your own, not as a part of some campaign. Like recently we all were told to express outrage about John Edwards. The media crucified him for visible sexual and financial indiscretions. He was supposed not to fight back, lie down on his back and wave his paws in the air. As it says in one old Russian media jokes, "If you see your obituary, proceed to the cemetery'. Any attempt to somehow compare his doings with the ones of the GOP folks were rebuffed with vehement hysterics. That reminds me of the times when I was a boy. Usually if you saw bullies attacking a weakling and wanted to stop them they would attack you even more ferociously. They must maintain the status -- quo; cooperation to confront them was prohibited. Bullies only would back off if an overwhelming force arrived but even in that case they would try to go for a compromise- to offer that force a cut, so to speak, to join this new player and continue being in the game. Sounds familiar? All of that we observe now on a mass scale among adults. That is among those adults who do not stand on their own two feet.
The only way for a man to feel as standing on his own two feet is to feel independent in his decisions. That privilege is now very rare. Staying out of trouble takes all your energy; nothing is left for dignity. Thus he surrenders his decision-making capability voluntarily, castrates himself forever. That results in total change of personality; you can see that in their eyes. Those are the eyes of wounded animals, full of fear and desperation. I have seen so many of such eyes that I had become an expert of sorts; it was especially evident during the comparison of the Tea- Party and OWS movements. The eyes of the Tea- partiers were exactly like I had described, while the OWS people were truly self -- confident. It was obvious why: the former knew that they participated in the phony show while the cause of the latter was just. The worthy cause you fight for makes you a man, pure and simple. Real estate salesmanship and hedge fund speculations are not the worthy causes no matter how we are being convinced otherwise. War is not the worthy cause either. When our President defended war in his Nobel Peace (!) prize speech it was worthy to watch his eyes. They had become like the eyes I had described and had been like that ever since.
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