In Defense of Manly Virtue: Camille Paglia vs. Walter Ong and David Bakan

Next, I want to turn to the insights that David Bakan (1921-2004) of the University of Chicago develops in his book The Duality of Human Existence: An Essay on Psychology and Religion (1966). Then I will connect his terminology with Ong's thought. Subsequently, I will turn to some of Paglia's observations and discuss them in light of Ong's and Bakan's claims.

 

In his 1966 book, Bakan works with the conceptual constructs of agency and communion. In Western culture historically, agency is stereotypically masculine; communion, stereotypically feminine.

 

What Ong refers to as male agonistic behavior involves agency. Although I have not mentioned it previously, he never tired of championing I-thou communication, which involves communion.

 

Now, according to Bakan, we should work toward a balance of agency and communion in our lives.

 

According to Bakan, a person who has over-developed agency but seriously under-developed communion is not a well-balanced person. By this standard, certain American men are not well-balanced persons. But we could argue that many American men have been encouraged to over-develop their agency, on the one hand, and, on the other, to seriously under-develop the communion dimension of their lives, because of biases in our Western cultural conditioning.

 

Conversely, according to Bakan, a person who has over-developed communion but seriously under-developed agency is not a well-balanced person. By this standard, certain American women are not well-balanced persons. However, we could argue that many American women have not been allowed to develop their agency, on the one hand, and, on the other, have been encouraged to over-develop the communion dimension of their lives, because of biases in our Western cultural conditioning.

 

But remember that in the 1960s Ong was saying that we in Western culture were already undergoing a shift in our cultural conditioning and consciousness because of the impact of the communication media that accentuate sound. As a result of this shift in our cultural conditioning and consciousness, perhaps many Americans will be able to work out a better balance of agency and communion in their lives.

 

For example, when men today are urged to get in touch with the feminine side of life, this recommendation is best understood to mean that they should develop the communion dimension in their lives.

 

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