The Testosterone Crisis

American Thinker ^ | November 22, 2008 | Ed Kaitz

[neverdem]

The sweeping Democratic electoral victory has left many conservative Americans concerned about their children's future.  With the federal government, educational establishment, entertainment industry and media thoroughly in the hands of the left, disturbing questions surface concerning the kinds of values our children will begin to accept as "mainstream."  Matters get worse when one considers what might become forced indoctrination in "community service" organizations as a prerequisite for college admission.

These concerns were on my mind during a recent outing with my young children to a local playground.  While I watched my kids try to scale walls, climb ropes, and navigate through other challenging structures various male voices I had obviously missed on previous visits to the park suddenly resonated.  "Try it on your own" or "you don't need any help with this one" the gaggle of fathers would say as their sons and daughters sized up various obstacles.  And while many of the moms cringed on the benches the young ones tripped, fell, clawed, and cried at times but they usually ended up victorious.

The ancient Chinese thinkers would have called my local park a microcosm of nature -- a dynamic reciprocity between the forces of feminine yin and masculine yang.  It is as natural for the moms to be overly concerned about the bumps and bruises as it is for the fathers to be encouraging independence and self-reliance.  Yin and yang represent two complementary energies in nature, the balance of which determines the health and harmony of a marriage, a family, a village, and even a nation.  These same Chinese philosophers warned however that unhealthy families, like unhealthy nations, are usually the victims of an overabundance of either the feminine yin or the masculine yang.

Chinese emperors for example attempted to head off this underlying and menacing threat of imbalance by castrating their ministers.  Why?  Too much yang testosterone in the palace would lead to dangerous factions and competition.  More eunuchs around the court meant the palace would be a better reflection of the harmony in nature.  Imperial concubines would also be sheltered from potential male rivals of the potentate, but this was entirely incidental to the theory.)

While an excess of yang energy was considered explosive and dangerous, what happens in a country like contemporary America when there seems to be a dangerous oversupply of feminine yin?

In his book The Suicide of Reason Lee Harris argues that our present state of liberal democracy has led to "eliminating the alpha males from our midst, and at a dizzyingly accelerating rate."  Instead of supporting and valuing testosterone's virtues we're "drugging our alpha boys with Ritalin."  In addition, one could view Barack Obama's election as the triumph of yin over yang.  Obama's policies promise to cast the father out of America's parks and replace him with the more "caring" and yin oriented federal government.  For Lee Harris however the feminization of American men comes at an extremely high price:

"The end of testosterone in the West alone will not culminate in the end of history, but it may well culminate in the end of the West."

It was in ancient Greece for example when the West began to associate the masculine yang voice with freedom and self-reliance.  Why?  Because when Athenian citizens perused the known world they noticed something rather curious: in no country other than Greece did citizens enjoy freedom or the virtues of democratic government.  Famous Greeks like the fifth century B.C. physician Hippocrates attempted to explain this fascinating anomaly. What Hippocrates and other Greek observers all tended to conclude was that the rest of the world's subjects must be "effeminate" or else, like the Greeks, they would have demanded -- like real men -- to be left alone by their leaders. 

In his essay On Airs, Waters, and Places for example Hippocrates notes that those who endure life under a despot are "cowardly, as I have stated before, for their souls are enslaved."  Greeks however are "independent, and enjoy the fruits of their own labors," and in addition they "encounter dangers on their own account, bear the prizes of their own valor, and in like manner endure the punishment of their own cowardice."  The good doctor concludes with a rather chilling observation: "A man's disposition will be changed by his institutions."  In short, what Hippocrates argues is that the more "maternalistic" the government, the less the citizenry will value freedom.

We can now start to understand part of Obama's appeal.  Alpha males in this nation have been browbeaten in every profession, most notably in education.  Indeed, the largest percentage ever of young, educated Americans in a presidential contest threw its support behind Barack Obama.  In addition, whereas John Kerry received 51% of the female vote in 2004, Barack Obama garnered close to 60%.  When black Americans overwhelmingly supported Obama to the tune of 90%, how much of this support was a product of race and how much was simply a product of a culture in which 70% of children are raised without fathers?

Both political parties now believe that they can garner votes by playing the yin, or compassion card.  We've seen this with the Bush Administration and its heavily statist "compassionate conservatism."  On the other hand, Democrats in congress thought that extending loans to unqualified borrowers was an act of compassion.  An excess of yin is now causing many of our states, like California, to go broke.  Despite these examples an "uncaring" America was the chief rallying cry of Barack and Michelle Obama during the recent election.

In his classic work Democracy in America Alexis de Tocqueville entitled one of his chapters "What Sort of Despotism Democratic Nations Have To Fear."  Near the end of the chapter there is a rather sobering observation:

"It is indeed difficult to conceive how men who have entirely given up the habit of self-government should succeed in making a proper choice of those by whom they are to be governed; and no one will ever believe that a liberal, wise, and energetic government can spring from the suffrages of a subservient people."

Will Americans become so subservient under an Obama administration that a future yang style candidate like Ronald Reagan becomes impossible?  A healthy nation, like a healthy family, should have a proper balance of yin and yang.  Ideally, the relationship should be a balance between yang's independence, competition, and merit, and yin's more gentle, cooperative, and egalitarian energy.  We're at a critical moment in our history however when the forces of yin in American threaten to bury, not complement, yang.  Despite what the radical feminists might tell you, alpha male energy is natural and necessary for many things, including national survival.

There's an eight year old boy in my neighborhood who still rides his bike with training wheels.  There's no father at home.  Is America looking at training wheels writ large?  We know that most contemporary, estrogen-heavy Europeans would like to rid America of its testosterone.  They may just get their wish.

[Gene Eric]

>> Ed: “There’s an eight year old boy in my neighborhood who still rides his bike with training wheels. There’s no father at home.”

Well then Ed, grab your wrench and nuts if you can find them, and go help out the family.

By the way, they’re called young men, not ‘alpha males’.

[OneWingedShark]

>Real men know how to treat real women. With a self-assured respect.

There’s an assumption there, that the woman is a lady; what if she is acting in a disreputable, disrespectful, or dangerous manner?

If someone is a fool, do you coddle them? Say if someone got pulled over for DUI? Is it so sad that it happened? (Sure it could be, but it’s definitely stupid.) Or do you say, “You know, you shouldn’t do that.”? {How hard is it to designate a driver?}

My point is, that treating semi-honorable men like dogs is the one thing that women can do to make them into dogs. (The other thing is that if men are dogs, why don’t women try to be nice and friendly and encourage our protective sides instead of kicking us around?)

Respect is a two way street; society gives precious little respect to men; is it any wonder that males aren’t “wanting” to me men?

It’s the same as watching the corruption in Congress and politics, and ACORN (do you think they’ll be convicted?), like the vote “recounting”... people who think that justice should be done are realizing just how sickening it all is; I’ve seen more cynicism toward that part of government [justice being valued] than ANY other.

[OneWingedShark]

>http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/195096.php

Awesome vid, thanks.

[OneWingedShark]

>I have a son contemplating a career in the Army.

It’s actually an USMC, but most applies to Army too:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoxdT2xhra8

[mdmathis6]

Do remember the story of Abigail who wisely saved her foolish husband from King David’s quick temper...there are sensible women out there we men may need to listen to now and then!

[OneWingedShark]

>Oh, and tell him to stay away from Headquarters & Headquarters Companies.
>He’ll learn that is where the downward flow of sewage originates in the Army

Dangit! 8 years too late with that advice!

[OneWingedShark]

So, emotion is not bad in and of itself, but there should be some basis in logic for it, something which can be discerned and understood.

In the absence of that, the provider becomes frustrated in his inability to solve the problem he has been presented with.

That needed to be said again.

[ReneeLynn]

“There’s an assumption there, that the woman is a lady; what if she is acting in a disreputable, disrespectful, or dangerous manner?”

That is what I meant be a ‘real’ woman.

I was not behaving in any of those manners and raptor decided to disrespect me. And frankly, I’m a bit disappointed that some of our great conservative gentlemen here did not correct his behavior.

Women just love men with the chutzpa to stand up for them. We love that protective nature of you all. Especially when one of your own is being rude and immature. That’s why I mentioned my father. Army, WW2 vet, and defender of ladies. *sigh*

[OneWingedShark]

I wasn’t really defending Raptor, but rather pointing out the underling assumption you made; perhaps he hasn’t met any “real women”.

[OneWingedShark]

...this article on Yang Reduction made me think of this post.

[metmom]

Nailed....

[ReneeLynn]

He was addressing one on this thread. ;) If he doesn’t adjust he’ll likely not pass muster when he does meet one.

[raptor29]

Gabz, the ‘approach’ is used for a purpose, to shake our side out of our current mindset. And to be sure, I appreciate ‘real women’ as you do. I just don’t see as many around as there were in past years/decades. No one has been able to counter my primary arguments, that the overwhelming societal shift in the direction of favoring the woman’s position/mindset over the past 40 years has led to disastrous results for this country. No one has countered my statement that women have predominantly favored the left-leaning candidates overwhelmingly for 40 years, and we are all the worse for it. And few of the men on here want to step up and agree that men have not been men during that period, we have allowed women to rule the day politically and socially, and the country has lost on all counts.

[raptor29]

I agree there are “many sensible women out there that we men need to listen to now and then.” Problem is, we have been ‘listening’ to the non-sensible women for decades, they have ruled the day politically and socially with their overwhelming support of the left-leaning candidates and policies. So frankly, it’s time for women to stop for a minute and recognize what’s happened in this country, and why it has happened, and then maybe listen to men again. Because the emotion over reason formula has really put this country at risk.

[metmom]

You haven’t hurt my feelings. Too bad.

You can make all the excuses you want to justify your advocating such reprehensible treatment of women, but all the blame shifting in the world isn’t going to fool anyone.

Your blanket condemnation of women for advocating for abortion rights does the same disservice to women that your advocating bullying them does.

Again, it’s attitudes like yours that caused the women’s rights movement to get such traction.

Real men don’t bully, they lead by example.

Grow up.

[metmom]

Interesting that you should condemn emotional, hormone driven responses by women by advocating an emotional, hormone driven response by men.

Can you say *hypocrisy*?

What a loser....

[raptor29]

This really wasn’t a marriage discussion, it was a discussion of the incredibly devastating impact that mindless female voting has had on the country. The women on here, who don’t want to acknowledge the truth, attempted to twist this into a ‘relationships’ argument with all the typical liberal concepts and counter-argument talking points. Has nothing to do with that. I’ve made my points, and I’m glad I got in so many people’s kitchens with this. Nothing gets turned around until you face the truth and facts, however painful that process might be.

[raptor29]

Yeah, there you go with the typical liberal comeback, “it’s your fault that we have acted so badly”.

You’re an intellectual lightweight, and a knee-jerk, Oprah-watching, VIEW-watching useful idiot for the left. When you wake up, feel free to post another response to me. In the meantime, mix in some reflection.

[OneWingedShark]

LOL - You may be right.
You may be wrong; stranger things have happened.

[Betty Jane]

I saw Fight Club about a week ago. I think we almost need similar groups of young men (except for the bombings)taking back what it means to be men. We need to teach our young men to have manners, be strong and love the USA if we are to have any hope for our nation's future.