Thursday, October 29, 2009

Dads, Families & Authority

Here's a great piece by John K. about his dad & John's subsequent obsession with authority. I've been re-reading "We've Got The Neutron Bomb" & "Please Kill Me" at the same time, which is great, highly recommended, but there is a passing comment in We've Got The Neutron Bomb by Kim Fowley about how it was the 70s & all the homes were broken by then that really struck me. Of course i know it's true, given that at least half of everyone i know has divorced parents & it is a notable minority that has parents that are still together, BUT, i don't think people understand the insane & terrible consequences of this. Anyhow, in a society that has become disproportionately raised by single mothers & it is uncool to be a man of authority (which is what a man should be), everything has been turned on its head & people don't know up from down. Everyone is responsible for their own behavior & has to take life by the horns, BUT, at the same time, as far as i can tell, alot of this social disintegration has been orchestrated & done by design as a way to destabilize the people of this country. Talking to people these days about anything involving self determination tends towards the revealing of an American who has had their spine replaced with bureaucracy.

1 comment:

Uland said...

I couldn't agree more. It seems like a culture of moral/ethical relativism has sprouted up in response to a culture that doesn't understand notions of authority and self-determination, but instead views individuals as inter-dependents;desire,will and principles are matters to be negotiated "nicely" in a sprawling, abstract network, managed by bureaucracies.
Families should be interdependent, but, I think in order to best fulfill our potential ( which always involves fighting for something), symbols of strength and an example of clear authority, in the form of the Father, need to work to form a kind of spearhead, by which culture/society as a whole can be engaged.
Some Mothers, I think, can pull off a variation of it, but most don't, and the culture at large is activated toward doing away with "difficult" types.
Yes: Marcuse, the Cultural Revolution, forms of feminism that conflate masculinity with tyranny- it's all still going.
My hope is that, with boomers dying out, this egalitarian/technocratic ethic will die out.
I also see some hope in the economic collapse; Men might not be that necessary in cubicle cities, but we'll see when you need some wood chopped.We'll see how men respond when their childrens' future is under threat. We'll see..