What makes men heartless?
"Being Prepared for Violence Makes Men Heartless"
Author Sam Keen Points Out Negative Effects of War Mentality
Men need to get in touch with their emotions and women need
to learn martial arts in order to resolve the battle between the
sexes that is rooted in our society's warfare system, said author
and philosopher Sam Keen. Speaking on men, women and violence to
about 100 people in Newcomb Theater April 7, he said if women
really want equality, they will have to share responsibility for
managing violence.
"The central pillar of male identity is to be a warrior, to
be willing to engage in or suffer violence, while women are
conditioned to be helpless," said Mr. Keen, whose last book "Fire
in the Belly: On Being a Man" has been a big hit in the men's
movement.
"Whether they've been in war or not, all men are wounded."
It starts with little boys being taught not to cry. The injury
is becoming desensitized and unable to feel, which can carry over
into all parts of men's lives, including their relationships with
women, according to Mr. Keen. Finally men are beginning to ask,
"If we're the ones on top in society, why do we feel so little?
Why do we die earlier?"
Since the women's movement began 30 years ago, women have
been uncovering their own history and moving into business,
politics and even religious positions of power, but they've
blamed men for a lot of things, including violence. "There's some
truth to that, but it doesn't get to the essence," said Mr. Keen.
He used images from popular culture, such as greeting cards
and cartoons written by women which reflect their retaliation in
a humorous tone. "Men are scum," read one card. "Forgive me, I'm
feeling rather generous today," it said inside. A cartoon from
Ms magazine showed pie charts of women's and men's thoughts with
women giving "the relationship" about 70 percent of their concern
and men thinking about it less than a quarter of the time.
"Our society says we abhor violence, but really we have a
love affair with it," he said, proving his point with examples
of popular heroes like Sylvester Stallone and Clint Eastwood. "We
can't distinguish between symbolic and real violence," he added.
"T.V. violence is the real problem. It's vicarious, it's
passive," he said when asked if little boys playing with toy guns
is harmful. "In playing, you have to use your imagination and
interact. It can be a way of safely acting out feelings for both
boys and girls," he said.
Other men portrayed as heroes include Oliver North and
General Norman Schwarzkopf. "North subverted the U.S.
Constitution. He has no idea what Thomas Jefferson stood for. And
this teddy bear general never once suggested any repentance for
killing thousands -- we don't know how many thousands -- of
Iraqis," said Mr. Keen.
"At one point during the Persian Gulf War, there was a 91
percent approval rating for U.S. involvement. But when violence
spills over into our domestic lives, we're surprised.
In our warfare system, military men are paragons of manhood,
where the most deliberate initiation of men goes on. Propaganda
posters for the two world wars that Mr. Keen showed slides of
depicted soldiers inspired by women to fight in order to protect
them and the children and make Mom proud. Another poster showed
a soldier riding a motorcycle silhouetted by a knight on a steed
in the background. The underlying message was that going to war
was an expression of love, he said, but joining the ranks is
brutalizing.
"Males are stripped of their individual identities and
sensuality and turned into instruments of the body politic. To
be a man means don't be yourself. The warrior must be fierce but
he must obey," he said. Along with losing one's own identity, the
enemy also must be dehumanized to convince men that they're
protectors, he added. For 50 years, being anti-communist has been
our raison d'etre for creating our war machine, said Mr. Keen,
whose award-winning PBS documentary "Faces of the Enemy" examines
the role of propaganda in creating enemies.
The approval for America's leading role in the war against
Iraq was a vote for violence, according to Mr. Keen. "We went to
that war, we ratified violence, to preserve our extravagant way
of life. We could have cut our domestic use of oil by at least
25 percent without any hardship."
And what about women in combat? Their fighting could help
explode the reason of men having to fight -- to protect the women
back home, said Mr. Keen. Maybe those who are horrified by the
idea of young women dying in battle will realize they should be
just as outraged at the loss of men's lives, he said, agreeing
with columnist Ellen Goodman, whose article on the topic he
quoted.
Right now, we're in transition, and it's not clear if we'll
try to go back to the old gender division or figure out how to
spread the responsibility for violence equally between men and
women, he said. Learning martial arts would be good for women
because it would help them unlearn their feeling defenseless.
"Almost all the qualities we call female and male are neither --
they're learned," he said.
"The third possibility we're nibbling at is that the war
system itself has to go," said Mr. Keen. "Cultures are warlike
in inverse proportion to the amount of sensuality celebrated, and
the more warlike, the more demeaning the society is to women,"
he added. Is it idealistic to imagine an end to war? "It may take
100 years or so, but it's the only practical thing we have left
to consider," he concluded.
Author Sam Keen Points Out Negative Effects of War Mentality
Men need to get in touch with their emotions and women need
to learn martial arts in order to resolve the battle between the
sexes that is rooted in our society's warfare system, said author
and philosopher Sam Keen. Speaking on men, women and violence to
about 100 people in Newcomb Theater April 7, he said if women
really want equality, they will have to share responsibility for
managing violence.
"The central pillar of male identity is to be a warrior, to
be willing to engage in or suffer violence, while women are
conditioned to be helpless," said Mr. Keen, whose last book "Fire
in the Belly: On Being a Man" has been a big hit in the men's
movement.
"Whether they've been in war or not, all men are wounded."
It starts with little boys being taught not to cry. The injury
is becoming desensitized and unable to feel, which can carry over
into all parts of men's lives, including their relationships with
women, according to Mr. Keen. Finally men are beginning to ask,
"If we're the ones on top in society, why do we feel so little?
Why do we die earlier?"
Since the women's movement began 30 years ago, women have
been uncovering their own history and moving into business,
politics and even religious positions of power, but they've
blamed men for a lot of things, including violence. "There's some
truth to that, but it doesn't get to the essence," said Mr. Keen.
He used images from popular culture, such as greeting cards
and cartoons written by women which reflect their retaliation in
a humorous tone. "Men are scum," read one card. "Forgive me, I'm
feeling rather generous today," it said inside. A cartoon from
Ms magazine showed pie charts of women's and men's thoughts with
women giving "the relationship" about 70 percent of their concern
and men thinking about it less than a quarter of the time.
"Our society says we abhor violence, but really we have a
love affair with it," he said, proving his point with examples
of popular heroes like Sylvester Stallone and Clint Eastwood. "We
can't distinguish between symbolic and real violence," he added.
"T.V. violence is the real problem. It's vicarious, it's
passive," he said when asked if little boys playing with toy guns
is harmful. "In playing, you have to use your imagination and
interact. It can be a way of safely acting out feelings for both
boys and girls," he said.
Other men portrayed as heroes include Oliver North and
General Norman Schwarzkopf. "North subverted the U.S.
Constitution. He has no idea what Thomas Jefferson stood for. And
this teddy bear general never once suggested any repentance for
killing thousands -- we don't know how many thousands -- of
Iraqis," said Mr. Keen.
"At one point during the Persian Gulf War, there was a 91
percent approval rating for U.S. involvement. But when violence
spills over into our domestic lives, we're surprised.
In our warfare system, military men are paragons of manhood,
where the most deliberate initiation of men goes on. Propaganda
posters for the two world wars that Mr. Keen showed slides of
depicted soldiers inspired by women to fight in order to protect
them and the children and make Mom proud. Another poster showed
a soldier riding a motorcycle silhouetted by a knight on a steed
in the background. The underlying message was that going to war
was an expression of love, he said, but joining the ranks is
brutalizing.
"Males are stripped of their individual identities and
sensuality and turned into instruments of the body politic. To
be a man means don't be yourself. The warrior must be fierce but
he must obey," he said. Along with losing one's own identity, the
enemy also must be dehumanized to convince men that they're
protectors, he added. For 50 years, being anti-communist has been
our raison d'etre for creating our war machine, said Mr. Keen,
whose award-winning PBS documentary "Faces of the Enemy" examines
the role of propaganda in creating enemies.
The approval for America's leading role in the war against
Iraq was a vote for violence, according to Mr. Keen. "We went to
that war, we ratified violence, to preserve our extravagant way
of life. We could have cut our domestic use of oil by at least
25 percent without any hardship."
And what about women in combat? Their fighting could help
explode the reason of men having to fight -- to protect the women
back home, said Mr. Keen. Maybe those who are horrified by the
idea of young women dying in battle will realize they should be
just as outraged at the loss of men's lives, he said, agreeing
with columnist Ellen Goodman, whose article on the topic he
quoted.
Right now, we're in transition, and it's not clear if we'll
try to go back to the old gender division or figure out how to
spread the responsibility for violence equally between men and
women, he said. Learning martial arts would be good for women
because it would help them unlearn their feeling defenseless.
"Almost all the qualities we call female and male are neither --
they're learned," he said.
"The third possibility we're nibbling at is that the war
system itself has to go," said Mr. Keen. "Cultures are warlike
in inverse proportion to the amount of sensuality celebrated, and
the more warlike, the more demeaning the society is to women,"
he added. Is it idealistic to imagine an end to war? "It may take
100 years or so, but it's the only practical thing we have left
to consider," he concluded.
© Neha Dubey., all rights reserved.
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