<\/p>\n
UPDATE below.<\/b><\/p>\n
The strutting masculinity, steely eyed attention to a brutal <\/span>Yet the Republicans, <\/p>\n Be they Republicans, secular NeoConservatives or the As I studied this movement at first I was surprised, then This picture hasn’t changed. <\/span>Today the Conservatives’ heroes are men like Chuck Norris, Two of these men actually accomplished a lot based on their When we look at the private lives of the Culture Warriors At root I think this hypocrisy, this inability to walk their NeoPaganism has long been identified as a major force in Less apparent but I think equally important is our explicit As long as I live I will never forget the experience of My experience of Cernnunos was not quite in keeping with Before the Cernnunos experience, I tended to look at these Men as well as women have suffered from the long and violent Since God is masculine, proper human masculinity also This attitude has infected secular society. <\/span>NeoConservatives exemplify this One leading NeoCon even wrote a book about it. <\/span>Harvey Mansfield’s Manliness<\/a><\/i> is a paen to pathological masculinity. As we see again the preening and puffing of the right after In bringing the Divine feminine into wider awareness and UPDATE:<\/b> Glenn Greenwald has just written a wonderful piece on democracy, citizens and fear<\/a> – and on the contemptible weakness of so many right wingers in this respect. He cites David Brooks, one of the few conservatives worth reading any more in my opinion, for his excellent column on this issue<\/a>. Not all conservatives are bed wetters.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" UPDATE below. The strutting masculinity, steely eyed attention to a brutal reality, and courage under fire that the Republicans and culture warriors in general like to project is showing itself as the posturing of craven bullies. As it has always been. The failed attempt to bring down an airline by the undie bomber was thwarted…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[111,105],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events","category-pagan-spirituality"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nreality, and courage under fire that the Republicans and culture warriors in
\ngeneral like to project is showing itself as the posturing of craven
\nbullies. <\/span>As it has always
\nbeen. <\/span>The failed attempt to bring
\ndown an airline by the undie bomber was thwarted by brave passengers, bringing such attempts to 0
\nout of 2. (To se it in its proper perspective, see Amy Zegart’s <\/span>incisive analysis<\/a> over at the Reality Based Community. <\/span><\/p>\n
\ntheir stenographers in the media, and other “conservatives” are already up in
\narms over Obama’s supposed “weakness.”
\n<\/span>Jim DeMint, (R-S.C.) who has held up Senate approval on Obama’s nominee
\nfor head of TSA earlier voted against funding machines<\/a> that could detect
\nexplosives such as were smuggled aboard Joe Lieberman <\/span>(I-Self) even wants us to attack Yemen<\/a>, adding another
\ncountry to our imperial overreach. <\/span>Rachel Maddow summarizes<\/a> this
\ndisgusting performance with her usual skill. <\/span>Chris Matthews is terrified that the next
\nterrorist attack might involve kung fun warriors<\/a>. <\/span>(I am not kidding.) <\/span>That George Bush did worse by their
\ncraven standards, demonstrates hypocrisy along with cowardice. <\/span>But the spiritually and morally bereft
\n“moral leaders” of the right and their faithful stenographers are too far gone
\nto acknowledge it. Public cowardice is a fitting way for Republican and other
\nculture warriors to exit 2009. <\/span>(I
\nam actually leading to a spiritual point of interest to Pagans – read on if you
\nwant.)<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n
\n‘Christian’ Right, these folks are continually putting their message in
\nstrongly gendered terms. <\/span>They
\npresent themselves as the strong forthright masculine representatives, against
\nweak latte drinking male opponents and their domineering women allies. <\/span>This caricature goes back to John
\nWayne<\/a>, the first of our contemporary gender frauds, and remains with us
\nwherever ‘conservatives’ congregate in Congress, the media, college campuses,
\nand the pulpit. <\/span>It is a feature,
\nnot a flaw. <\/p>\n
\nfascinated, by their leaders’ perpetual presenting of themselves as ‘manly’
\nwith an equally perpetual failure to live up to their self-image. <\/span>John Wayne was the only major Hollywood
\nmale figure of his generation who did not volunteer and serve, often under
\nfire, in World War Two. <\/span>He
\nagitated for a draft deferment, got it, dated starlets, and made a fortune
\nwhile Clark Gable, Jimmy Stewart, and many others were risking their lives over
\nseas. <\/span>The ones who served rarely
\nspoke of it. The one who dodged service made a career of playing the tough guy.<\/p>\n
\nRonald Reagan, Fred Thompson, Mel Gibson and, before he proved too liberal,
\nArnold Schwarzeneggger. <\/span>All are
\npresented as male exemplars because they played pretend heroes<\/i>. Never facing a blow thrown in earnest, never dodging
\na shot fired with live ammunition, and always with a big paycheck at the end of
\na guaranteed outcome. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
\nown talents. <\/span>Ronald Reagan was
\nborn poor and Schwarzenegger started as an Austrian body builder. <\/span>But Reagan is admired not for rising
\nfrom poverty, but for playing the “gipper,” and his TV image as a cowboy,
\nbefore entering politics. <\/span>And
\nSchwarzenegger was admired as “The Terminator” before he disappointed his
\n“conservative” admirers. <\/span>Strange.<\/p>\n
\nand their political representatives, they seem disproportionately full of
\nhypocrites, serial adulterers, and the like. <\/span>A pattern has appeared here that is not duplicated with
\nanything like the same frequency on the other political side. <\/span>Equally absent is evidence of any sense
\nof responsibility when things go wrong. <\/span><\/p>\n
\ntalk, has a strong spiritual dimension, and that NeoPagans can shed light on
\nit.<\/p>\n
\nre-thinking the role of women and the feminine in spirituality. <\/span>When I was reading various Christian
\ndiscussions of women and spirituality I was struck with how often Starhawk’s
\nname appeared. <\/span>Nor was she alone
\nas an inspiring figure even for women of other faiths.<\/p>\n
\nhonoring of the sacred masculine, not as the spiritual All, which injects a
\nhuge dose of Domination into what we mean by masculinity, but as an essential
\naspect of spiritual and psychological balance. <\/span>I could not truly appreciate this fact, and struggled with
\ntrying to grasp maleness as a sacred attribute, until I encountered a masculine
\ndivinity.<\/p>\n
\nhaving Cernnunos drawn down upon me one Beltane Sabbat. <\/span>When “I” opened my eyes His presence
\nwas so palpable that almost everyone present was in tears. <\/span>For one brief wonderful moment I
\nexperienced a male Presence that was without fear in any of the many forms fear
\ncan take. <\/span>There was no sense of
\ndomination or superiority over others, just a full and complete at-homeness
\nwith who He was and His place on this earth and in existence. <\/span>After He spoke to those present, He
\ndeparted, leaving me with an insight into genuine masculinity that has served
\nas a standard ever since. It is one I have not achieved, but it remains an
\ninspiration.<\/p>\n
\nmany feminine-rooted descriptions of what the ideal male would be: sensitive,
\ncaring, and attentive. <\/span>These
\nqualities were not rejected. <\/span>Not
\nat all. <\/span>But they were not
\ndefinitive, not basic. <\/span>They grew
\nfrom male strength within the appropriate context, from an open heartedness
\nutterly without dependence or need.
\n<\/span>These qualities were like flowers blooming from deep roots that, under
\ndifferent circumstances, could produce the very different blooms of defense,
\nprotection, and bringing things under control.<\/p>\n
\nqualities as competing definitions of masculinity. Maybe there was a “right”
\nbouquet somewhere, a right mix of seemingly contradictory qualities. I was like
\nthe mushroom hunter who mistakes the fruit for the entity that gives it
\nreality, a fruit that exists only under appropriate conditions. And so I missed
\ndeep masculinity completely.<\/p>\n
\nreign of monopolistic transcendental monotheism, which so often conceives of
\nGod primarily in terms of power and domination. <\/span>Especially when that reign is challenged. <\/span><\/p>\n
\npartakes of power and domination as well, only from lower down the
\nhierarchy. <\/span>Strength is always in
\nrelation to others, having more or less than they, rather than being internal,
\nsuch as strength of character.
\n<\/span>Which may be why the culture warriors so often show so little of
\nit. <\/span>This is a religious vision
\nfitting for a traditional baboon troop.<\/p>\n
\ninfection, always eager for the next war that someone else will fight while
\nthey preen themselves safely at home as heroes and tough guys. <\/span>The world is a world of dominators and
\ndominated. <\/span>You can be a hammer or
\nan anvil, and they want to be the hammers. <\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/span>The best evidence this is so is the fact that throughout this long and
\ntedious tome about what it is to ‘be a man,’ male friendship is never
\nmentioned. <\/span>Friendship implies
\ncomfort with equals, with strength being an internal quality rather than having
\nto be demonstrated hierarchically.<\/p>\n
\nour most recent botched terrorist attack, it is good to remember that they are
\nperfect examples of the weak and pathetic pretending to be what they have never
\nbeen: men of integrity and genuine power. <\/span><\/p>\n
\nhonor among people in our society we are also freeing people so that they can
\nalso appreciate and honor the Divine Masculine, and appreciate its human
\nmanifestations more clearly. <\/span><\/p>\n