So, I had to sit with this one last night because there was so much wow here.
I even decided to consult with Urchling, just cause of that *wow*.
Before we get started, let me share that Urchling got a sentence or two in, paused, and said, "I've never wanted to be Blink so much in my life."
?? "Why's that?" I asked.
"So I can form an interdimensional portal to throw the phone through. Can't hit him in the head without that portal. Obviously," she opined.
"That's understandable, but throw shoes, not phones. It's a classic for a reason."
She also wants to know why you think it is that I hatched out of an egg or something.
Okay, fun aside, let's get started.
First off, I have a brother, a father, an uncle, 2 male first cousins, dozens of other cousins, 3 step brothers, 3 step BILs, 5 step nephews; and, as my commentary throughout has made clear, I had two grandfathers I was closer to growing up than most people are. There were also about 5 great uncles, 2 great grandfathers, and more cousins and "uncles" who were really war buddies of male relations or something like that.
Loved how you conveniently ignored the grandfather in my analogy, btw.
But obviously, even though roughly half the population is male, and I have demonstrated repeatedly having close familial relationships with men in commentary consistently over the years I've been here, just because I'm a single mom and have a beagle, I can't possibly understand the difficulties men face today. All those other relationships, my classmates, my friends, my dating life, oh and I was married once too, let's not forget that. My teammates my coworkers. All the men in my life down to the bus driver and the guy who keeps the convenience store down the block. And then there's all of Urchlings friends and male part of her cohort.
Yes indeed, being a single mom just erases them and all that experience from my brain. How silly of me. It's like 52 years of my life has only been half lived.
Well what do you expect from someone who hatched out of an egg?
Sorry I only had the one kid and she wasn't your preferred gender too. You are right to point out how her being a girl negates any kind of awareness of all other men, the planet over.
Even the beagle is female. The shame.
Your second point was really interesting. I may not have a PhD in philosophy but I do have a dictionary which defines moral failure fairly efficiently. And you're right, I do think the problems men are having, by and large, are moral failures.
Because that's how the dictionary defines it. From Google, A moral failure is when someone who understands the differentiation between right and wrong elects to do wrong on a conscious level for their own benefit. For example, in moral failings we often find a strong undertow of guilt. A Shakespeare scholar who secretly devours romance novels may feel as if someone with her education really ought to have better taste. She doesn't, so she is a moral failure. Lack of self-trust is a condition that many people experience.
Lack of self trust.
People don't trust themselves when they don't truly know themselves. They don't get to know themselves when someone or something else is dictating who they are too much. Making them think they should be a checklist of things in order to be valuable and/or safe. To be accepted, otherwise they're not good enough.
Google also tells us that
some potential contributing factors include societal values and norms, lack of ethical education and role models, economic pressures, political and social unrest, and the influence of media and technology.
Sound familiar?
So yeah, I see it as a moral failing.
What's more interesting to me is that the way you worded that criticism, you outed yourself somewhat.
You projected your own negative thoughts about moral failings onto me.
But Simon, moral failings don't make one bad or evil or what have you. Whatever is going on your head. That's coming from you, not me. Moral failings make you human.
As far as Urchling and I are concerned, we believe that learning to embrace ones moral failings is an integral part to being a fully grounded human being, necessary to break social conditioning in a dominance hierarchy, and perhaps most importantly, we realize that you won't lessen these anxieties by trying to starve them out. It won't work. They must be fed what is good for them. Or they'll turn.....toxic.
See what I did there?
