This article will be in an unusual format. I am going to start with an email exchange with LH that triggered this whole thing. Then, I am going to rewind, jump up to 30,000 feet, and give this very important issue some considered thought.

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LH - 

I certainly enjoy your wide ranging views of the world. But there are some that you don't seem to have considered. One is the growing and widespread online gambling, including the prediction markets. There are social, economic and moral aspects and I think they are all negative. Another one is the serious damage being done to college football. Again I expect negative outcomes and not just about sports but also education.

 

In general, I wonder what you think about something that has increasingly been on my mind about the economy. I wonder how well some metrics are still working since we now have a lot more female agency. I suspect that there are some unknowns there.

 

Other than that, I am already tired of the November election. Like above, it is another thing where money is the root of evil.

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Me - 

Very nice.

 

Great topics.

 

One of my challenges is that we have such a target-rich environment and my musings are usually too long, so that I can't get to everything.

 

I view college football and gambling as just additional symptoms of society's breakdown. One point I try to get across but is difficult to grasp is that all of this is occurring all the time, everywhere. Rot and deterioration are not due to politicians - politicians are a product of whatever culture is up to. All parts of society are deteriorating - the church, the Boy Scouts. One day I will try to do a better job of conveying this.

 

It's a long story, but one of my early self-"revelations" had to do with incremental change. You don't go from virginity at marriage to friends with benefits overnight. Step by step, things change until you look back and you are several miles from where you started. Combine that with humans' demand for novelty in a rich, stable culture, and over time, you will ultimately evolve to the seven deadly sins as the end game. This is another concept that I struggle to explain. A corollary of this is that a devolving system will ultimately collapse, so all of this feeds into my major premises.

 

The women thing is very important, and I have not given it its due. Men have been subjugated - toxic masculinity and all that - and neutered. Women rule education and are gaining rapidly in the workplace. The world is being turned on its traditional head - less sex, less alcohol. I have no idea whether that is a good thing or a bad thing - it just is. But to say a stererotypically male thing - what could be more feminine than getting your feelings hurt all the time and feeling unsafe? Our culture is manifesting and institutionalizing the worst parts of stereotypically female behaviour. The far left, beyond the usual radicals, is being driven by rich, white women.

 

But, that's descriptive. As usual, the important thing is to dig down to the next level and try to determine the dynamics - the why?

 

In a wealthy culture where law and order and civility mostly rule, there is no role for what males evolved to be. In modern society, males are really often toxic and often unnecessary. When you have to ask a woman before taking the next step in the sexual dance or when your life can be destroyed by a woman's accusations, right or wrong, one valid reaction is to pack your bags and go home and enjoy video games and porn. Relationships are tough enough without all of this new baggage. At any given time, you devote your time to the thing you want to do, considering all options. Considering all options, many males choose video games and porn and withdrawal. This is complicated, but very simplistically, I boil it down to the fact that there are very limited roles in our society for a masculine man. A man who uses body wash and shaves his chest hair (and uses makeup) is increasingly feminized in order to be accepted. He plays the game, but is acting contrary to type and to instincts.

 

And, society is breaking down around him. Supportive institutions are going away or are gone. Males are left to fend for themselves.

 

That may be the way is has to be or perhaps even should be, but there are consequences and those consequences are manifesting.

 

There is much schadenfreude by females who have been subjugated for millennia.

 

Over those millennia, we defined what it meant to be human, including gender roles. All of that is being redefined and revolutionized over a period of decades. We are creating a radically new culture for humans. Again, not sure whether that is a good thing or a bad thing, but every action has consequences, including unintended consequences.

 

The most fascinating question for me is, when our culture does collapse and does have to be rebuilt, what will be the gender roles then?

I have no idea.

 

I'm going to think about this and refine it this week and probably make it my lead piece on Friday.

 

Thanks as always.

 

Good stuff.

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LH - I agree with you that one day this all will come crashing down. The big question is what comes next? I suspect an era of accountability will start it off and a lot of Republicans better hope that their standards will not be used. If it comes down to most Americans want a rule base order and a return to the original intent of our constitution that would be fine. But I am sure there will also be an effort to inject morality into the system and that would be fine too. If done in moderation. But we both know that would not last long. ...

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Social Darwinism In Our Time

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(Spoiler alert. For those of you who are politically correct, I conflate sex and gender in this article and it contains no mention of various genders beyond men and women. This is not because these are not interesting topics, but they are mostly superfluous to my argument. Feel free to move on.)

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Snippet from last week's newsletter - "Women have accounted for 'nearly all' net U.S. payroll job gains since Trump returned to office, with female employment up 765,000 and male employment down roughly 6,000."

Women make up about 58% of college enrollment.

86% of men still define manhood by their ability to be a provider.

GenZ is having less sex and using less drugs and alcohol.

In the US, approximately 33% of young men live with their parents.

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Probably the central thesis of Darwin's theory of evolution is "survival of the fittest."

Many have erroneously interpreted this as "survival of the strongest."

"Fittest" means best being able to be a successful part of your environment; of your ecosystem. Occupying a niche. Strength is often important, as in lion vs zebra, but most often it is not. It is the willingness - the necessity - to adapt. Coloration, herds, armor, height, intelligence, speed ...

Systems experiment. Some succeed and many do not.

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If you cannot adapt, you die.

Nature is relentless and amoral.

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This concept applies to cultures as well as to a state of nature.

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For millions of years, in pre-human, human and non-human species (yes, there are exceptions, but, as usual, I will oversimplify and cruise at 30,000 feet), the male has been dominant in size and strength compared with the female. This was a good thing, because nature, and human history, is "red in tooth and claw." Basically, the state of nature simplifies to either eating or being eaten. Somebody had to provide and protect, most often using strength, and that was usually the male. The male self-image was centered around protecting and providing - and often dominating and controlling.

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Flash forward to today, and it is still an ugly, nasty world. Human nature has not changed.

But we have used our dollars to build fantasylands with walls around them. As long as you avoid problematic places, you have the illusion of safety. The barbarians may be at the gates, or living in certain neighborhoods, but, with attention and some luck, all of that can be wished away.

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What role does a male play in a world that appears basically safe and in which women can provide for themselves? Of what use is a man? All of the qualities that were valuable and necessary, all of the qualities that are both genetically and culturally determined, are not necessary anymore and actually become "toxic." Men are no longer even required to make babies.

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In such cultures, a male is superfluous and often a negative. By the rules of Social Darwinism, males should become extinct.

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So, what is a man to do? Men do not want to be extinct.

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They evolve. They display not-male behaviors. They become meterosexual. They tone down their behavior when they have to. They use bodywash and shave their chest hair and use makeup and carry purses. 

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They feminize.

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If females are socially dominant, you have to please the female.

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Millions of years of expectations about how the world works overturned in just a few decades.

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Males don't know how they fit in, so they withdraw - into gaming, gambling and porn. These are areas where they can enjoy themselves without the conflicts of having no idea who they are or how to act. They decide to satisfy their sexual desires without women.

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Importantly, we have created a culture in which devolution into gaming, gambling and porn is easily available.

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It is clear to me that "women's equality" is right and just.

It is also clear to me that it is literally destroying our culture.

Worthwhile analogies are to nuclear energy and AI - profound, total change. But, in this case, politically correct, so not discussed in polite company.

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Is this a good thing or a bad thing?

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Darwinism is neutral. It is what it is. If the world does not need males, well, more's the pity, but there we are.

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However, my central thesis is that the culture that underlies and enables this evolution is about to collapse. It will ultimately be a failed experiment.

Something new will replace it, and it is not clear what or what the associated gender roles will be.

There will be more danger and less wealth. That indicates some movement in the direction of "traditional" roles.

But, the feminism Pandora's box is open, and women will not willingly accept traditional roles.

Therefore, in the grandest tradition of Darwinism (and Hegelism), something new will evolve and emerge. Most likely neither unicorn nor dragon, but likely something we have not seen before. Unless there is a significant collapse, in which traditional roles, perhaps with some minor differences in trim, will reemerge. 

Roles will depend on walls.

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But there is a glimmer of hope for males. For better and for worse, we're gonna make a comeback of some kind. But, you knew that. Cycles cycle and pendulums swing.

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(Beth says that we should consider the social dynamics from a woman's point of view. Men are more or less happy to retreat to their man caves. This leaves women alone, creating cascading complications. I am in no position to comment on that, except to note that one of my "laws" is that for every social action there is an equal and opposite social reaction (with apologies to Newton). She says, "Hell hath no fury like a woman who has won.")