The Disposable Male by Michael Gilbert

Author:Michael Gilbert [Gilbert, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Divulgación, Ciencias sociales
Publisher: ePubLibre
Published: 2007-09-01T04:00:00+00:00

Designs on Society

Post-World War II America was a Norman Rockwell kind of honeymoon era, an oasis of social and political calm in an otherwise frenetic, can-do American century. Contemporary observers have been accused of turning a dreamy lens on this period; the reality is that racial segregation, rural poverty, and ecological indifference were exacting a silent price. Still, it seems a relatively uncomplicated and tranquil time.

With a boost from the steady post-war economy, the ballooning Western middle classes begat the baby boom generation, record numbers of whom progressed to college. Raised by the newly prosperous bourgeoisie who wanted their children to have all the things they never had, and stroked by permissive child-rearing philosophies, boomers were often encouraged to believe there were no limits to their bright future. As the energetic Sixties generation flowered into young adulthood, their rebellious, counter-culture notions hardened into a vocal and powerful movement under the spotlight of America’s rapidly expanding and influential media.

Galvanized by revulsion to the war in Vietnam, their irreverence and impatience drew inspiration from the romantic ideals popularized during the Enlightenment: skepticism of the establishment, subversion of authority and the hopeful belief that we are born a clean and impressionable slate, open to society’s design. Adrift in cosmopolitan playgrounds and detached from instinctive guides, many of Western society’s bright young lights concluded that the obstacles to progressive awareness and illumination were all in our head. Nature and the intellect confronted each other and, for this generation, intellect won.

The assumption that we can reconstruct the world to our liking, that what we are taught will triumph over our innate tendencies, opens a huge arena for social manipulation. If you believe we have been freed from our natural origins and that society is a cultural construct, you can justify breaking every rule and refusing any limitation. This rejection of human nature, the intense focus on individual and class rights, the energetic certainty that “regressive” tendencies can be redirected—all of this intellectual conceit takes shape in the scourge of our age: the social engineer.

Social engineers wear many cloaks. In a fundamental sense, they share the goal of trying to manage a specific social or political outcome. Fans of “progressive” social engineering view the past, if they think of it at all, as something primitive, something we need to get over. As with socialism, individual or collective compromises are imposed upon society in order to bring about some desired result. Freedom yields to manipulation, and the end comes to justify the means. Not content with fostering a modern savanna based on equal opportunity, the social engineer seeks equal results. Not happy with a fair shake, social designers want a mathematical shakeout. A level playing field is not enough. You need to have a tie score.

The problem with trying to redirect the flow of human nature is that it hardly ever works. For example, the busing of schoolchildren in order to achieve racial balancing has been an abject failure. Parents, including many minority parents, perceived it as a threat to their children’s education and well-being.

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