Costumes and Symbols of "The Baddies"

One of my lefty social media friends posted one of those stupid 20-second "stories" that last for 24 hours on the theme of a lefty discussion group centering on the "monsters" of the world wearing well-tailored suits.

No, make that "exquisitely" tailored suits.

This reminded me of a frequent misquote of C.S. Lewis along these lines (once apparently by Ronald Reagan):

The greatest evils in the world will not be carried out by men with guns, but by men in suits sitting behind desks.

The actual quote of C.S. Lewis is much more nuanced and detailed:

I live in the Managerial Age, in a world of "Admin." The greatest evil is not now done in those sordid "dens of crime" that Dickens loved to paint. It is not done even in concentration camps and labour camps. In those we see its final result. But it is conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried, and minuted) in clean, carpeted, warmed and well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voices. Hence, naturally enough, my symbol for Hell is something like the bureaucracy of a police state or the office of a thoroughly nasty business concern."

From the second preface to The Screwtape Letters

When we think of "The Baddies" of a police state, how often do we think of the costumes of the bureaucracy of that police state? White collars and suits rather than skulls?

Do the women of the bureaucracy of a police state have costumes? What about the women of the bureaucracy of a "thoroughly nasty business concern"?

I ask partly because the lefty friend who posted the "story" about men in exquisitely tailored suits is a young woman.

Feminization of Industries and Culture

This week, Maetenlock suggested Helen Andrews' piece on feminization of culture and many industries in the West as an important topic of discussion at AoSHQ. But J.J. Sefton had already picked up an analysis from The Federalist in the Tuesday Oct 21 Morning Report, suggesting that wokism was not the only area of concern from Andrews' piece:

Helen Andrews argues woke culture is the inevitable result of women taking over pivotal industries such as law, media, and medicine. Western Culture Isn’t Feminized, It’s Transgender

Then yesterday, Ace did a deeper dive into Helen Andrews' piece: The Feminization of Society: Threat or Menace?

Helen Andrews looks at what feminism has wrought.

Mostly dysfunction, decline, and dissension.

This might be a tough read for some women. I don't think this is about women per se, however: It's about women with a specific mindset, the mindset of woke feminism and Girlpower Marxism. The kind of woman being pushed to the fore and put in charge of corporations and academic departments is usually a highly-political feminist who puts feminism and feminist activism far, far above the needs of the corporation or institution she is supposedly serving.

Feminism was, is, and will always be predicated on the idea that Men Were, Are, and Always Will Be Wrong, and therefore any institution previously dominated by men is tainted and must be completely razed and rebuilt according to feminist Marxist principles.

It's like young blacks rejecting studying and reading as "Acting White." When you reject, wholesale, practices that have a proven track record of success, you're committing yourself to unsuccessful practices.

And so too with feminists, who see things like objectivity, professionalism, dispassion, and actual equality and most of all, capitalism itself, as antiquated notions of a diseased Patriarchy which must be rejected entirely.

They don't want to be seen as Acting Male.

And so they keep taking functioning institutions and changing them. And when you change every foundational aspect of a functioning institution, what you wind up with, most of the time, is a non-functioning institution.

And they keep calling this "victory."

Don't comment on old threads, but you might want to read the whole thing again, or even read Helen Andrews' piece, perhaps thinking about the craftiness of the demons described in The Screwtape Letters. /they may change their tactics over time.

Or, here's a link to an hour-long podcast about the essay (with a description near the beginning).

Feminism in Russia

You will be relieved to know that NPR has not collapsed since it lost the 11% of its funding it said came from the federal government. I heard most of an interview of the author of a book on feminism in Russia yesterday:

Motherland: A Feminist History of Modern Russia, from Revolution to Autocracy

I couldn't find a link to the archive of the interview last night, so don't hold me to the details, but the author seemed to rather like Marxism and to wish that it had been run by women.

In the West, women wanted to "have it all". In Russia, the rulers expected women to DO it all - the traditional womens' roles PLUS advanced technology, medicine, management, etc. without much support in the way of labor-saving household devices and so forth. Women WERE supported in sexual liberation (WAY ahead of the West) and abortion rights. A point made with pride in the interview.

Meanwhile, the men were all sent to war and few came back. The ones who DID come back were largely useless from PTSD and alcoholism. Then the men in power decided they wanted more babies, and the burden fell mostly to women, often single, or with a baby-like husband as an additional burden. When Putin came back, showing off his bare chest astride a horse, women went wild for him.

This altered feminism in Russia.

Careful what you wish for, feminists!

From Reuters:

Julia Ioffe on unearthing Russia's forgotten feminist legacy

The National Book Award finalist discusses her new book "Motherland," the fragility of progress and what she sees in Russia's future.

Weekend

The Week In Pictures: Demolition Edition

Thankfully, it wasn’t a heavy news week. So the week’s memes are dominated by soft news stories. like the No Kings protest–which, despite being over for nearly a week, continues to inspire memes–the ongoing government shutdown, the robbery of priceless jewels from the Louvre, and my personal favorite, President Trump’s demolition of the East Wing of the White House.

The East Wing connects to the presidential residence via a walkway, and houses the First Lady’s office. The First Lady’s staff, like the social secretary, is housed there, too. Also the Graphics and Calligraphy Office. These offices are being temporarily relocated while the new construction is in progress. Despite what would seem to be a modest historical footprint, Trump’s demolition of the East Wing has brought howls of outrage from the Democrats. Gavin Newsom went so far as to label it “unconstitutional.”

Music

Hope you have something nice planned for this weekend.

This is the Thread before the Gardening Thread.

Last week's thread, October 18, They don't want kings. What DO they want?

Comments are closed so you won't ban yourself by trying to comment on a week-old thread. But don't try it anyway.

posted by K.T. at 11:21 AM

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