AN AUTHOR COMMENTS ON "WHEN MEN WON'T WORK AND THE WOMEN WHO CARRY THEM"

AN AUTHOR RESPONDS TO “WHEN MEN WON’T WORK AND THE WOMEN WHO CARRY THEM”

James R. Fisher, Jr., Ph.D.

© May 21, 2011

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REFERENCE: 

Howard Schwartz wrote THE REVOLT OF THE PRIMITIVE: An Inquiry into the Roots of Political Correctness (2001). 

The book was written when most of the gas had been let out of the Feminist Movement.  Schwartz, a Freudian psychologist, examined feminism in terms of the damage it has done to the human psyche (translated, male psyche) offering an interesting proposition that it represents a return to the primitive from the mature.

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A READER WRITES:

Jim,

This may be a little off topic (IMHO I do not think so). I came to know Dr Schwartz while an adjunct professor at Oakland University in Michigan in 1985.  I would submit that his book, THE REVOLT OF THE PRIMITIVE is relevant.  In my opinion, he has hit the sweet spot in all his literary endeavors.
                                                                  

Respectfully

Dick Danjin
"Making Things Run Well"

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DR. FISHER RESPONDS

I am familiar with Dr. Schwartz’s book.  Like Schwartz, I have used Freudian explanatory models to explain some of my views in the past, but I haven’t submitted these views as scientific or replicable.  Not being an academic, I am not limited to that protocol. 

To me, the Feminist Movement was necessary because society and Western Civilization were on life support attempting to run the world on half its collective energy and intellectual power. 

The advance of women in the twentieth century was not a return to the primitive but a natural progression to the complement of men and women as a collective intellectual force. 

It was as if the left-brain finally courted and invited the right brain to the party so that the problem solving could have many more dimensions and operational perspectives.

If you will notice, with all societal corrections, there is a tendency to blast forward to excess in order to arrive at some reasonable destination of equity and sensibility. 

The Feminist Movement was no different.  It went for the whole enchilada when it embraced political correctness, thus becoming a radical movement, justifying in Schwartz’s mind apparently that it personified the rise of the primitive.

I’m sure you would have determined by now that I am not a radical thinker but something of a literal and liberal plodder, trying to make sense of nonsense, which brings me to the idea of “maturity," a central argument in the Schwartz manifesto.

In nature when life reaches maturity, it starts its quick descent into entropy, that is, its return to nature in its original state.  Schwartz may see this as the primitive state, but I see it as the descent to total inertia or zero energy.  Total systemic collapse comes to mind. 

In the complex organization, survival is built on negative entropy, or reinventing and radically restructuring the organization in an effort to reenergize itself to survive. 

The Feminist Movement I see in terms of negative entropy.  It could be said that political correctness was an understandable but not necessarily effective tactic in that progressive strategy. 

I am no scholar but a plodder attempting in my limited way to see what is gained, and yes, what is lost as we move into a new millennium. 

It is apparent in the emerging world of Islam, a world that once was centuries ahead of the West in virtually every field of human endeavor, a world in which women were not invited to the intellectual and cultural banquet, that it now has some catching up to do in terms of women’s rights, and women as full partners in society. 

The so-called “Arab Spring” will continue to be identified as a move toward democracy when I see it more clearly as an inchoate Feminist Movement.  Look closely, who is leading the charge?

It is catchy to see this rise of women as primitive.  It certainly is a provocative concept.  You know from reading this missive that I see feminism more as a harbinger of greater equality and a more equitable world.  This is not a time for men to whine, but to grow up.

Thank you for writing, and always be well,

Jim