Ineffectiveness--the Norm in the Men's Movement
Yesterday (Sept. 9th) I became aware of the resignation of Dr. Stephen Baskerville as President of the American Coalition for Fathers and Children (ACFC), an organization that I had little familiarity with although I was aware of the activities of Dr. Baskerville.
The reasons that Dr. Baskerville gave in his letter of resignation tie in strongly with the message of Men’s Action and I will address their basis.
He stated, “I have heard complaints that ACFC has become a "do-nothing" organization, that its efforts are half-hearted and inept, and that some of its actions are actually counter productive. Ambitious projects and grandiose schemes are conceived and launched but never completed. Promises of major change are offered, but the changes never materialize.”
“ACFC seems to be pervaded by a "can’t do" rather than a "can do" culture. It seems there is always a reason we cannot do something, always some excuse for not taking action, for not completing some project we have begun, some reason we cannot assist or work alongside some other organization who has offered to work with us, some reason for failure. And in the end nothing is done and failure is the result.”
“At the same time, a culture of unrealistic self-congratulations has developed, with inflated and overly-optimistic reports about the increases in our membership and revenues, when no such increases have occurred. At some point we must ask, what precisely are we doing with $100,000 a year?”
He points out that there are:
Conferences no one attends; press conferences with no one from the press; demonstrations at which no one shows up; and failure upon failure, with no effort to assess why.
The above contains a smattering of the dissatisfaction contained in Dr. Baskerville’s letter of resignation. If we go through each of the paragraphs quoted from him above we will note that they describe an aspect of the feminine principle or a lack of the masculine principle. The assertive influence of the universe is the masculine principle; without it there will be promises to do, but no accomplishment.
Also, ACFC had no philosophical message that people could identify with and rally around; it dealt with effects, which the feminine principle responds to, but it cannot initiate causes. The feminine principle is aristocratic, and in true Western fashion ACFC could not imagine that the solution to the problems that it created could come from a source outside of itself. Probably 5 billion of the earth’s 6.5 billion people were raised in a patriarchal structure that contained low rates of divorce, adultery, mental illness, incarceration, foster children, and suicide. To recognize that perhaps their way of family life was better than ours is like asking a woman to admit that she was wrong.
Dr. Baskerville’s description of his dissatisfaction with ACFC applies to all so-called men’s movements; they are crumbling, as is society in general. In the article Who Wants to See Change that I wrote just yesterday I stated the following, “All institutions suffer from the malaise of vacuousness and impotence resulting from the emasculation of the American male.” That is exactly what has happened to ACFC and all men’s movements.
I want to make clear that I find no fault with the intent of ACFC, it members, Dr. Baskerville or any of the other multitudinous organizations and their activities that have failed to stem the tide of the destruction of the family. In general the people that participated in these organizations were dedicated and altruistic; however, they have never determined a cause of their problem and therefore never arrived at a remedy.
The alternative to the men’s movements-all of which are in a state of demise-is Men’s Action to Rebuild Society. We have a mission statement. We have a philosophy that can be reduced to simple terms: family is the focal point of society and patriarchy is family. That’s easy isn’t it?
The difficulty lies in under standing this on a subjective level, which is why I push my book and information booklets. It is my hope that reading my book and booklets will stimulate within the reader a subjective understanding of the importance of gender in society and his or her role in establishing and supporting the family.
You who are still sitting on the fence have two options and one choice. You can hope the government is going to change things for you (that same government that created this mess), or you can join with other men and bring about change yourselves.
I hope that your decision is the latter and that I will hear from you
The reasons that Dr. Baskerville gave in his letter of resignation tie in strongly with the message of Men’s Action and I will address their basis.
He stated, “I have heard complaints that ACFC has become a "do-nothing" organization, that its efforts are half-hearted and inept, and that some of its actions are actually counter productive. Ambitious projects and grandiose schemes are conceived and launched but never completed. Promises of major change are offered, but the changes never materialize.”
“ACFC seems to be pervaded by a "can’t do" rather than a "can do" culture. It seems there is always a reason we cannot do something, always some excuse for not taking action, for not completing some project we have begun, some reason we cannot assist or work alongside some other organization who has offered to work with us, some reason for failure. And in the end nothing is done and failure is the result.”
“At the same time, a culture of unrealistic self-congratulations has developed, with inflated and overly-optimistic reports about the increases in our membership and revenues, when no such increases have occurred. At some point we must ask, what precisely are we doing with $100,000 a year?”
He points out that there are:
Conferences no one attends; press conferences with no one from the press; demonstrations at which no one shows up; and failure upon failure, with no effort to assess why.
The above contains a smattering of the dissatisfaction contained in Dr. Baskerville’s letter of resignation. If we go through each of the paragraphs quoted from him above we will note that they describe an aspect of the feminine principle or a lack of the masculine principle. The assertive influence of the universe is the masculine principle; without it there will be promises to do, but no accomplishment.
Also, ACFC had no philosophical message that people could identify with and rally around; it dealt with effects, which the feminine principle responds to, but it cannot initiate causes. The feminine principle is aristocratic, and in true Western fashion ACFC could not imagine that the solution to the problems that it created could come from a source outside of itself. Probably 5 billion of the earth’s 6.5 billion people were raised in a patriarchal structure that contained low rates of divorce, adultery, mental illness, incarceration, foster children, and suicide. To recognize that perhaps their way of family life was better than ours is like asking a woman to admit that she was wrong.
Dr. Baskerville’s description of his dissatisfaction with ACFC applies to all so-called men’s movements; they are crumbling, as is society in general. In the article Who Wants to See Change that I wrote just yesterday I stated the following, “All institutions suffer from the malaise of vacuousness and impotence resulting from the emasculation of the American male.” That is exactly what has happened to ACFC and all men’s movements.
I want to make clear that I find no fault with the intent of ACFC, it members, Dr. Baskerville or any of the other multitudinous organizations and their activities that have failed to stem the tide of the destruction of the family. In general the people that participated in these organizations were dedicated and altruistic; however, they have never determined a cause of their problem and therefore never arrived at a remedy.
The alternative to the men’s movements-all of which are in a state of demise-is Men’s Action to Rebuild Society. We have a mission statement. We have a philosophy that can be reduced to simple terms: family is the focal point of society and patriarchy is family. That’s easy isn’t it?
The difficulty lies in under standing this on a subjective level, which is why I push my book and information booklets. It is my hope that reading my book and booklets will stimulate within the reader a subjective understanding of the importance of gender in society and his or her role in establishing and supporting the family.
You who are still sitting on the fence have two options and one choice. You can hope the government is going to change things for you (that same government that created this mess), or you can join with other men and bring about change yourselves.
I hope that your decision is the latter and that I will hear from you
posted by Elder George at
7:03 PM
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