There’s an inherently violent aspect of masculinity that has been appearing in my feeds. Have been seeing it more and more as coronavirus spreads.
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Masculinity is the essence of setting boundaries. E.g. Goals and Focus are bounded targets and directions. This boundary setting naturally has a cutting or slicing effect. It divides things, it clarifies sides.
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A scalpel can save a life or take one. The sharper the mechanism of separation, the more responsibility needed to avoid the more “evil” aspects.
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This boundary setting and differentiation is the essence of racism. It creates Us vs Them. Good and Bad, etc...
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Nowadays direct racism is widely seen as primitive but its essence of finding some way of differentiating groups of people still is strong. It’s more culture war with the strong racial correlation just pointed out conviniently as fact.
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It’s not necessarily bad, sometimes heuristics are needed, especially at scale. Finding the crack with which to make a split involves its own creativity and intelligence.
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Yet I can’t help but feel a dread towards how easily some thoughts fly out of accounts I respect a lot. Especially towards topics like China and the Chinese.
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I suppose it was to be expected though. Sources of light by their nature shine because they hide the more shadowy sides. Especially on an outwards facing platform like Twitter.
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Here the thing about Masculinity. It judges itself by its ability to make others feel safe. Strong walls and strong boundaries. But you can’t punch a virus away or think it away. It doesn’t care how strong or smart you are.
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The Aspect of Death shows the truth of every man as a naked and helpless ape. Even the best have only their hamfisted weapons and philosophies.
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When you only have the hammer of boundary drawing and the “enemy” simply can’t be beat, that hammer still swings, and hits something one way or the other.
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While philosophies of facing death with courage are great and have contributed to the bulk of humanity’s successes, they gloss over the fact that it’s courageous precisely because YOU CANNOT WIN.
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The courage to embrace death through the act of sacrifice and passing on is the source that stills the hammer and prevents it from making a bad situation worse. This isn’t even courage, because there is no fear.
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