J.D. Unwin
I have been tracing America’s transition from a world of faithful pilgrims to nihilistic pirates — that is, discussing that which has caused cultures and civilizations to either flourish or meet their demise.
It was British anthropologist J.D. Unwin who studied the fall of some 86 cultures and civilizations throughout history, only to find that the longevity, health and well-being of culture was largely determined by their attitudes, customs and mores having to do with sexuality, faith and marriage.
Another brilliant scholar, Carle Zimmerman, a Harvard sociologist, studied the role of family in the rise and fall of civilization, determining that the one thing that advanced civilizations had in common was the nuclear family construct. Tribal and clan-type family constructs never amounted to much, and, on the opposite end, when men and women became so narcissistic and hedonistic that nuclear marriages fell by the wayside, the culture soon met its demise.
I previously focused on the unraveling of the home and family by way of events and values that began in the 1960s with a focus on women and mothers. Now, let’s turn our attention to men.
1. The feminist movement was a two-edged sword. As it sought to liberate women, it did so at the expense of men as it attacked so-called toxic masculinity. Along the way, it eviscerated the vital role of men as fathers, heads of households, providers and protectors.
Specifically, society at large encouraged men to get in touch with their “feminine-side” as they abandoned their traditional roles in family and society in deference to the ability of women to supplant them as equals.
2. The attack on men, became a war on boys. Even though nearly all scientific literature indicates that boys and girls mature at different rates and are stimulated by different things, mothers in the home and teachers in schools began to push back against the things that little boys are made of, including boundless rambunctious energy.
In the 1960s, with the dispensing of drugs like Ritalin, hyperactive young boys were diagnosed as having attention deficit disorders at twice the rate of girls and were deleteriously drugged accordingly.
3. Traditionally, one key God-given role of women in society was to domesticate men by way of withholding sex apart from marriage, and sometimes, in marriage. The free sex movement and the commensurate loss of the fear of God, made possible by way of the pill and abortion, served to throw chastity out the window, and men became somewhat free to roam before, during and after marriage, sans any personal moral constraints.
Now at full throttle, the hook-up culture has replaced courtship, and porn addiction among men is epidemic.
4. Subsequent to No. 3, no-fault divorce facilitated awarding primary custody to mothers, which means the fathers ended up spending more time with their subsequent family rather than their first. The destructive and disruptive impact of this resulted in successive generations of boys who were raised without their natural fathers in the home to guide, mentor and discipline them — that is, if a man was present at all. This has proved a disaster for society as nearly every social ill including drug and alcohol abuse, criminality, homelessness, and the like can be traced to boys who were essentially abandoned by their fathers.
5. There has been a massive loss of 7.5 million jobs among men, such as those found in manufacturing, logging, mining and the steel industry.
These sectors virtually vanished, including by way of environmental regulations, thereby destroying head of household jobs for men without a college education. The resultant wage loss put pressure on spouses to find work at the expense of family life.
Jordan Peterson said it best, “If you think tough men are dangerous, wait until you see what weak men are capable of!”
Andy Caldwell is the COLAB executive director and host of “The Andy Caldwell Show,” airing 3 to 5 p.m. weekdays on KZSB AM 1290, the News-Press radio station.
