Julien was in Australia recently, for those of you who prefer to dwell under a rock, and the Social Justice Warriors were out in force to impede his tour. With the help of some unfortunately un-creative placards (you couldn't do better than #takedownjulienblanc? Are you aware that hashtags don't actually work on cardboard?) they loudly voiced their disapproval of the whole shebang. And then got a bit annoyed when the police showed up and protected the misogynists from mob justice, or as the police referred to it, "maintained law and order". And then all his shows got cancelled, and he was kicked out of the country.
Win, I guess.
I was aware of the existence of groups like Real Social Dynamics years ago. It was the subject of a CSI Miami episode I watched. Guys with backpacks who manipulate women into bed with them, for the purpose of, well, getting women into bed with them. They're not really "family" type guys. Advised methods are (apparently) lying, manipulating, being verbally/physically/emotionally abusive, and presumably identifying girls who had a poor relationship with their fathers. But you, with the help of RSD, can be the guy that gets every girl. You can be Ryan Gosling, or George Clooney, without having to look like... well, Ryan or George, I guess.
So anyway, they're gone now, never to return. And if you believe that then I have some bear-repellent socks that I'd like to sell you.
You see, there is this thing. It's readily accessible to anyone living in a developed country, and anyone who earns more than $50 a month in a developing one. It's called the internet, and you've probably heard of it. Much like you've now heard of RSD, and how it can teach you game.
I read an article in the kind of magazine you find laying on the counter at christian bookstores and on the IKEA coffee table that you find in the foyer of modern looking churches. It doesn't matter what the name is, because they never seemed to get a run of more than a couple of years anyway before they declare bankruptcy/lose their charity status/come to the conclusion that you can't run a business without treating it like a business, shut down and everyone on the editing team gets hired by the next magazine that springs up to fill the gap in the market.
Rinse and repeat.
The article was about Marilyn Manson (always a favourite) and the protest surrounding his latest tour in heartland USA. Churches banded together against the common enemy, and a great amount of anti-MM publicity was generated. At some stage it was pointed out that this was actually his follow-up tour, and presumably everyone felt a bit silly.
Marilyn Manson didn't engage with churches (or the debate) for two good reasons. The first is that he's a genuinely intelligent guy, and figured that no-one on the church's board of elders was going to buy tickets to his show no matter how much he conversed with them. So there would be no positive outcome had by entering the debate.
Secondly, he's an intelligent guy, and saw that there would be no negative outcome from not engaging in the debate. He wasn't breaking any laws, and he had a perquisite tour in the same area which went ahead without a hitch. Plus the church had unwittingly given the tour the perfect pitch: Manson VS the establishment. Manson VS the stuffy, boring churchies. Manson VS The Man. They perfectly re-enforced in the minds of all the goth kids what they already suspected: the church hates you, and your parents don't understand you. But Marilyn Manson does, and he's here to join your struggle.
So he sat back and enjoyed the sort of publicity that money can't buy.
Now I personally don't have a problem with Marilyn Manson. Beautiful People is one of the best driving songs ever made. But I can understand how and why people would have a problem with him, and would prefer that their children didn't listen to his music given its somewhat anti-social subject matter. But we look at the above example, and remember that this happened on his follow-up tour. Nothing was prevented, and nothing was achieved. Except perhaps to widen the societal gap between well-meaning church people and goths... as this was in the olden days, before the invention of the Emo. The two should not be confused.
I digress.
There is a reason I am talking about creepy rockers and sexist Swiss dudes in the same post. Whether you agree with either of the causes is irrelevant, because the flaws in the battle are the same.
The call to arms for causes such as these will always fail, and make things worse at the same time.
"But you're an idiot," I hear the masses cry, "we won! Hooray feminism! Down with the misogynists! That prat Julien can't even visit the UK!" And then everyone high-fives and breaks for chai lattes and gluten-free biscotti, seemingly oblivious to the consequences of globalism and the existence of the internet.
If you listen very carefully, you can hear the number of online memberships increasing
What has been achieved is simple: RSD has been promoted, and the existence and tactics of RSD justified to those who would seek to gain game. These who seek out RSD are probably not the George Clooneys of this world. I was going to call them nerds with no social skills, but I browsed a few articles and saw a distinct lack of awkward looking guys. So we'll just call them narcissists instead. Anyway.We've proven to them through positive social action that yes, it is them VS women, no, women don't like them, and no, they have no chance in hooking up without resorting to these tactics... which we could agree are at least somewhat immoral.
Now before I get shot, pay attention to this:
Whether that is right or not is totally irrelevant.
100%. Because regardless of whether or not that is the case, there is a group of individuals that believe that is how it is, and will continue to structure their world view (and therefore their actions) around that belief. But we protest against Julien because what he does is wrong, or at least bad. Regardless of your views on casual sex, we can agree that deceiving people to get what you want is generally a bad thing, and society could band together to make a stand against it without criticism from any parties. Which is more or less what we did. But I'm still calling it a big fat failure.
The belief that causes people to band together in the name of Social Justice is fundamentally flawed.
Firstly because there is no level of morality that everyone agrees on. We live in a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, multi-national society. We can't even agree on what to eat.
Secondly because it undermines law. People have said a lot about our friend Julien, of how he's violent, sexist, and has purported every crime you can imagine, including rape. And yet there has been no charge laid against him. None. So either he is completely above the law, or he's a wanker who talks a lot of crap, and a lot of that crap has been blown out of proportion. Being a tool and talking smack is not strictly illegal, which is proven regularly by Neil Mitchell's (or 100 other media personalities) absence from prison. But there are some laws against sexism and inciting violence and/or hatred... of which he has not been formerly charged. If what he has done is illegal, charge him. If it isn't illegal, and you think it should be, petition the government to change the law instead of banning people on an individual basis.
The third reason is this: the people you would seek to conform to this level of morality remain completely unaffected by it.
At least he was nice enough to wear his douche uniforn
In the same way that laws only affect law abiding citizens, and locks deter friends and honest thieves. The notion of what we should not do is ignored by everyone who does exactly that. The fix, I would suggest, is a moral standard taught and enforced within a community, rather than a society. But first, a bit about me.
I'm generous. I enjoy serving people food in my house. I respect people, but I don't really respect titles. I'll go out of my way to help someone, in spite of the financial repercussions. I'm not trying to tell you I'm Jesus reincarnate, and I am in fact far from perfect. But these were all things instilled in me by the little community I grew up in. Commonly referred to as The Welsh Family. I have a lot in common with my father (and it has only taken me fifteen years to be okay with that) and I have sharp contrasts to him as well, but generally speaking the moral compass which my parents instilled in me still holds the same calibration.
We tend to do as our parents did. (Note: "did" =/= "said")
I've met enough people living on the poverty line to know that this goes for both positive and negative things. If you're fifteen and female, and your mum's thirty, odd on there's a baby shower imminent. If your dad's a noisy alcoholic who has frequent run-ins with the law, I'm not going to be surprised to see you loitering outside the local centre for legal aid.
Therein lays the answer to the problem.
While I don't believe its effective (or even possible) to directly overcome a problem with society, I do believe its possible to overcome a problem within a community. This could be family, a football club, a township, a church, anything. If you want to prevent ol' mate Julien from growing in popularity (and your sons from being chauvinistic morons) then you need to teach your sons to respect women. And the best way to do that is to respect women. On the flip side if you don't want your daughter to fall prey to assholes, then you need to teach her to respect herself, and that she is more than the sum of who she is sleeping with.
I find it so strange, and so moronically hypocritical that for all the #stopjulien signs, no-one is talking about the second half of the equation. I mean short of a rape charge the process is consensual. Dishonest and deceptive, yes, but there's enough people jumping around screaming about it that you'd think it was black magic.
If we can teach pensioners not to give their bank account details to Nigerian Princes, then surely we can teach our daughters not to jump into bed with a guy who for all intents and purposes is acting like a knob.
I used to know a guy called Chris. Chris was one of the most talented footballers I've seen playing at a local level. I'm surprised and a bit disappointed that he never got drafted. He told me something I've told a lot of my (so to speak) footballers since.
Football is a simple game. All you have to do is beat your man. If everyone can do that, you win the game.
You can't change society at society level. You can't stop people en masse from smoking or doing drugs, and you can't get everyone to turn around and stop poverty, reject materialism, or end the deforestation in the Amazon.
But you teach your kids. It's not a matter of 'can'. You. Teach. Your. Kids. It never stops. And further than that, you teach anyone who looks up to you. Constantly.
And if you want to teach them something positive, then all you need to do is something positive.
Now that might not be waving a placard at an RSD conference, and it's probably not telling someone that Julien Blanc, sexism, deforestation, materialism, or ignorance of poverty is wrong.
But if you can teach someone why it is wrong...
