Men’s Movement
Unity
Vox Populi
By
Richard Doyle
THE PROBLEM Let’s face it, the
men’s/fathers’ “movement” hasn’t moved
in over 30 years. Part of the reason is
fierce opposition from entrenched
government officials (judges,
legislators, etc.) money-grubbing
lawyers, feminists, SNAGS (sensitive,
new age guys) and assorted other
factions.
But a more damaging cause of
our failure to achieve justice springs
from within. As Pogo famously said, “We
have met the enemy, and he is us.” I
submit that intra-movement factionalism,
egotistic ambitions and the naiveté of
newcomers are the root causes of our
failure. These suicidal phenomena have
impeded progress almost from the
beginning.
FACTIONALISM: There are so
many so-called organizations I can’t
begin to keep track of them or their
acronyms. Some are one-man endeavors
consisting of a pajama-clad zealot with
a bedroom computer. Others are
nation-wide operations with talented and
numerous followers. Nearly all are
parochial and militantly independent.
They have been compared to a circular
firing squad.
EGOTISM: Every barnyard
rooster is king on his own dung heap.
Many movement “leaders” aspire to be the
proverbial big frog in a small
(hopefully big) pond. Taking a clue from
Lucifer in Milton’s Paradise Lost, the
motivating principle of some seems to be
“Better to reign in Hell than serve in
Heaven.”
NEWCOMER NAIVETE: The
anti-male phenomenon and its
oppositional gestalt are so massive and
intricate, ranging from the obvious to
the subtle, that would-be reformers,
however brilliant they may be or imagine
themselves to be, cannot possibly fathom
the problems and solutions with limited
experience.
A SOLUTION Permit me, from a
perspective of over 40 years in these
trenches, to posit a solution. There is
enough talent and manpower dispersed
throughout the men’s/fathers’ movement,
internationally, to successfully
confront the enemies of justice if that
talent and manpower were properly
coordinated. Such a force would be
overwhelming. Of course, a juggernaught
like this is more easily conceived than
constructed. In theory, if the aforesaid
internal problems could be overcome, the
best and most efficient construct would
consist of a unified organization with
democratically-elected leaders chosen
from the most capable. But practically,
in view of situational reality, the most
we can probably hope for at present is a
greater degree of cooperation among
major existing groups. Requisite to any
form of cooperation or unity are a
common philosophy and means of
communication. The common philosophy
must be broad enough to include all
reasonable approaches and narrow enough
to exclude those approaches that are
actually harmful to that philosophy. I
have long suggested a philosophy meeting
that criteria: “To preserve the
traditional nuclear
family through restoration of
equal dignity and equal (not identical)
rights under the law for all male
persons across a broad spectrum of life,
including divorce, employment, health
and crime punishment.” Anything
essentially similar to this will do. I
ask leaders of the major men’s/fathers’
organizations to respond to me with
comments, pro and con.
It is my intention to list on
this blog the organizations prepared to
sign on to a unity/cooperation effort.
In addition to identifying the
cooperative among us, this list will be
informative for non-affiliated persons
wishing to join organizations oriented
toward achieving justice and who desire
to avoid ego-driven groups.
40 years in the trenches on behalf
of men, fathers, kids, family. Editor
Emeritus of The Liberator Author: Save
the Males, The Rape of the Male |