Orlando And The American Pathologies Of Masculinity And Militarism

[Triana]

It is virtually forbidden–as an unpatriotic act–that the American boy evolve into the complexity of manhood.
–James Baldwin

The dominant responses to the Orlando massacre have contained much of the venom that defined the act itself.

Conservatives have deepened their racist demonization and their gun cult fascism. Liberals have indulged in empty symbolism while calling for an intensified surveillance regime, a more militarized and repressive police state.

Both responses reflect the logic of a society in decay.

Any meaningful response to the Orlando slaughter must address the pathologies that produced it. And to truly do that, we cannot look to some alien ideology or threat. We must examine ourselves.

This gunman was “Made in America.” We made him. His pathologies are our pathologies. He is an expression of our homegrown extremism, our fundamentalism, our normalized violence, our hatred of The Other.

But if we have all been poisoned by racism, patriarchy, and homophobia, the events in Orlando also reveal the effects of another, related pathology: Toxic Masculinity.

THE REST:

http://www.aaihs.org/orlando-and-the-american-pathologies-of-masculinity-and-militarism/

[enough]

1. That's an odd characterization of what liberals are calling for.

"Liberals have indulged in empty symbolism while calling for an intensified surveillance regime, a more militarized and repressive police state."

I don't know any liberals who are calling for an intensified surveillance regime, a more militarized and repressive police state. Some elected officials who call themselves Democrats are calling for that, but the label Democrat does not a liberal make.

And when those officials call for such things, the conservatives are right there with them.