What’s up with those ISMS?
When we think about different movements like feminism and conservatism and socialism and liberalism and all other isms we often see political and economical agendas.
But where do all these isms start? How do they come about? And what are WE in all these isms?
Lets look at their meanings.
Conservatism
Favouring free enterprise and private ownership. Also not wanting others to do what ever they please but holding back on certain actions in respect of others, wanting people to act certain ways. It is also about having traditional values.
Liberalism
Willing to respect and accept behaviour or opinions, different from one’s own. Favouring individual liberty; free trade and moderate reform. Giving freedom from being conservative.
Capitalism
An economic and political system in which a country’s trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit. This was something that existed in Victorian Era where there were elite, middle class, low class and lower class. The elite were often the owners of most major assets.
Socialism
A theory which holds that a countries land, transport, natural resources and chief industries should be owned by the community as a whole. It would be shared socially so that all could have the same. Opportunities are for all.
This is where the movement came to state owned, state control, state run. We have social sciences studying social relationships and study of humans in society.
We have social welfare, social security and so forth under socialism.
Feminism
A movement or theory supporting women’s rights on the grounds of equality of the sexes. This was it’s core value yet it became divided with extremists taking over. Some see it for a simple equality while others use it to their full advantage and others become haters of men.
Pro-Feminist Groups
While men’s rights groups espouse the theory of gender roles and present essentialist arguments, pro-feminist groups have taken a broader perspective, encompassing the concept of power relationships that come into play in all aspects of private and social life.They have formed “anti-sexism collectives,” whose members come mainly from the political left and are feminist allies. Some see themselves as a “wing” of the women’s movement. They are involved, for example, in the fight for daycare centres and abortion rights. They read the writings of feminists and work to change the violent behaviour of men. They support rape crisis centres and shelters for battered women. These groups argue against the main theme of the men’s movement because it fails to confront the patriarchal system. They view the discourse as complacent.
Masculism
is a number of ideologies found in the streams of the men’s movement. It consists of social theories, political movements, and moral philosophies primarily based on the experiences of men. The female equivalent is feminism. Although masculism provides a general critique of social relations, many of its proponents also seek to analyse gender inequality and promote men’s rights, interests, and issues. Masculism is viewed by its proponents as being an egalitarian view of gender issues, with the focus on men’s experience.
Men’s Rights Groups
These groups essentially hold a liberal perspective. They suggest that in the post-feminism era, there is symmetry between the positions of men and women.Derived from a social reproduction approach (i.e. that both men and women are socialized to assume oppressive and restrictive roles), they support the theory of sex roles and also rely on socio-biological theories to avoid the whole social and political dimension of power relationships
All these isms start off as an honest ideal with good intentions. They start off as being a theory someone comes up with and then as numbers grow in agreement these theories gain acceptance and find their way into Governments represented and supported by different parties to balance the controlling ism at the time. And this is where it all goes wrong. This is where power struggles occur and backing is sort after in the community through big business, community groups and so forth. This power grabbing has continued from the beginning right up until today. This is where politicians start to meddle with the ism turning into something for their own benefit or that of their favourite supporters. It becomes a corrupted ism.
Business makes money off it, schools receive funding for research from it and groups gain individual followers. Money is given out in grants. People become rich and greedy from it’s now, out of shape formation. Of course we can add a whole lot of other areas that develop from it. Yet all these individuals and groups also add their own agendas and the ism grows even more deceptive.
But the power struggle continues to grow until all of a sudden one ism has control of the majority of resources and we become “Off balance.” We all of a sudden find ourselves swinging out to an extreme side which creates more problems than it was trying to solve in the beginning. As generations continue to be born and die strange things start to occur.
The biggest problem and strangest combination is the feminism and the masculism. They don’t seem to be working at the same level to keep balance. One gets more funding than the other, one gets more publicity than the other and one has advantage of the other while pretending to be the victim to the other.
They are on two totally different tracks.
That may be why feminism has been able to grow so fast in such a short time and take complete control. Masculism is not about power at a Government level. It’s ism is not a political or economical agenda.
Feminism power also destroyed the power of conservatism because conservatives value the patriarchal system and preserve the traditional social roles between the sexes, they promote the ideology of complementarity between men and women, giving primacy to the family as the basic nucleus. They give power to males as fathers and husbands through responsibilities to provide and protect which feminism has destroyed through contraception, divorce and self sufficiency. Yet one can argue whether they are actually self sufficient when men are paying most taxes to provide for women in a broader sense. Also alimony and more that I can add to this list. (You get the gist, I hope)
So feminism in fact, raced ahead without a check and balance, continually destroyed any chances of having a check and balance and made powerless other checks and balances along the way. But at what price?
Male bashing — the stereotyping of men as brutal, stupid or otherwise objectionable — is commonplace. Our sons, husbands, fathers and men-friends are gleefully slandered because they are male. They are subjected to malicious jokes and attitudes that would be decried if directed at blacks, Hispanics or women. The assault against men must stop. But how?
Labour MP John Tamihere told Investigate magazine last month that the most powerful network in the ruling party was “the Labour Party wimmin’s division … it’s about an anti-men’s agenda”.
“We have come from a culture where women, in claiming their independence, have tended to establish the notion that fathers are not necessary,”
I would rephrase as, expecting others to accept the behavior and opinions of the said liberals, while suppressing or banning the opinions which are tagged unacceptable.
In today’s world, liberalism means freedom of speech for the liberal, while giving the liberal the power to control/allow/ban opinions not stated by this liberal.
I do not see the freedom anymore.
Comment by ze german — Tue 28th August 2007 @ 10:51 pm