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s a means to intimidate dominate and control it works for governments and hunters and police and terrorists and batterers and parents and schoolyard bullies and corporations and by extension anyone who wants to feel larger and more powerful and in control than they otherwise would the gun has long been valued in this culture as the ultimate tool in the enforcement of control and domination trumping all else in the assertion of personal control over others can anyone forget the scene in the film raiders of the lost arc when indiana jones our hero is confronted with the huge man wielding an equally enormous sword and the white man unholsters his gun and the crowd roars its approval as he calmly shoots the other man down the gun is the great equalizer with the potential to elevate even the most weak shy or timid above anyone who lacks equivalent firepower what this makes clear is that violence in this country is not an aberration or a simple product of mental illness it is an integral part of the american story and the american way of life the key to understanding gun violence and the fact that all these shooters are men is this an obsession with control forms the core of our cultural definition of manhood which is to say what it takes to qualify as a real man because violence is the ultimate and most extreme instrument of control then the potential for violence whether or not individual men make use of it is also central to the cultural definition of manhood every man and boy faces the challenge of signaling either their own capacity for violence or their support if not admiration for that potential in other males if for no other reason than to solidify their claim to manhood if not to deter acts of violence and ridicule directed at them it is a dynamic that begins early in locker rooms and schoolyards and extends in one form or another throughout men s lives however men and boys choose to deal with it as individuals deal with it they must no one no matter how powerful is immune to the cultural imperatives of manhood every presidential candidate must first and foremost demonstrate their qualifications to be the nation s commander in chief which is to say their willingness and readiness to make use of and direct the u s military s massive capacity for violence in the overriding interest of controlling what happens in other countries the record is clear for example that lyndon johnson kept us in the vietnam war long after he knew it was unwinnable for the pathetically simple reason that he was afraid of being seen as a president who could not control the outcome of that war the horrific cost of protecting his manhood and the nation s identification with it was not enough to keep him from it the choices he made have been repeated by every president since with the electorate s enthusiastic support right down to the present day where drone strikes routinely take the lives of innocent women children and men who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time including weddings family gatherings and schools men s acceptance of the cultural association of manhood with control makes them complicit in its consequences including the use of violence acceptance need not be conscious or intentional individual men need not be violent themselves mere silence the voice of complicity is enough to accomplish the effect and to connect them to the violence that other men do when a man who is feeling wronged or insecure in his manhood straps on body armor and takes up a gun he is pursuing by extreme means a manhood ideal of control and domination that has wide and deep support in this society including among men who would never dream of doing such a thing themselves that our culture is saturated with images of violence from television and video games to the football field is not the work of a lunatic fringe of violent men nor is the epidemic of actual violence all of it flows from an obsession with control that shapes every man s standing as a real man in this society i t would be a mistake to end the analysis here as if the problem of violence was simply a matter of men and manhood the newtown murderer after all used weapons belonging to his mother which she had taught him how to use she would not be the first woman attracted to guns because they made her feel powerful and in control it might seem that this would nullify the argument about manhood control and violence but in fact the involvement of women merely extends the argument to a larger level the argument after all is not that men s violence is caused by something inherently wrong with men but that such behavior is shaped and promoted by a social environment that includes women a patriarchal society which is what we ve got is among other things male identified which means that men and manhood are culturally identified as the standard for human beings in general consider for example the routine use of guys to refer to both men and women even though the word clearly and unambiguously points to men if you doubt this ask people to raise their hand if they re a guy and see how many women you get or that for years medical research on heart disease focused only on men based on the false assumption that the male body could serve as the universal standard for the human being in a male identified world what works for men what is valued by men is generally assumed to work for and be valued by human beings in general so if the obsession with control associated with manhood includes defining power and safety in terms of domination and control and therefore the capacity for violence that comes with owning a gun then this is seen as not merely manly but as universally human cultural ideas that would preclude women being both feminine and interested in guns have been a device for excluding and marginalizing women and keeping them dependent on men for protection from other men as such limitations have been broken down by the women s movement it is inevitable that some women will adopt male identified ideals about power and control as their own but the analysis of violence rooted in an obsession with control must go farther still beyond issues of gender because the obsession shapes every social institution from economics and politics to education religion and healthcare our entire history has been inseparable from a continuing story of control and domination directed at the earth and nonhuman species at native americans at enslaved africans and other people of color at those who resist the building of the american empire and its exercise of global power at workers at immigrants as richard slotkin argues in his brilliant history of the making of the american mythology violence has played a central role in that history although the heroes of that mythology have always been men the larger idea of america shaped by it of american exceptionalism and superiority and freedom as the right to dominate and act without restraint is about more than manhood it has become the heart of who we think we are as a society and a people which may be why there is so much ambivalence about guns and violence and such a narrow focus on the disturbed individual and not what this is really about which is ourselves and an entire worldview that informs our lives with cultural ideals about manhood at the center the national silence about manhood and violence is about much more than either it is about protecting a way of life even if it means failing to protect our children or people gathered in prayer in church or crowds turned out to listen to music any society organized in this way is a frightening place to be people afraid to go to the movies unless they re packing heat parents afraid to send their kids to school and the solution offered by that same society is of course still more control if someone has a gun get your own arm the teachers arm yourself arm your kids but every crisis is also an opportunity here we are once again the prohibition against talking about violence and manhood in the same breath puts us in a state of paralysis which is where we find ourselves today and that is where we will be when this happens again as it is all but certain to do if it hasn t already unless we do something to break the silence history is full of examples of the power of ordinary citizens speaking out on slavery and race on the rights of working people gays immigrants native americans people with disabilities and women on the exploitation and abuse of children on the degradation exploitation and destruction of the earth and its species on capitalism and the power of wealth we have done it before and we can do it again this is the third time i have posted this after newtown and then orlando and now las vegas i have no doubt that if we do not effectively confront the violent reality of manhood i will have occasion to post it again ________________________________ for an explanation of patriarchy and how it works see allan g johnson the gender knot unraveling our patriarchal legacy 3rd edition 2014 richard slotkin s trilogy about the origins of american mythology r egeneration through violence the mythology of the american frontier 1600 1860 the fatal environment the myth of the frontier in the age of industrialization 1800 1890 and gunfighter nation the myth of the frontier in twentieth century america for lyndon johnson as president during the vietnam war see doris kearns goodwin lyndon johnson and the american dream share this share on facebook opens in new window facebook share on x opens in new window x email a link to a friend opens in new window email like loading uncategorized guns las vegas manhood men violence racist the politics of labeling 8 comments posted by allan g johnson on wednesday march 29 2017 r acist is a word getting liberal play these days as in anyone who voted for donald trump must be a racist the accusation rarely gets more specific as if needing no explanation shorthand for being bad sick flawed mean and hateful stained by the nation s founding sin and original shame one of those no wonder people get upset i am not among the accusers mostly because i think trying to sort people into racist or not is a bad idea in no small part because it assumes there is such a thing as a racist person that human beings can really be that simple not to mention the sixty two million who voted for donald trump calling people racist is also a bad idea because it draws attention away from the racist consequences of what all kinds of people do and it polarizes us into hostile camps of accusers and accused encouraging smug self satisfaction at the moment of pointing the finger especially among whites with the implicit self congratulating assurance of being good and pure and thereby off the hook and when it comes to how people vote there is the problem of kidding ourselves that we can tell from that what they think and feel not to mention who and what they are what for example can you tell from the fact that i voted for hillary clinton does it mean that i like the candidate i voted for have a fondness for financiers and wealth and the capitalist system that makes them possible do i identify with billionaires pouring millions into the clinton campaign am i secretive with a somewhat dodgy relation to the truth do i embrace the arrogance of power and upper class entitlement to decide for others how life will be do i appear to be progressive in favor of raising the minimum wage for example but can be counted on to support the capitalist system that makes that wage such a desperate issue for so many i am none of that and yet she got my vote a vote is not a window to the soul yes there were trump voters who cheered his racist sexist views but there were many others who gave their vote in spite of that including i imagine some of the one out of four who told exit interviewers they had just voted for a man they believed unfit just as many clinton voters cast their ballot while holding their nose these are the millions of reluctant conflicted voters who said they weren t voting for the parts they didn t like or couldn t stomach but for this other reason or that it isn t what he says but how he says it the way he speaks his mind regardless of what s in it at the moment or what he promises to do about the economy or his ideology not his personality or that he simply isn t her but grabbing women s genitals or banning a whole religion no we didn t vote for that but we can no more vote for part of a candidate than we can vote for one hand but not the other and the problem is our connection to that other hand in other words no matter what we tell ourselves about why we voted as we did the outcome is the same to vote for a candidate is to consent to their election the parts we like and the parts we don t because it is the whole human being who receives our vote and occupies the office and has access to its power hold your nose or give a cheer it makes no difference consent is consent and it has consequences i nsofar as electing donald trump has the effect of legitimating and empowering someone who espouses racist views and supports white privilege and supremacy then a vote for trump is an act with racist consequences regardless of what the voter may believe or want yes the vote is not only that but includes it because we cannot wall off our behavior and our reasons for it from the result voting for trump while disapproving of his misogynist and racist displays does not remove responsibility for helping to elect a man who holds those views and might reasonably be expected to act on them and empower others who will the same of course can be said about my vote for clinton by which i consented to all kinds of things i don t believe in beginning with the election of yet another liberal caretaker of the status quo a president who can be counted on to protect capitalism and the elites whose interests have driven the oppression of people of color not to mention white working people for hundreds of years a commander in chief prepared to use violence to protect american interests that put corporations and the ruling class above everyone else another liberal who will not confront the reality of mass incarceration and segregation and the deliberate impoverishment and degradation of neighborhoods and communities of color including native american reservations or challenge the ideal of manhood that drives men s violence or the western mantra of progress and growth that is driving millions of species including our own toward extinction who may care about such things more than the other side but allows them to continue nonetheless none of these are my reasons for voting as i did i voted in spite of them as did millions of others but the consequences are the same and so here we are walking contradictions which is why we can be so quick to feel bad for ourselves to be caught in such a trap and we are caught we have always been caught we were born to it and th...