Disappointed! Daniel J. Flynn’s earlier work set a much higher standard. This is the sort of thing one might expect from Jonah Goldberg: ‘Jonah, you’ve got to fill about 600 or 700 words about race, without saying anything (or at least, anything honest) about race.
Trayvon Martin’s murder attempt was racially motivated, but Flynn says nothing about that. Instead, he talks about fatherless boys acting like barbarians, and boys with domineering mothers being wimps. (In the latter instance, Flynn is echoing generations of “momism,” from the likes of novelists Phillip Wylie and Phillip Roth. And shouldn’t the crime rates of white fatherless boys be comparable to those of black fatherless boys? But they’re from different galaxies.) But Martin had a father, and George Zimmerman was no wimp. Oh, but in Flynn’s “heads I win, tails you lose” dialectical psychology, Zimmerman’s very heroism simply “proves” that he was overcompensating for his wimpiness.
One of Flynn’s generic subtexts is generically true—feminism has done a hell of a job wrecking white American masculinity. Oops, but he wasn’t racially specific, so he managed to turn being right into being wrong.
Trying to turn something that is true only under specific circumstances into a generic truth changes it from being true to being false. The harm feminism has done to white families and white manhood is not the same as the harm it has done to black families and black manhood. A writer who uses the generic voice in place of the specific one could potentially go his entire career without making a true statement, or only making ones that are so vague as to be worthless, such as, ‘There has been an explosion in fatherlessness since 1965.’
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: If you’re not going to write about race… don’t write about race!
Two Males, No Men
By Daniel J. Flynn on July 12, 2013 @ 6:10 A.M.The American Spectator
The verdict is in on Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman.
They don’t make men like they used to. One can consult a Danish study that shows plummeting testosterone levels for scientific confirmation of this. Or, one could more easily turn on any cable news network’s wall-to-wall coverage of the Zimmerman-Martin case, a tragedy involving two males fumbling in the dark on how to be men.
Whatever the protagonists may be guilty of they are surely innocent of being men. The six female jurors, not tasked to reach a verdict on the manhood of the central players, nevertheless know the truth of this more than other trial observers. The Venusians know the Martians better than they know themselves. And vice versa — what do they know of x chromosomes who only x chromosomes know?
On the maturity count, Trayvon Martin might reasonably plead not guilty by reason of chronology. Seventeen-year-old boys quite often act like, in the vernacular of Zimmerman, “f—-ing punks.” Most grow out of it, but Mr. Martin unfortunately will not get that chance. Rarely, in spite of their exaggerated masculine posturing, do teenage boys behave as mature males.
Martin’s Twitter feed reads as a parody of poor grammar and an even more impoverished vocabulary. There, he’s a “No Limit N-gga,” girls he knows are “bitches” and “hoes,” and the primary extracurricular activity he immerses himself in is marijuana. The gold-teeth smile, the tattoos, the ten-day suspension from school, and all the rest appear as pathetic attempts to assert his virility. Yet, as his supporters point out, Trayvon also liked Skittles and Chuck E. Cheese’s. The presentation that Trayvon affected and the Trayvon that his supporters present are, like so many making the journey from adolescence to adulthood, at war internally. [N.S. It’s a black thing, Dan. You wouldn’t understand.]
George Zimmerman, in contrast, projects a courtroom image of a meek pudgeball who wouldn’t (couldn’t?) hurt a fly — and not in a Norman Bates way. Perhaps this is the effect that his lawyers intended. But it jibes with what we know. According to one unidentified witness, Zimmerman endured a domineering mother’s frequent beatings and a docile father who failed to stick up for his kids. His mixed-martial arts instructor described him as “physically soft,” a student who lacked athleticism and “didn’t know how to really effectively punch.”
One wonders if the cage-fighting classes, the pursuit of a career in law enforcement, and a firearm kept ready to fire were Zimmerman’s ways of discovering his elusive manhood in a manner akin to Trayvon’s tattoos, coarse language, and demonstrative drug use. With the teenager sans a father in the home to serve as guide, and the neighborhood-watch captain growing up watching the cowed captain of his home, the pair’s past altered their future as much as anything else did.
Zimmerman’s screams and Trayvon slamming Zimmerman’s head into the concrete weren’t the acts of men. A man is neither a woman nor an animal. The proper response to an assault by a 158-pound teenager isn’t to scream for help or grab for a gun. It is to punch back or better yet subdue and issue a spanking. And a sucker punch, the repeated hitting of a downed opponent, and the bashing of a skull against the concrete doesn’t pass muster with the Marquess of Queensberry. Perhaps the “No Holds Barred Fighting” dojo that Zimmerman had signed up for would approve.
Their households lacked strong male role models; their society, even more so. Four in ten American kids enter the world without their father married to their mother. When schoolboys begin to exhibit traits natural to their sex, the energetic fellows earn the wrath of detention and Ritalin. Any game that highlights contact — from dodgeball to football — comes under attack. Primetime television celebrates the fop and makes a buffoon out of fathers (see Simpson, Homer; Everybody Loves, Raymond). Jobs relying on the physical characteristics favored in males have been outsourced to robots and foreigners. When a pundit asked “Are Men Necessary?” a few years back it reflected the scarcity rather than the superfluity of the genuine article.
Civilizing men out of existence has come at great cost to civilization. Instead of men, we get feminine imitations lacking beauty. We get lost boys compensating by becoming barbarians. We get Sanford, Florida, February 26, 2012.
About the Author
Daniel J. Flynn, the author of The War on Football: Saving America’s Game, blogs at www.flynnfiles.com.
[The first set of reader comments, out of 309 follow.]
Kitty | 7.12.13 @ 6:34AM
It's not enough that the full force of the White House is working overtime to secure Zimmerman's conviction, you have to hurl school yard insults his way. Whatever TAS paid you for this was too much. Be a man and return the payment.
Jack in Wi| 7.12.13 @ 7:34AM
I agree with Flynn. I think his points are right on. I haven't followed this trail because I think it is nothing but a political show. 2 lives have been ruined and it is a sad story. Why the hell are there only 6 jurors?
WRTolkas| 7.12.13 @ 7:58AM
Dear Mr. Flynn:
Thank you for filling in the blank spaces. Two men, men in gender only, collided that evening with predictable consequences.
Everyone have a safe weekend.
LONE STAR| 7.12.13 @ 8:38AM
Zimmerman is 10 times the man you are Flynn. He has stood up to the greatest media assault since the attacks on Nixon...You would have wilted long ago, you coward.
PostModernist| 7.12.13 @ 10:26AM
One thing Flynn's "ultra-males" do really well is riot.
In the midst of the mayhem of shooting, burning, smashing, overturning, knifing, a lot--I mean a bloody lot-- of good old-fashioned testosterone is released--the kind Flynn and his kind admire so much.
Very few "softies" participate in rioting because it's just too rough and dangerous and painful (you might get a brick upside yo haid).
Now, let's all be real men and stand and turn to hymn number 911 and sing all five verses of "Let the Fun Begin." Sing it
lustily.
Time to light your molotovs, boys.
vigilant| 7.12.13 @ 1:13PM
It's easy to glibly pontificate on what constitutes a "real man" when you're sitting at a keyboard rather than being assaulted and having your head bashed in. And your assumption that just being female means the jurors wisely understand true manhood is naive.
ALL criminal cases involve people, whether male or female, behaving in ways they shouldn't, and more often than not, poor upbringing is a factor in the development of that behavior. Duh. (I speak from professional expertise.) It's irrelevant in court, though used to manipulate juror sympathy. Who did something illegal? Who did nothing illegal? This is the most asinine display of a kangaroo court I've seen in a long time. Remains to be seen whether those of us who know what's really going on will have the cajones to give the "proper response" to this assault by the government.
Occam's Tool| 7.14.13 @ 1:45AM
Vigilant: beautifully stated.
SECUREOURBORDERSNOW| 7.12.13 @ 2:00PM
This country needs more Zimmermans. Someone who will look out for their neighbor. Not more people who have no clue what is happening in Washington i.e. how Obama picks and chooses which laws he enforces. This is what rulers and dictators do and the Dems in Congress seem OK with this. We need more Zimmermans who will get involved.
capatolistmom| 7.12.13 @ 11:39AM
Because it is brought as a federal case. They only require 6 but it has to be a unanimous verdict.
Albertus Magnus| 7.12.13 @ 2:24PM
FYI: As I understand it, this is not a Federal case. Zimmerman was charged by local authorities under Florida Law. The Feds have involved themselves by pressuring local and State politicians to demand a trial in oposition to local Law Enforcement. Why there are 6 jurors, I do not know unless this is in accordance with Florida State Law.
Anthony| 7.12.13 @ 4:33PM
This is a state prosecution case, not federal. Holder is waiting to see what happens before he files his Civil Rights violation case against Mr. Zimmerman.
Juries of six are common except in capital felony murder cases and the like.
David| 7.12.13 @ 3:32PM
And no men who are more likely to know what it is like being in a fight and getting manhandled. And no blacks??? I guess 6 is
FLorida law. It is crazy.
mike 3/505| 7.13.13 @ 7:50AM
Why would you need blacks? Zimmerman gets a trial by his peers. Better question, "Why a jury of women?"
rickg62| 7.12.13 @ 10:54PM
This 6 member jury is an option in Florida as upheld by the Supreme Court in 1970.
Rhoetus| 7.13.13 @ 12:08AM
Testosterone levels of the size of one's penis have little to do with character, ethics, manners or honesty.
Podesta| 7.13.13 @ 12:06PM
Flynn has a single hammer - macho posturing - and applies it to everything.
There's no evidence that Trayvon Martin lacked a male role model. His father, Tracy, was very involved in his life. In fact, the the picture of Trayvon riding a horse was taken just a week or so before he was killed by George Zimmerman. And, contrary to what Flynn claims. Trayvon did play football, though at less than 160 pounds he was not really suited to it.
Flynn also oversimplifies Zimmerman's life story. His psychological problems may be based in alleged episodes of molesting a younger female cousin, which resulted in fractures in the family. Most members were not even on speaking terms before George killed a kid walking home from a convenience store one rainy night.
Flynn oversimplifies complex family dynamics to fit his pet theory of American males needing to be more macho.
Bob K| 7.13.13 @ 6:03PM
Podesta works for the Podesta Agency, a Washington DC lobbying Agency. It has close ties to the Obama Administration and the
Democratic party.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podesta_Group
TLP| 7.13.13 @ 6:55PM
What a surprise, eh?
Occam's Tool| 7.14.13 @ 1:46AM
Ahhh, Podesta. Trayvon had multiple school suspensions, and was on one at the time of his death.
By the way, the verdict is NOT GUILTY!
Brubaker| 7.13.13 @ 8:43PM
Jack, under Florida law, 6 jurors are required for all non-capital cases. For capital cases (first degree murder), there
must be 12 jurors.
TLP| 7.12.13 @ 8:06AM
Rarely do I read these things all the way through. (Maybe Kaminsky, cause I feel sorry for him) I think it has to do with the whole "I just wasted 3 Minutes of my life" thing and I can't afford to waste 3 Minutes on things such as this. I'm already wasting that much having Sex every other Month. Then again, those 3 Minutes belonged to my wife. I'm just kidding. She thinks I'm great in the sack. She calls me her Hot Dog down a Hallway. That's good, right?
As Kitty has already stated and someone else wrote yesterday on another site: Pharaoh has already decided the fate of this Jew, and as it was with John Roberts and his neighbor's kid's Bicycle Seat, Eric Heinrich Himmler Gun Runner Holder's got something on Judge Pig Face Stinkyhole. If Lady Justice is blind? It's because President Caligula had her eyes gouged out as he had Sex with his Pro-council Horse: Reggie.
I know that in Jack - sucking on a Fag in his mouth - London's mind, this is much ado about nothing. Just like him.
Arnie doesn't care because he's too stupid to care. To him, it's all just a game. And since he can get Married now and join the Navy and be surrounded by Seamen day and night, all of his AAA Battery Brain Power, is busy on other things.
RCV makes up so much sh*t ("Obama went to Catholic School in Indonesia, and he Taught at the University of Chicago." Both of which are Bullsh*t) it makes much more sense to just skip over his scribblings and move on to Who Knows.
At least HE tells the truth.
Warrior| 7.12.13 @ 8:43AM
You misspelled semen.
TLP| 7.12.13 @ 9:10AM
(I was being clever, yes?)
Albertus Magnus| 7.12.13 @ 2:29PM
You also misspelled "pro-consul." (I know, nit-pick, nit-pick.)
Warrior| 7.13.13 @ 8:52AM
Timmy, this one is for you. Enjoy.
RCV| 7.12.13 @ 12:03PM
What is Bullsh*t about the FACT that Obama "taught at the University of Chicago"?
Albertus Magnus| 7.12.13 @ 1:17PM
"Taught" implies Obama was a member of the faculty with regular classes. All Obama did was be a "guest lecturer." I have run in to people who actually believe Obama was a faculty member at the University of Chicago Law School.
I guess the worst part of this is Obama's utter lack of ability to teach a damn thing.
RCV| 7.12.13 @ 1:25PM
He wasn't a "guest lecturer"; he was a "lecturer", which is a full-time [N.S.: False!] teaching position.
I know he has a terrible resume compared to yours and to TLP's: BA Columbia; JD Harvard Law School; Summer Associate, Sidley & Austin, LLP; Lecturer, Constitutional Law, University of Chicago Law School; Illinois State Senator; United States Senator; President of the United States; Nobel Laureate; Best-selling author.
Albertus Magnus| 7.12.13 @ 2:33PM
And completely unable to understand the US Constitution, as evidenced by the last 4 years.
BTW, can we say "affirmative action?"
As for Nobel Laureate, you must be joking. That is a fraud committed by the Nobel Committee and you know it. As for best selling author, that would be more impressive if he actually wrote his own books. Not to mention that anything he actually DID write reads like the work of an eighth grader with a learning disability. He speaks as such too. Face it, despite his inflated credentials, Barack Obama is a dim bulb.
Joellen| 7.12.13 @ 6:51PM
Add to that Albert, his ONLY TWO votes while he inpersonated a Senator was to vote for infantide twice and NOBODY has seen his college stats EVER.
But other than that, gee what a great achiever he is NOT.
Oldefarte| 7.12.13 @ 2:34PM
You forgot his being a bastardized replica of his druken, sex crazed male inseminator of his prostitudinal female receptical; a suspicious attendant of numerous private educational instutions from childhood to law school without tow friggin nickles inside his jockey-shorts to pay for same; a domestic terrorist glad-hander to real therrorists destroying this country's infrastructure and to urbanistic financial crooks that would make Al Capone blush; a gutless congressional non-representative incapable of taking a political position on any issue by voting for same; and a presidential trojun-horsed usurper of political power through community terroristic activities. Other than that, you're entirely correct!!!!!!!!
TLP| 7.12.13 @ 5:16PM
Ouch!
Albertus Magnus| 7.12.13 @ 2:36PM
As I understand it, Obama did NOT have a full time position. But I'll have to check up on that one to be sure.
And please, don't sell me on his political credentials. He is indeed a politician, but that is not something to be proud of. Most politicians (including this one) are self-obsessed crooks. A wise man once said, "The only way to look at a politican is DOWN."
Cpm| 7.12.13 @ 4:10PM
What we know about the quality of the last 5 in that list casts grave doubts about the remainder of his CV.
TLP| 7.12.13 @ 5:13PM
None of those are JOBS, Dumb@ss.
TLP| 7.12.13 @ 5:15PM
And, he was a GUEST LECTURER.
PERIOD.
TLP| 7.12.13 @ 5:15PM
Pain in the @ss.
RCV| 7.12.13 @ 5:55PM
Sorry, TLP, but maybe because of you're own background you don't understand the difference: A "Guest Lecturer" is someone whom the regular teacher invites to teach one session of the class. A "Lecturer" is a non-professor who has the responsibility for teaching the class the whole term.
C'mon Man!| 7.12.13 @ 11:27PM
Evidence shows he rarely even lectured - he was not a term long teacher.
No comments:
Post a Comment