La società effeminata

La società effeminata

Manliness – Harvey C. Mansfield

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Trigger warning: accuratezza degli stereotipi di genere –  cristianità effeminata – o sicurezza o virilita’ –  senso del tragico – mondo borghese – virilità come vaccino alle democrazie – autogoverno come rimedio

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The problem of manliness is not that it does not exist. It does exist, but it is unemployed.

Note:LA VIRILITÁ DISOCCUPATA

consider the evidence for manliness in social psychology and evolutionary biology, which show as best they can that the stereotypes of men and women are basically correct.

Note:CORRETTEZZA DEGLI STEREOTIPI

Unemployed manliness is nothing new in the world, and in particular it has not been caused by feminism…

Note: MA LA COLPA NON È DEL FEMMINISMO

The entire enterprise of modernity, however, could be understood as a project to keep manliness unemployed.

Note:MODERNITÁ

Christianity, a religion that puts the honor of gaining salvation in the next world above worldly honors that engage the ambition of manly men.

Note:IL MONDO EFFEMINATO DALLA CRISTIANITÀ

With Machiavelli the modern idea of “security” was born, the very antithesis of manliness. Although he began by deploring the fact that manliness sat idle, he ended by keeping it there.

Note:MACHIAVELLI E L’IDEA DI SICUREZZA

Manliness henceforth would be occupied with making humans more powerful rather than making them better. Machiavelli called this “prudence;” but I have to say it was not wisdom.

Note:PRAGMATISMO ANTI VIRILE

After Machiavelli the modern notion of rational control took shape.

Note:CONTROLLO RAZIONALE E SICUREZZA

“increasing the bounds of human empire without end.”

Note:IL MOTTO: AMPLIARE IL GIARDINO DELL’UOMO

Our rational control, fearing courage more than fear, will do without manliness and will seek to supplant it and to keep it unemployed by means of measures that encourage or compel behavior intended to be lacking in drama.

Note:ASSENZA DEL TRAGICO

we have replaced the manly man with the bourgeois, a character who has several faces, none of them manly.

Note:IL BORGHESE E L’UOMO D’ONORE

A professional is formed by uniform education and judged by objective criteria, not tested by manly deeds.

Note:FORMAZIONE

“Professional calm’ not manly passion, characterizes him or her,

Note:SELF CONTROL

Professionals treat each other with “professional courtesy” but never with chivalry.

Note:CORTESIA E CAVALLERIA

They are unmanly because they want longer or less troubled life rather than a short, eventful life in the noble manner of Achilles.

Note:   SALUTISTI

Meritocrats are unmanly to the extent that they think their merit should be recognized and promoted through an educational system that does the manly job of self-assertion for them by giving them honors they do not have to claim or fight for.

Note:IL MERITOCRATICO EFFEMINATO

Commerce is unmanly because it is materialistic, willing to settle for gain rather than victory,

COMMERCIO: GUADAGNO VS VITTORIA

Edmund Burke laments over the imprisonment of Marie Antoinette during the French Revolution, that no one was man enough to avenge her: “But the age of chivalry is gone.

Note:  BURKE SU MARIA ANTONIETTA

Burke’s exclamation in praise of chivalry amounts to a defense of aristocracy against the foremost modern revolution on behalf of democracy.

Note:   ARISTOCRAZIA VS DEMOCRAZIA

What in manliness makes it the target of modern progress? We may sum up the characteristics of manliness as they have been developed, for all of them are obstacles to rational control.

Note:VIRILITÀ VS CONTROLLO

It seeks to be theatrical, welcomes drama, and wants your attention.

Note:VIRILITÀ E DRAMMA

Manliness favors war, likes risk, and admires heroes.

Note:GUERRA RISCHIO EROISMO

To be sure, thanks to the failures of rational control, manliness has not disappeared. We have professional sports in which manliness is more apparent than in, say, professional education, but our athletes, so much more concerned for getting money than spilling blood, could never be confused with gladiators or knights.

Note:  SPORT

Commerce is unmanly, yet there is manliness in the spirit of commercial enterprise, so that Tocqueville can say that “Americans put a sort of heroism into their manner of doing commerce.”

Note    :IMPRENDITORIALITÁ VIRILE

We see that the disparate features of manliness discussed in this book and just now summarized have in common the fact that they express – better to use my favorite word, assert-the importance of the individual.’…. Rational control tries to… diminish the importance of the individual….

INDIVIDUO

Rational control believes in individualism rather than individuality, an individualism of individuals effectively alike,

Note:   INDIVIDUALISMO E INDIVIDUALITÁ

The danger in unemployed manliness comes from too little manliness and too much of it.

TROPPO O TROPPO POCA

The great Tocqueville dwells on this possibility; he sees democracy in a long trend toward similarity in its citizens and conformity in their behavior.

CONFORMISMO EFFEMINATO

To oppose this trend he would rely on every democratic institution of self-government that strengthens individual pride.

Note:IL RIMEDIO DELL’ AUTO GOVERNO

Tocqucville holds on to manliness as the remedy for democratic despotism

VIRILITÁ VACCINO ALLE DEMOCRAZIE

Yet if we turn to Nietzsche, we find the danger of too much manliness.

PERICOLO TROPPA VIRILITÀ: NIETZSCHE E IL SUPEROMISMO

The communists spoke of “the struggle for peace;” but they were always much more interested in struggle than in peace. They were war lovers as much as the Nazis and with the same ruthlessness.

Note:GUERRA!!!!!

One thing we cannot do is to go back to a society in which women are kept in the home and men are free to leave it.

SOLUZIONE REAZIONARIA

Tocqueville congratulates American women for willingly accepting the confines of the household, the “yoke” of marriage, in view of natural differences between the two sexes.

TOCQUEVILLE SULLE DONNE

woman’s movement was a manly enterprise, an assertive claim to rights long denied. But it was womanly in its choice of means, particularly in the idea of raising consciousness. It was also womanly in the character of the anger that fueled it.

FEMMINISMO: MASCHIO NEI FINI FEMMINILE NEI MEZZI

Our gender-neutral society needs to readopt the distinction between public and private that is characteristic of liberalism. In public it should be gender-neutral, in private not.

PUBBLICO E PRIVATO

Our gender-neutral society is, thankfully, much stronger formally in public law than it is actually in private. But so often in our private lives the two sexes live in embarrassment and confusion.

IMBARAZZO PRIVATO

in constructing the gender-neutral society it has been following an illiberal impulse by trying to impose the liberal state upon liberal society.

TOTALITARISMO

To protect women’s careers we need a gender-neutralstate, but the gender-neutral society gives no respect to the liberal distinction between state and society

CONTRADDIZIONE

CONCLUSION Manliness by Harvey C. Mansfield

Note: CONCLUSIONA@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@SOLYZIONE: SEPARARE PUBBLICO (NEUTRALITÀ) E PRIVATO (VIRILITÀ). LA SOCIETÀ LIBERALE È FORMALISTA E LO CONSENTE. Edit

thisRead more at location 3313

Add a note

I could tell young women not to disparage motherhood in the hearing of a man they want to attract. If you do, you will make a man think his mother is being disparaged and he will compare you to herRead more at location 3314

Note: RACCOMANDAZIONE ALE DONNE Edit

I could tell young men that women want to be taken seriously almost as much as they want to be loved.Read more at location 3315

Note: RACCOMANDAZIONE AGLI UOMINI Edit

try to listen.Read more at location 3317

Add a note

The problem of manliness is not that it does not exist. It does exist, but it is unemployed.Read more at location 3318

Note: IL PROBLEMA DELLA VIRILITÀ DISOCCUPATA Edit

In that case, consider the evidence for manliness in social psychology and evolutionary biology, which show as best they can that the stereotypes of men and women are basically correct.Read more at location 3320

Note: UNO STEREOTIPO CORRETTO Edit

The actions of the Islamic fascists are proof enough that despite our civilization there remain barbaric cutthroats waiting to assault us. To oppose the horrifying excess of manliness we need not just to imagine the moral equivalent of war but to wage a real war.Read more at location 3322

Note: OCCUPARLA NELLA GUERRA GIUSTA Edit

Unemployed manliness is nothing new in the world, and in particular it has not been caused by feminism.Read more at location 3325

Note: IL FEMMINISMO NN C ENTRA Edit

The entire enterprise of modernity, however, could be understood as a project to keep manliness unemployed. The goal of modern liberalism was the rational state (chapterRead more at location 3326

Note: LIBERALISMO E SOC. ORDINATA Edit

Christianity, a religion that puts the honor of gaining salvation in the next world above worldly honors that engage the ambition of manly men.Read more at location 3330

Note: IL MONDO EFFEMINATO DALLA CRISTIANITÀ Edit

The world was effeminate, and Machiavelli set out to revive it. His method was to do his best to exclude or at least minimize the influence of the next world over this oneRead more at location 3331

Note: MACHIAVELLI Edit

The yearning for good must be closed off with a new loyalty to this worldRead more at location 3335

Note: IMPEGNARSI IN QS MONDO Edit

Machiavelli's animo replaces the classical thumos and simplifies it.Read more at location 3336

Note: ANIMO Edit

All it wants is more acquisition since however much you have is never surely enough. To acquire more, men must play the fox as well as the lion, and more the fox than the lion.Read more at location 3338

Note: LA VOLPE E IL LEONE Edit

Flexible is what a manly man is not, nor does he use fraud.Read more at location 3341

Note: FLESSIBILE E AMBIGUO Edit

With Machiavelli the modern idea of "security" was born, the very antithesis of manliness.Read more at location 3342

Add a note

Manliness henceforth would be occupied with making humans more powerful rather than making them better. Machiavelli called this "prudence;" but I have to say it was not wisdom.Read more at location 3344

Note: PRAGMATISMO ANTI VIRILE Edit

need for perfection as much as for power.Read more at location 3345

Note: PERFEZIONE E POTERE Edit

Such wisdom can be sought in classical philosophy, but it can be found, too, in the BibleRead more at location 3345

Note: BIBBIA E CLASSICI Edit

After Machiavelli the modern notion of rational control took shape. It can be seen developing in the series of philosophers studied in chapter 6,Read more at location 3347

Note: CONTROLLO RAZIONALE Edit

In the early phase of modernity, rational control meant human as opposed to divine control, and the religious question was foremost.Read more at location 3349

Note: UOMO VS DIO Edit

Our rational control, fearing courage more than fear, will do without manliness and will seek to supplant it and to keep it unemployed by means of measures that encourage or compel behavior intended to be lacking in drama. Read more at location 3354

Note: ASSENZA DEL TRAGICO Edit

Thus we have replaced the manly man with the bourgeois, a character who has several faces, none of them manly.Read more at location 3355

Note: BORGHESE VS EROE Edit

Professionals treat each other with "professional courtesy" but never with chivalry.Read more at location 3359

Note: CORTESIA E CAVALLERIA Edit

People obsessed with their health, divided into devotees of physical or mental health, bring rational control into their own lives.Read more at location 3362

Note: GLI OSSESSIONATI DALLA SALUTE Edit

They are unmanly because they want longer or less troubled life rather than a short, eventful life in the noble manner of Achilles.Read more at location 3362

Note: LA VITA BREVE DELL EROE Edit

Rational control is afraid of exposing itself and thereby being compelled to take responsibility for its rule; so it claims only to represent those whom it controls.Read more at location 3364

Note: CAPO E RAPPRESENTANTE Edit

Commerce is unmanly because it is materialistic, willing to settle for gain rather than victory, for trade-offs rather than justice.Read more at location 3367

Note: COMERCIO: GUADAGNO VS VITTORIA Edit

The commercial life rejects sacrifice and rests on calculation of advantage.Read more at location 3368

Note: SOCIETÀ COMMERCIALE = SOCIETÀ DEL CALCOLO Edit

Edmund Burke laments over the imprisonment of Marie Antoinette during the French Revolution, that no one was man enough to avenge her: "But the age of chivalry is gone. That of sophisters, economists and calculators has succeeded; and the glory of Europe is extinguished forever..73Read more at location 3369

Note: BURKE SU MARIA ANTONIETTA Edit

What in manliness makes it the target of modern progress? We may sum up the characteristics of manliness as they have been developed, for all of them are obstacles to rational control.Read more at location 3375

Note: IL PROGRESSO ODIA LA VIRILITÀ Edit

It seeks to be theatrical, welcomes drama, and wants your attention.Read more at location 3377

Add a note

Rational control prefers routine and doesn't like getting excited.Read more at location 3377

Note: VOGLIA DI ROUTINES Edit

Manliness favors war, likes risk, and admires heroes.Read more at location 3379

Note: GUERRA Edit

Our meritocracy is qualified by the policy of "affirmative action" on behalf of those who might not make the grade without help.Read more at location 3386

Note: MERITOCRAZIA CON L AIUTINO Edit

Commerce is unmanly, yet there is manliness in the spirit of commercial enterprise, so that Tocqueville can say that "Americans put a sort of heroism into their manner of doing commerce."Read more at location 3387

Note: IL LATO EROICO DEL COMMERCIO Edit

We see that the disparate features of manliness discussed in this book and just now summarized have in common the fact that they express - better to use my favorite word, assert-the importance of the individual.'Read more at location 3391

Note: VIRILITÀ E INDIVIDUALISMO Edit

Manliness is responsible for our individuality.Read more at location 3394

Add a note

To make an identity takes effort to impress those who may contest it, sometimes in battle, sometimes through persuasion. Manliness is never selfless;Read more at location 3394

Note: IDENTITÀ Edit

Professionalism makes one individual replaceable by another, for example, one doctor by another;Read more at location 3397

Note: PERSONE RIMPIAZZABILI Edit

Lacking individuality is the way rational control likes us to be, so that we can be governed without regard to our foibles and without encountering foolish excuses for resistance.Read more at location 3399

Add a note

Nowadays it often speaks the language of diversity, but it believes in egalitarian justice that leaves manliness, the cause of diversity, unemployed.Read more at location 3401

Note: LA RETORICA SULLA DIVERSITÀ Edit

I have in mind the modern project that begins with Machiavelli and Bacon, long before feminism got started, we may say, with Mary Wollstonecraft in the late eighteenth century. Read more at location 3402

Note: I NUMI Edit

Too little manliness would follow from the success of the modern project of rational control, for the very meaning of rational control is to do away with erratic, obstreperous manliness.Read more at location 3404

Note: PRIMO XICOLO DELLA VIRILITÀ SOFFOCATA Edit

The great Tocqueville dwells on this possibility; he sees democracy in a long trend toward similarity in its citizens and conformity in their behavior.Read more at location 3405

Note: TOCQ DEMOCRAZIA E OMOLOGAZIONE Edit

To oppose this trend he would rely on every democratic institution of self-government that strengthens individual pride.Read more at location 3408

Note: IL RIMEDIO DELL AUTO GOVERNO Edit

What we lack most is not humility but pride, Read more at location 3408

Note: ORGOGLIO E UMILTÀ Edit

Tocqucville holds on to manliness as the remedy for democratic despotism;Read more at location 3410

Note: VIRILITÀ COME ANTIDOTO ALLA DEMOCRAZIA Edit

Yet if we turn to Nietzsche, we find the danger of too much manliness.Read more at location 3411

Note: ALTRO PERICOLO: TROPPA VIRILITÀ E SUPERUOMINI Edit

The communists spoke of "the struggle for peace;" but they were always much more interested in struggle than in peace.Read more at location 3416

Note: VIRILITÀ DEL RIVOLUZIONARIO Edit

They were war lovers as much as the NazisRead more at location 3417

Add a note

The Islamic radicals of our century overflow with the same spirit;Read more at location 3417

Add a note

How can we employ manliness usefully in our gender-neutral society?Read more at location 3426

Note: VIRILITÀ UTILE Edit

One thing we cannot do is to go back to a society in which women are kept in the home and men are free to leave it.Read more at location 3427

Note: TORNARE INDIETRO? Edit

Release of the will is usually dressed up by feminists (and others) in the word "au- tonomy;"a concept from the liberal philosophy of Kant, a highly respectable source.Read more at location 3458

Note: AUTONOMIA Edit

In practice, autonomy means putting yourself ahead of your husband and your children.Read more at location 3461

Add a note

To be autonomous is the contrary of "contextual' the understanding of women that you get in common sense, social psychology, and Carol Gilligan.Read more at location 3463

Note: L ANTICONTESTO Edit

I have said that the woman's movement was a manly enterprise, an assertive claim to rights long denied. But it was womanly in its choice of means, particularly in the idea of raising consciousness.Read more at location 3471

Note: FEMMINISMO: MASCHIO NEI FINI FEM. NEI MEZZI Edit

Women are misled by feminism into mistaking themselves. They are told they have no weaknesses because they have no essence, no definition; hence they have no limitations. Women can do anything,Read more at location 3477

Note: LA DONNA INGANNATA Edit

Feminism has no understanding of womanhood;Read more at location 3479

Note: FEMMINISMO OTTUSO Edit

as many of them say, "want it all." They want a career and they want to be women too.Read more at location 3482

Note: VOGLIAMO TUTTO Edit

Our gender-neutral society needs to readopt the distinction between public and private that is characteristic of liberalism. In public it should be gender-neutral, in private not.Read more at location 3483

Note: PUBBLICO E PRIVATO Edit

In public it should not permit sex stereotypes to operate; in private it should admit that they are true.Read more at location 3484

Add a note

Somehow I think that the female exceptions will be more numerous than the male, because men are by nature more single-minded, hence more public-spirited, than women, but let's not say that in law.Read more at location 3486

Note: L UOMO EFFEMINATO E LA DONNA MASCOLINA Edit

Our liberalism is a formal theory, one that offers rights that may or may not be exercised.Read more at location 3489

Note: IL FORMALISMO CI SALVERÀ Edit

But in the private sphere, in society, we should think of men and women really, not formally.Read more at location 3491

Note: PRIVATO SOSTANZIALE Edit

Marriage is the social construction of the natural inclinations of the two sexes, and it includes, of course, virtues held in common as well as sex differences.Read more at location 3513

Note: MATRIMONIO Edit

Our gender-neutral society is, thankfully, much stronger formally in public law than it is actually in private. But so often in our private lives the two sexes live in embarrassment and confusion. This is the problem of legitimacy in the gender-neutral societyRead more at location 3515

Note: IMBARAZZO E CONFUSIONE Edit

A better education would make children and grown-ups more aware of themselves, and it would be franker and less manipulative than what we attempt now.Read more at location 3519

Add a note

This is a liberal country, "liberal" in a broad sense that includes the liberals and conservatives of our politics. But in constructing the gender-neutral society it has been following an illiberal impulse by trying to impose the liberal state upon liberal society.Read more at location 3522

Note: POLITICIZZARE IL PRIVATO ERRORE! Edit