I've heard that before, many times. Men start all the wars. Do they? Men start all the wars and women are totally innocent? Goldie Meir didn't start wars? Margaret Thatcher didn't start wars? Hilary Clinton wouldn't start wars? The hideous lesbians Janet Reno and Janet Napolitano wouldn't slaughter people? Reno was the monster behind Waco.
Something that sticks in my mind is that during the War Between the States, the men who weren't particularly enthusiastic about it were hissed at by the women. And during WWII, in England, men who decided the conflict wasn't necessary worth it got white feathers (supposedly a symbol of cowardice) handed to them by women.
So women aren't war-like and don't start wars?
I pay a lot of attention to mythology, which is the accumulated wisdom of the human race. And in mythology women are far worse than men.
Think Pandora, who opened a box and loosed every evil in the world. The only thing left in the box was Hope.
Think Eve, who got her and Adam kicked out of the Garden of Eden. And how did that happen? Because the moron Adam listened to her! And who did Eve listen to? The serpent, who is a symbol of hate and envy.
One of the lessons of that story is that no man should listen to a woman when she is motivated by hate/envy. And is not hissing at man motivated by hate? And handing them white feathers?
Mythologically women are also nurturers and/or destroyers. If they don't nurture then they destroy.
Certain great writers understood the problem. One is Rudyard Kipling, who is a must-read for boys and men (Edgar Rice Burroughs is another).
I'm going to post one of Kipling's poems in its entirety.
THE FEMALE OF THE SPECIES
WHEN the Himalayan peasant meets the he-bear in his pride,
He shouts to scare the monster, who will often turn aside.
But the she-bear thus accosted rends the peasant tooth and nail.
For the female of the species is more deadly than the male.
When Nag the basking cobra hears the careless foot of man,
He will sometimes wriggle sideways and avoid it if he can.
But his mate makes no such motion where she camps beside the trail.
For the female of the species is more deadly than the male.
When the early Jesuit fathers preached to Hurons and Choctaws,
They prayed to be delivered from the vengeance of the squaws.
'Twas the women, not the warriors, turned those stark enthusiasts pale.
For the female of the species is more deadly than the male.
Man's timid heart is bursting with the things he must not say,
For the Woman that God gave him isn't his to give away;
But when hunter meets with husbands, each confirms the other's tale—
The female of the species is more deadly than the male.
Man, a bear in most relations — worm and savage otherwise,—
Man propounds negotiations, Man accepts the compromise.
Very rarely will he squarely push the logic of a fact
To its ultimate conclusion in unmitigated act.
Fear, or foolishness, impels him, ere he lay the wicked low,
To concede some form of trial even to his fiercest foe.
Mirth obscene diverts his anger — Doubt and Pity oft perplex
Him in dealing with an issue — to the scandal of The Sex!
But the Woman that God gave him, every fibre of her frame
Proves her launched for one sole issue, armed and engined for the same;
And to serve that single issue, lest the generations fail,
The female of the species must be deadlier than the male.
She who faces Death by torture for each life beneath her breast
May not deal in doubt or pity — must not swerve for fact or jest.
These be purely male diversions — not in these her honor dwells —
She the Other Law we live by, is that Law and nothing else.
She can bring no more to living than the powers that make her great
As the Mother of the Infant and the Mistress of the Mate.
And when Babe and Man are lacking and she strides unclaimed to claim
Her right as femme (and baron), her equipment is the same.
She is wedded to convictions — in default of grosser ties;
Her contentions are her children, Heaven help him who denies! —
He will meet no suave discussion, but the instant, white-hot, wild,
Wakened female of the species warring as for spouse and child.
Unprovoked and awful charges — even so the she-bear fights,
Speech that drips, corrodes, and poisons — even so the cobra bites,
Scientific vivisection of one nerve till it is raw
And the victim writhes in anguish — like the Jesuit with the squaw!
So it comes that Man, the coward, when he gathers to confer
With his fellow-braves in council, dare not leave a place for her
Where, at war with Life and Conscience, he uplifts his erring hands
To some God of Abstract Justice — which no woman understands.
And Man knows it! Knows, moreover, that the Woman that God gave him
Must command but may not govern — shall enthral but not enslave him.
And She knows, because She warns him, and Her instincts never fail,
That the Female of Her Species is more deadly than the Male.
4 comments:
If Stalin and Truman or Eisenhower were women, the world would be a nuclear wasteland.
Ain't that the truth.
Rudyard Kipling was a really wise man.
Like, St. Paul-level wise, Confucius-level wise.
I put him up there with St. Paul and Confucius, too. About one every 500 years. He should be taught in school.
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