Alex Birch

It has been said that feminism is ultimately about female empowerment, not gender equality. The subtle difference being that feminists aren't trying to stand on equal ground with men, but taking as much as power as they can to boost their public influence. Regardless, I think there's a much more central point to be made about feminism: it thrives on empowerment, not self-empowerment. Follow me to understand why this is such a big deal.

Traditional societies draw a sharp sociological line between boy and man. You may be as young as 10 or 12, and boom, you're supposed to help support your family with income and moral authority. It's harder than you think. I remember being told about the oldest of sons in my grandfather's family. His father passed away when he was just a teenager, so he had to take care of both a grieving mother and nine other siblings, while managing a farm with animals and lots of forest acre. Would you nail that when you were 14, and succeed?

You have to spend portions of your life in a socialist country to really understand why safety is a problem for men. Safety from individual responsibility. Safety from taking individual initiatives. Safety from the consequences of those initiatives. Having lived all my life in Sweden, the most "progressive" of all Scandinavian countries, I've seen what welfare-ism can do to people's psychology, and to men in particular. Here is why Americans should listen, and worry.

The idea appeals to all liberal leftists: if we can spare people from nasty consequences of their actions, we'll do it. It's another good-sounding meme that on the surface wants to protect, but ends up hurting people. Plato illustrates this in the Republic through a man called Gyges, who discovers a ring making him invisible. Being invisible, Gyges realizes he can commit crimes without ever facing the consequences of his actions. As a consequence, Plato argues, Gyges will be morally corrupt as long as he is not a public figure.

Plato emphasizes the public sphere because everything that is public can be accounted for. The problem today is that even if we recognize the actions of people, we assume someone else is facing the consequences: the government, parents, co-workers, boss, whatever. It's pretty clear that people are willing to take greater risks when someone else faces the consequences of those risks. This is particularly destructive to the morality of men, who often take greater risks and chances than women, and therefore become more corrupt.