Rush Limbaugh has become fond of putting the fear of emasculation into the minds of his unfortunate listeners, claiming that the Obama administration’s desire for diplomacy and multilateralism will cut the nuts off America and make it more like, who knows, France perhaps, which in his mind seems to equal weakness and an unpardonable effeminacy. I find it not a little amusing that a man caught bringing an illegal Viagra prescription home from the Dominican Republic has such a telling fixation with the figurative might of America’s genitals.
Beyond this predictable Freudian revelation, though, I find it less than amusing. Here then is my plea to President Obama and to the military-industrial-congressional complex:
Please emasculate my country. If having a pair is defined in this day and age as the grunting and chest-beating that too often precedes human tragedy, or fails to prevent it, then off with them and be done already. If strength is defined as our ability to cow, browbeat, and coerce our fellow nations into acting in our best interest, while stunting the growth of the world as a whole, then let us lead the way into a new century marked by the celebration of national eunuchs.
If the end result of being the most testosterone-proud nation is to bring upon ourselves the hatred, envy, fear and malice of the other 95 per cent of the world’s people, then perhaps we could do without that pride. If being the alpha male in this pack of humanity brings with it the constant threat of violent challenges to our position, perhaps the world should function less as a pack of animals and more as a cooperative of human beings.
Far in the murky past of our ancestry, having the biggest balls on the block was an asset to the survival of an individual and his group. If we have evolved no further than these progenitors of man, who took what they wanted by clubbing it over the head and dragging it home, who eliminated what threatened them in the same manner, then I see little hope for the survival of the race, let alone its tenuous civilization, in the crowded technologies of today.
If, however, those brave men and women who have changed their lot and the lots of their fellow creatures through science, intelligence, reason, compassion and humility, are more than a genetic aberration and their example can be followed by the mass of mankind, then we ought to get a move on and give it a try, because we have an awful lot of practice to do before we can make a decent showing of ourselves.
Many times our country has hovered on the brink of devastating war because those who opposed us could not disengage without losing face among their people. How many lives would be saved if we put more value on peace and life than we do on our pride and regional chauvinism? Would it be a victory for our enemies or for all of us for us to humble ourselves, step back, and say: We are strong, and you are strong. We will not use our strength to maim and destroy what the world requires to heal itself...?
It can be argued that if the United States were to thus engage in self castration, to give up its long habit of posing in its armor for the world to fear, our enemies would take advantage of this weakness to do us harm. I argue that our enemies have already done us harm in spite of our show of power, perhaps because of it. And ceasing to brandish a club in the face of others, seeking instead to understand them and the problems that affect us all, does not mean that we cannot defend ourselves. It only means that we need not seek to diminish others with our heavy hand—which in truth diminishes our self as a nation and each as individuals.
Some cultivate a garden by first making it barren, ripping everything out in the hope that they can cover the ground with whatever we wish. Others cultivate a garden by making the good things strong and healthy, choosing carefully what must be removed, allowing always the intricacies and subtle interplays of nature to surprise us as she takes her course. Man is, perhaps uniquely on this planet, capable both of creation and destruction. If the manly way is the way of destruction for the preservation of pride and possessions and power, then I say cut it off, cast it away, curse it for its foolishness, and begin the long hard slow travail of creation.