Fathers have been marginalized, and their lives are ever more directly administered by the state. They are not simply “absent,” as Rosin writes—they are increasingly likely to be under the control of the judicial and penal systems. Rosin’s article provides a telling example of a particularly state-feminist form of punishment now meted out to men: therapy.Yes, therapy is feminist punishment.None of the 30 or so men sitting in a classroom at a downtown Kansas City school have come for voluntary adult enrichment. Having failed to pay their child support, they were given the choice by a judge to go to jail or attend a weekly class on fathering…. This week’s lesson…involve[d] writing a letter to a hypothetical estranged 14-year-old daughter named Crystal, whose father left her…What is clear from Rosin’s account is that the therapy, like the penal system, has been designed less to punish the alleged crime than to psychologically recondition men. ...
This is not law enforcement. It is government indoctrination. Rosin neglects to mention that none of the men in Kansas City has been convicted of any crime. They have not run afoul of police, prosecutors, and juries through the normal criminal-justice process. Instead, they are subject to welfare officials who exercise quasi-police and quasi-prosecutorial powers.
Thursday, August 05, 2010
Baskerville on the end of men
I promised to comment on an Atlantic magazine article on the end of men. Now Stephen Baskerville has an article:
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3 comments:
I think it's more than just the feminist movement pushing "therapy" in the family law world, though I completely agree with you, there's an increasing reliance on counselling, psych, and social work services in all of the legal system, especially criminal law. It's all about how best to control as many as possible and as efficiently as possible. Look at all the lobbying by various legal and advocacy groups in the upcoming DSM manual to include or exclude "sydromes" and their definitions. This is science? Not by a long shot, folks.
One thing I learned from Judge Morse's court is that she said that she used to do drug court. I don't even know what that is, but I am sure that it means that she is a believer in various classes, treatments, therapies, and support groups for drug users.
not surprised in the least, it's like faith-based healing, and this country has a long history of it, running from patent medicines loaded with narcotics to, well, modern psychology and social work. Easy to turn off the brain and just do what self-proclaimed experts say is the way, all sugar-coated with "science". The problem is that taking the patent medicines was pretty much voluntary on the part of the patient, alas, the re-education mandated by the courts is not. George Orwell, where are you when we need you?
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