Rush Limbaugh’s comments are not just misogynist and ridiculous, they are antipatriotic and counter-productive economically

I just have to comment on Rush Limbaugh’s statements concerning Sandra Fluke. 

There’s already a lot of comment, and I agree with much of it:  that the remarks are ludicrous, stooping to an all new low level, that the conservative right is vying for a social throw-back to the 50’s, that the double standard for men and women when it comes to having sex, and so on and so forth.

So I’d like to add a slightly different comment.

I recently received a powerpoint presentation assembling a number of old sacred texts (Aristotle, Hamurabi, Mohamet, Saint Paul, etc.), focused on passages in which leaders/etiquette commanded to put women down and limit them to a very small role in society.  The slideshow, for me, was a great example of how, for centuries, men have been afraid to let women have their say.  Apparently, they see us as a great potential danger to be squelched before our influence has any chance to take root.

Their fears are fantasy.  The benefits of allowing women to have their say and be active in the public place are increasingly documented and quantified.  Growing numbers of studies show that the whole of society is more advance, better educated, with lower crime, with a better quality of life when… women are not confined to the home and benefit from greater equality.   Other studies show that companies’ performance and profitability increase when there’s a more equal ratio of men and women, particularly within management.  When it comes to quality of life, productivity, and performance, there is much to be gained by enabling women to act and be heard in the public sphere.  Indeed, there’s a greater danger in leaving women out of the public scene for both men and women than there is in allowing them to act / be heard.

And, different from men, women haven’t tried to silence the men but rather work with them.

But, I’m afraid, the likes of Rush Limbaugh and other American ultra-conservatives, are allowing their fears blind them (or are playing on their audiences’ fears to blind them). 

As is often the case, there isn’t smoke without some fire.  Their fear is, perhaps, not so surprising:  most statistics show girls and women on the rise (in education, in purchase power, in business, in public policy) while boys’ and men’s performance are on a decline on the same factors. 

And these conservatives’ short-sighted, mean-spirited reaction is to simply invert the decline (and maybe these few individuals should considering women’s empowerment would indeed disenfranchise such power-mongers – and already is disenfranchising them of their adored power, if we believe the swing of the current polls on American women’s (Republican, Independent, & Democrats) voting intentions!).  Sure, they must think, if we send women home like we did after World War II, there’ll be more jobs for men and the problem will be solved.

But no long-term gains can come of hoping for a population’s decline. 

As far as I am concerned, but what I don’t generally hear voiced, is that we need also to empower our boys and our men. 

Let me clarify:  we must empower both / all (regardless of) genders in a virtuous synergy towards cooperation. 

Part of the reason why so many Republicans get so stuck is that their viewpoint is totally biased towards the competitive interpretation of the survival of the fittest.  This is a very ignorant viewpoint; we know that many species are “fit” to survive thanks to their ability to cooperate and share resources collectively.  We also know (or should admit) that modern economies have thrived thanks to cooperation.  The US, at its strongest, was strong in part thanks to cooperation, notably all of the federal subsidies for the businesses, including the conservative “competitive entrepreneurs”, who receive a greater part of funding.

Unfortunately, the conservatives are such bad faith that they refuse to acknowledge these proven truths.  And, instead, they’re trying to gain headway by retrograding our social gains to something that feels a lot more manageable for them.  But their attempts to blast our social gains “back to the Stone Age” will have dire consequences on our economy considering the studies mentioned above.  It is their attitude, in large part, which will condemn the US to decline.

Frankly, we’ve got to grow up.  Many of the political reflexes (on both sides of the Atlantic) are terribly adolescent in their reactions – pitting populations against each other like in high-school clicks, using gratuitous insults to cover up ignorance instead of looking at reality in face.

For, why make men and women enemies?  Society cannot advance if we only play a zero-sum game.

We should unite, instead, against common enemies.  One of the most obvious is: global warming, requiring major technological innovation and resourceful, renewable solutions.

Innovations and solutions that must include all of our best:  not just men, not just women – everyone.   And we need to educate all of them in ways that will equip them with the minds capable of far-reaching progress.  Of course we can’t have men out of work – no one wants men out of work –but in today’s global economy, it would be equally disastrous to have women out of work.  For that matter, it has also been disastrous to have our men totally estranged from their families (just think about traders’ zealousness… and see my last blog post regarding the stimulating child-rearing enables). 

(As for the religious right pretending there’s no such thing as global warming, let’s allow them a bit of business sense so key to the American patriot they love to tote:  the entire world is swinging towards renewable energies and green technologies.  The billions of consumers expecting this are not the American Religious Right, they are on the other side of the planet (where there are some of the best brains already moving ahead on this market)…. but they are also US’s buyers.   It behooves them, whether they want to admit it or not, to fire-up this budding industry and to educate the men and women who will help make it happen.) 

So, I say, it is urgent to reinvest in our men and women, in our boys and girls, to be able to keep our economies rolling.  If birth control helps in this fight, and it does, let’s have Rush Limbaugh go unemployed and sideline all the other “un-patriotic” obstructionists… and give our society and our species our greatest chance to thrive.

I’d love to hear your comments.  Otherwise, catch you all next week for another bite from the apple!