This Ain't No Party; This Ain't No Disco. . .!

The previous post, as you may recall, included the following link to a thread on Yahoo! Questions. The thread, as of this writing, is still open - and has been updated with some truly choice words by various commenters on the MRA side:

http://tinyurl.com/3b6mre

The quote which follows is taken from that thread. It was posted by a certain "Paul P.", whom I immediately recognized as none other than Paul Parmenter - a first-rate MRA wordsmith whom I've had the honor to feature in "guest posts" a time or two:

"I don't normally waste my time trying to explain what the Men's Movement (MM) is all about to people who have already clearly closed their minds to rational debate. Banging your head against a brick wall is not a sensible course of action. But I will break my rule here in the vague hope that there might just be some people reading this who are serious about understanding what is really going on.

"Fidelbogen is right on the money. People who refer to themselves as MRAs cover every facet of society, and can be anyone anywhere. The term MRA is just a label that you can stick on or take off, yourself or others, as you wish. You can devote whatever time and energy you want to trying to find out who and where they are; but here is a tip - don't bother. You won't succeed and there is nothing you can do about them even if you did. I have been tracking the MM for years and can tell you that MRAs are just a part of it; like clusters of passengers on a train that is slowly gathering speed. They can hop off or on at will, but the train just keeps on moving forward with or without them. MRAs can give impetus to the movement, and often do; but they are not the whole of the MM or anything like it. I don't know how many people are out there who would call themselves MRAs; except from the evidence I see and the growing internet traffic, I am certain there are more and more every year. But you would be far better engaged on looking at the bigger picture, asking why the MM exists in the first place, and why it is growing.

"Men's grievances are real and legitimate. When their life expectancy continues to drag years behind that of women, but our health services refuse to take any action to close the gap - on the contrary, pouring more resources into making it wider; when a man can be robbed of his house, money and children in a divorce court without having committed any crime, and be forced to pay the woman whose lies ruined his life; when the educational performance of boys lags grotesquely behind that of girls, while far too many inside and outside of the teaching profession think that is a cause for celebration, or at least nothing to get fussed about; when a man can have his life wrecked by the false accusation of a woman, and she walks free to do it again and again; and when a man who commits a serious crime is assumed to be hopelessly evil and punished accordingly, while a woman who commits the exact same crime is treated as a victim and offered sympathy, help and support; and all against a background of women continuing to get away with portraying themselves as perpetual victims while casting men in the endless role of perpetrators; all the while such injustices are happening every day in front of our very eyes, it is inevitable that there will be a growing tide of resentment among men. How could any sensible person expect otherwise?

"MRAs basically represent the most angry and active fringe of that tide; the agitated passengers on that train, the tip of the tsunami that breaks into a wild spray and gets scattered to the wind - but then rejoins the fray. So focusing on that tip will mislead you - it does not tell you what is really going on underneath, in the heavy swell that is forced forward by the shock wave but which is so difficult to see until it hits the shore.

"But you have clues if you care to recognise them. Look at the dramatic drop in the numbers of men who want to marry women. The great majority would never call themselves MRAs; most of them have probably never heard of the term. But they know that marriage is a risk they are not prepared to take, so they are voting with their feet. Look at the numbers of women desperate to get dates and husbands while their biological clocks tick away, and who are disappointed. Look at the response when another tedious feminist pops up on the pages of national newspapers or magazines and delivers a predictable attack on the male sex, blaming us for every ill in the universe - ten years ago she would have received a postbag full of support; but today she gets her head blown off by the barrage of complaints. Even growing numbers of women are getting sick of the constant male-bashing; and it is no longer heresy to support men and recognise that they have a right to enjoy the fruits of their labours without being made to carry a burden of guilt for wrongs real or imagined.

"For those of you who think the MM is just a small bunch of stupid losers drifting around the fringes, just consider this. What do you think happens to all those men who lose their children in divorce courts? Or to the boys who fall out of the bottom of our education system and who leave school with no qualifications, no hope and no prospect of a job? Or to those men who are put through the mincer on the false word of a vindictive woman? Their numbers are growing too, day by day. Our government, courts, social services and the rest of the anti-male industry are the most effective recruiting sergeants for the MM. That's why it is growing. It is slow, but inevitable. It can only get bigger, and it is doing just that. There are now international links around the world. The UK, Scandinavia, America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, even Israel and India now have a growing MM. Every country where men are disrespected and kicked. Do you think they are all just going to disappear down a convenient hole and never be seen again?

"Women would do well to recognise the very real threat to them created by the collapse in respect for men and the growth of an increasingly angry and active MM. It is almost certainly not the rogue MRAs that are the danger; they are just the flag-bearers and drum-beaters. But the real army is the mass of ordinary men who are getting increasingly tired of being treated like dirt by women and the state, and who will increasingly refuse to marry you, refuse to let you share their wealth and their homes, refuse to let you trap them into fatherhood, and refuse to treat you like princesses.

"Are you concerned at the increasing numbers of disaffected, sullen young men joining street gangs and watching you from under their hoods when you walk down the street? Are you fearful about the epidemic of violence, drugs and anti-social behaviour in every city in the land? Do you feel safer with each day that passes, or less safe? How do you think you will fare when you get old and weak, and there are massive numbers of such people just a few yards from your front door? Can you see any connection at all between such things and the way our society chooses to treat its young men? Do you think of such people as the nation's most precious resource - or just as a massive problem that you hope somebody will fix for you before it gets too far out of hand? Your attitude might give you a clue as to why these gangs exist. MRAs are not creating them, but you might be."

I have stated that the other side "does not understand what is going on." Paul has gone one better by furnishing a strong hint of an explanation.

I've nothing to add other than to parrot my own words: "Poison in/poison out", and "male-bashing is not a wise idea."