A post for White Ribbon Day

Here's a recent post from the astrological twin with whom I'm even more chuffed to share a birthday than I am with Cate Blanchett. The post is a few weeks old and does not refer directly to WRD, but it is so apposite that it might as well, and its suggestion that male violence is covertly enabled by the current prevailing values -- over and above patriarchy itself -- is one that needs some serious thought:

' ... the country has been inundated with bully culture, the culture of greed, for at least a dozen years. For many young professionals, that’s all they know in their working lives — the attitude of winner takes all, bigger smashes smaller and do it if you can get away with it. It might take a while to allow another more humane culture of getting along and nurturing each other and benefiting from each other’s skills and knowledge to rise from the ashes. At present ashes are pretty much all there is. Social animals know better than this — they seem to instinctively know that there are limits to what the bosses and the alpha males can get away with, and that cooperation within the group is how the group survives. Checks and balances — something that’s been missing for a while.

I sense this culture every day, on the streets and in the media. Every time a cop car ... runs a red light or speeds down a one way street the wrong way (just because they can, no other reason) and every time an SUV with darkened windows muscles other cars, bikers, old ladies and kids out of way — sometimes narrowly missing pedestrians as they run a red light — well, it’s all been sanctioned by [the politicians] who allied themselves with these bastards. They reflect and encourage one another. Push in line, build your building right in front of someone else’s, destroy a neighbourhood, be a winner, a survivor. To me, those reality shows “teach” bully culture — that’s the lesson that is imparted [as they] promote backstabbing, lying, duplicitous behavior and entitlement — all in a world where no one works.'

If you're surprised by the identity of the writer, it's probably because you know him as a musician. Found via Alex Ross at The Rest is Noise.