- As a man, I have no dog in this fight: the brutal truth is that the number of "trans people" wanting access to men's washrooms and change rooms is going to be infinitesimally small.
- Women do have a dog in this fight: every voyeur and sexual assault perpetrator on the continent is busily figuring out how to exploit this to their victims' disadvantage.
- It's up to women to watch out for their own interests. I hope this doesn't turn out badly for women but it's up to them to do something about it not me.
2) The American election is now narrowed down to three nasty little shits: Clinton, Sanders and Trump. We can only hope that whichever of them is elected fails so miserably and so quickly that no one misses the object lesson that comes from electing such people to high office.
3) Jack Donovan is one of those guys who has a tendency to go too far on a pretty regular basis. That said, the following is pure gold:
Strength, Courage, Mastery, and Honor are the alpha virtues of men all over the world. They are the fundamental virtues of men because without them, no “higher” virtues can be entertained. You need to be alive to philosophize. You can add to these virtues and you can create rules and moral codes to govern them, but if you remove them from the equation altogether you aren’t just leaving behind the virtues that are specific to men, you are abandoning the virtues that make civilization possible.—The Way of Men
Achilles was, quite frankly, an asshole. Hector is the real hero of the Iliad. That said, the character of Achilles was admired for what he could do: he was a fast-running, killing machine. That such an ideal of human excellence in action, however flawed, would be reduced to a person (usually a woman) whose distinction was their ability to resist action (usually sexual action) is degrades humanity.
4) It's interesting to compare Donovan's alpha virtues with the cardinal virtues: Prudence, Justice, Temperance and Fortitude. That's the order that Thomas Aquinas lists them in. Something of a rationalist, Thomas favours Prudence because it [rough quote] "exists in the very act of reason". I'm not sure about that as I don't see reason as any kind of act at all. Rationality can be a quality of an act but to reason is to do nothing at all unless an action follows. Because he was concerned with political order (an understandable thing for him to want as it was in very short order in the middle ages) Thomas next lists Justice as reason that puts its order into something else. Given the emphasis on rational now established, it isn't surprising that the remaining virtues are, in Thomas's view, about curbing passions. Temperance is about curbing those appetites that arise naturally from within us (concupiscible passions) and those passions that we stir up in response to obstacles to our appetites (irascible passions).
5) Many years ago I did a quiz on which moral philosopher most closely approximated my views. It turned out to be Aquinas but number two on the list was Nietzsche. In this case, the Nietzsche side of me wins out. A virtue that is only about controlling passions is no virtue at all. I don't mean to say that controlling our passions is a bad thing, quite the opposite, but it isn't a virtue. A virtue is an excellence; it is the ability to do something well. Controlling passions may be a quality of a virtue but virtues produce excellent action or they are nothing at all.
6) If we were to simply match up the lists of virtues, we'd get the following:
Strength and Fortitude
Courage and Temperance
Mastery and Prudence
Honor and Justice
Strength and Fortitude:
At first glance, I think most people would be inclined to give this match to Thomas. There is a fatal problem with his definition, however, and that is that his "fortitude" is only the ability to control something and not the ability to actually do something with excellence.
We might try and save Thomas by rethinking fortitude but I think it's better to save Donovan as his virtue is actually a virtue to begin with. It may seem too narrow but we can think of strength in broader terms. To repeat, strength really is a virtue. I mean physical strength. It's too narrow a virtue to rate mention in the top four but it is easily broadened by extending it to include strength of character.
Okay, but should it be first on the list? Here, I think Donovan's point really strikes home: without strength, no "higher" virtue can be obtained. So, yes, top of the list. (That we also call this sort of strength "moral strength" is a further hint to its rightful place.)
Courage and temperance:
Again, Thomas has made controlling a passion into a virtue and it isn't. (While it's often a good idea to be patient, patience is not a virtue as it requires inaction. Patience only makes sense in service of another goal; patience is not and cannot be its own reward.)
Courage, on the other hand, is unquestionably a virtue and a good one.
Now, the objection should be raised that strength or courage by themselves are useless. I could be incredibly strong and courageous but if I don't have the good sense to distinguish between good causes and bad ones I'm just as likely to side with evil people as good. And that is absolutely true but it is equally true that Prudence is useless without Strength and Courage and neither Thomas's Fortitude nor his Temperance is an adequate replacement for these.
Mastery and Prudence:
This is the crux of the matter and here the judgment goes solidly in Donovan's favour. Thomas is simply too rationalistic. To be fair, some might argue the "historical Thomas" might well have been able to stand up to Donovan here. And it could be further objected that I am no Aquinas scholar and correctly so for I am not. To which I would reply, if a less rationalistic understanding of Prudence can be teased out of Thomas, it would, in any case, have to be much more like Mastery.
Honour and Justice:
Thomas finally gets his win. Honour is part of Justice but it's a long way away from being a sufficient understanding of Justice.
7) The final word on Honour and Justice goes to the Wolf:
The main characteristic of an alpha male wolf is a quiet confidence, quiet self-assurance. You know what you need to do; you know what’s best for your pack. You lead by example. You’re very comfortable with that. You have a calming effect.—Richard McIntyre
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