I’ve done it again, by accident this time. I’ve dived into the wreck of our time. It’s cast me back to my first discovery of the disaster of embedded sexism (and by association racism), and of Adrienne Rich’s wonderful poem “Diving into the Wreck.” That poem and the collection of poems named after it, which I discovered so many years ago, is still more than relevant and is much needed today, when we are still so often submerged in “myths/in which/our names do not appear.” It always amazes me that these angry white men can go on and on about “entitlements” when what they’re so angry about is the loss of their “birthright” of male, white dominance. Thank goodness some men have grown up and gotten on with it. And thank goodness that women like Adrienne Rich showed that “We are, I am, you are/by cowardice or courage/the one who find our way/back to this scene.” We are the one.
Joyous Crybaby
Searching for Genuine Emotion in an Ersatz World
Author
Lisa Roney
Joyous Crybaby 
Nice post and poetry/music mash-up. That idea of a “birthright” isn’t exclusive to any belief system, either. Sex and gender issues are in their own camp. Even non-theists discriminate. What a shame, huh?
Yes, I loved that video and was so glad when I found it. It did my heart good. Nice to hear from you!
It’s possible to appeal to “my choice”, as many of these fearful people do, and by that appeal, ignore that choice happens in a world of other people, of commitments and desires and love. It’s not all a market, or if it is, it’s not only that. That American style of individualism, the one that supposes that we can rise above it all and exert our will, and the ones with the most money win the battle, that individualism will produce this kind of hate and fear and ressentiment, that those entitled males feel. It’s the individualism of the teenager who thinks that the world has only a black and a white, a right and a wrong, and nothing else. On my good days, I think this is just a teenager nation, almost but not quite ready to grow up and take responsibility. On my bad days, I think it’s an old man, one who knows that his version of the world has been discredited, and the world has passed him by, but too proud to admit anything.
The people who will not hear, they don’t define reality, much as they think they do. The ones who get hot under the collar just from hearing a position that doesn’t fit their echo chamber – that heat is there’s, and no one else’s.