Dialogue 4 – Student Life

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AUDIO

The Seculari are a clandestine group of tenured vampire academics. Among other things they evaluate the performance of other vampire academics and determine whether they should be granted tenure for eternity. Although Anthony’s academic performance has been good, he has little hope of obtaining tenure with the scandal he has been involved in. Several months have passed since the Seculari have passed judgment upon Anthony. Vampire academics that do not make tenure perish in a very real sense as they are put to death. Anthony’s death has been made to look like a suicide so as not to arouse suspicion. A group of his students meet at a bar on campus to discuss the impact that Anthony had on their lives and his intellectual legacy.

 

 

Nancy: I can’t believe he took his own life. Something very Jeffrey Epstein about it all.

Greg: Except he wasn’t a pedophile, in jail or super rich.

Nancy: But you know what I mean. He just doesn’t seem the type that would do something like that.

Sam: Yeah, you never really know what’s going on in someone’s life. Lots of people can look perfectly fine on the outside and yet mask pain that runs really deep.

Nancy: But somehow the facts just don’t add up. I mean he was a great prof, well respected at the university. I blew off so many classes, but I had to attend his class. He was so engaging and provocative.

Greg: Provocative?

Nancy: I mean, I was offended by a lot of what he had to say about women at the time. But I think differently now and it’s because of him. Do you remember his story about Perseus and Andromeda?

Sam: And how we’d all be doomed if we embraced androgyny?

Nancy: Yeah.

Greg: I wasn’t there for that class.

Nancy: He argued that Perseus and Andromeda is an archetypal myth on the roles of men and women. He said that the story revealed far more truth and meaning than all the feminist diatribes combined.

Greg: How do you figure that?

Nancy: The myth of Perseus and Andromeda has been with us for millennia. It’s inspired art and literature throughout the centuries.

Sam: Yes. He said in class that in comparison, feminism has been with us all of five seconds. What got me was how he related the fundamental storyline of the hero, Perseus, rescuing Andromeda, the damsel in distress. When he compared that to Super Mario Bros. I just lost it! You don’t understand it when you’re a kid, you just play the game. I didn’t understand it even as an adult. The idea is that Mario has to go through all his challenges and finally defeat the big boss, Bowser, in order to save Princess Peach. You think you’re just playing a game. But it defines the course of your life because it brings focus to action. You perceive it to be important, but you don’t know why. It enables you to act in the face of uncertainty. Without this fundamental orientation, our lives lack meaning. So much of today’s discourse is about ‘living your truth,’ which he used to say was nonsense.

Nancy: Yes. But feminists complained that the damsel in distress is a trope used to oppress women in patriarchal societies. According to them, women can be independent and don’t need rescuing. They can do it on their own. For centuries men and women have cooperated with each other to face life with all its trials and tribulations together, drawing on each other’s strengths. Feminism swept away history and biology and pitted the sexes against each other.

Sam: Kevin Samuels makes a similar point in the black community where the problems are more pronounced. Black women have advanced themselves in the workplace and been fooled into believing material and career success would make them better marital prospects, but the men they tend to attract are generally weak and effeminate. Beta males, as Samuels puts it. Although a relationship with such a person might look good on Instagram, it is rotten to the core. A woman will find it hard to love a man she does not respect. She won’t trust him, because she knows if she can control him, others can too. Perseus by contrast is The Man. He has the masculine essence and has acquired skills along his journey. Those experiences have made him valuable. Women want him and men want to be him. He asks her parents to marry her and doesn’t ask Andromeda if she wants to be rescued. That can be assumed. He’s not on Tinder and he doesn’t have to slide into a hot girl’s DMs.

Greg: And what about Andromeda? Isn’t she just reduced to a sex object — a trophy?

Sam: I used to think that. I used to think that it was so unfair, that men got to have the adventures and their fun and women had to just sit there waiting around to be picked. Invariably they end up choosing assholes. But then, relationships are reflective. We tend to get what we are. When you think about it, Andromeda is the focus of the story. She’s Perseus’ mirror. Without her, there is no story. She is the reason that Perseus is prepared to risk life and limb. Andromeda is no ordinary girl. She is the paragon of femininity. As a virgin she offers Perseus the prospect of leaving a legacy and an opportunity to go where no man has gone before.

Greg: Ha!

Sam: An important element of the story is the fact that the reason Andromeda is in chains is due to the fact that her mother bragged about her beauty and offended the gods.

Greg: Why is that important?

Sam: Women are often oppressed and sometimes the cultural traditions favour some more than others. But that’s true for both men, women and different racial groups, etc. But in most societies, Western societies in particular, it is women that oppress other women. Have you ever watched an episode of The Real Housewives?

Greg: Which one? There are so many!

Sam: Exactly! The show is that popular. The Real Housewives shows are in high demand and they primarily cater to a female audience. Every single Housewife show is about women engaged in conspicuous consumption and character assassination. Women as a TV demographic love watching The Real Housewives for the same reason that I love MMA. We love to fight.

Nancy: I’m not sure I follow you. How is mixed martial arts the same as The Real Housewives?

Sam: They’re not. It’s just that men fight with their hands and women fight with their mouths.

Nancy: Excuse me?

Sam: OK maybe that’s not the best way of putting it. But you have to admit that women fight differently to men. The Real Housewives is a masterclass on how women backbite, gossip and gang up on each other in order to damage another girl’s reputation or socially exclude her from the group.

Greg: Yeah, I don’t get where you’re going with this; there is a referee in MMA.

Sam: Yes! Not only is there a referee in the ring determining whether everyone fights fair. You don’t get to bring a weapon or put lead in your gloves in a boxing match. There is also a weigh-in before the bout. You never see a title fight between a heavyweight and a featherweight. Weight classes exist for a reason.

Greg: OK.

Sam: Well when you have controlled for all the factors that would otherwise make the fight unfair you are able to let the best man win. That’s equality. As a collective, women say they want equality, but as individuals what women want is she-quality! The rules have to be set up so she can win every single time, but everyone should act like the fight was fair!

Greg: That’s crazy!

Sam: Not crazy. Female logic. Modern women hate being made accountable for their bad behavior.

Greg: You’re going to have to give an example for that.

Sam: Where to start? Look at all the campaigns we have on sexual assault. You would think that women are getting raped as soon as they step onto campus. We blindly adopt the mantra ‘Believe women’ as if there was no need for the rule of law or the idea of being innocent until proven guilty. On the way in here I saw a marketing campaign on consent being as easy as FRIES.

Nancy: FRIES?

Sam: Consent is Freely Given, Reversible, Informed, Enthusiastic, and Specific. FRIES. Here, I’ll bring it up on my phone. Consent is an active, direct, voluntary, unimpaired and conscious choice and agreement to engage or continue in sexual activity. Consent to one act does not mean consent to another. It goes on to say that consent is never assumed or implied, is not silence or the absence of ‘no,’ etc., etc.

Nancy: Yeah that’s a bit much.

Sam: A bit much. It’s practically impossible to ask a girl out anymore without her thinking you’re a serial rapist! We’re set up to fail. What a woman feels seems to be the only truth that matters. If she feels like you’re ‘the one,’ then the FRIES can go out the window. If she doesn’t, you’d better have your legal team assembled because she’s coming for your shit. That’s why the Red Pill, MGTOW movement has gained so much traction. Men are sick of getting screwed over.

Nancy: But you have to admit men are more likely to harm women physically in domestic disputes.

Sam: Maybe. But then women initiate most of the fights. They do this with verbal taunts, insults, etc. It’s their way of fighting.

Nancy: Come on.

Sam: You know it’s true. Women have been made so safe in our society, they think they can say whatever they want without consequence. And you know what, until the system crashes down they’re right. Men don’t have that luxury. I can’t say whatever I want to Greg without things escalating into physical confrontation eventually. The threat of violence keeps things civilized.

Nancy: That’s not true. I feel vulnerable all the time, especially at night.

Sam: But the difference is that you always have the option of playing the little woman and you know there will be another man to come to your rescue. Look at Ukraine. They conscripted every able-bodied man aged 18-60 to stay and fight the Russian invasion. Suddenly every woman is a traditional housewife that loves kids. There’s not a ‘me too’ hashtag in sight!

Nancy: Well, gender stereotypes do exist for a reason.

Sam: Of course you would say that. What about equality? That’s why I say that women only want equality when it suits them. That’s why you would be an idiot to get married as a man these days. Marriage holds nothing for a man other than granting his wife the legal right to half his stuff and all the kids they had together. A man’s physical strength can be abused, that’s for sure. But a man’s ability to coerce by force is limited in a myriad of ways by our institutions and other men. What is not so clear is how female power, which lies in their physical beauty and their ability to manipulate men emotionally, can be constrained. Modern women want all the benefits of the tradition, but none of the obligations that go with it. Men by contrast are expected to be responsible for everything but with zero authority to make decisions relating to their own families. Women are OK with being traditional if it feels right to them. But feelings are beside the point.

Nancy: What was that MGTOW you were going on about before?

Greg: It stands for Men Going Their Own Way. It’s a group of loser guys that opted out of relationships with women. They call it the red pill, a reference to The Matrix where Morpheus gives Neo the option to see reality for what it is or take the blue pill and remain plugged into a system that will rob him of his free will. I think it’s just sad.

Sam: Not sad. It’s a rational response to the current reality. Women’s expectations in relationships are unrealistic because they think they can ‘let it go’ like Elsa in the movie Frozen. They can be strong and inde-pendent and find true love like Anna. But life is not a fucking Disney movie. Men, being the idiots that we are, go along with this crap until the whole thing crashes down. Women rarely call each other out on their bad behavior. We’re socially conditioned like Pavlov’s dogs to BELIEVE WOMEN when women are the biggest liars ever.

Greg: That’s not true.

Sam: Stop trying to get in Nancy’s pants, Greg. She’s not going to get with you if you just keep agreeing with her and even if she does, the sex will suck and she’ll dump you eventually.

Greg: You’re an asshole.

Sam: Keep your pants on, G-Man. I’m just kidding. Anyway, what was I saying? Ah yes. Look at the stats. 1 in 10 dads are not the biological father of their child. Men get suckered into taking care of kids that are not their own all the time. This problem could easily be solved by making paternity tests mandatory at birth. But would this ever happen? Hell would have to freeze over before that ever happened. Why? This would make women actually responsible for their reproductive choices. They would have to wake up from their Disney delusions.

Nancy: There are other reasons too. Many bio fathers wouldn’t make good dads. I’m mean, the girl chose the guy she’s with to be her child’s father for a reason. He should be happy with that. Besides, where’s the love and trust in the relationship?

Sam: Are you listening to yourself? You would be OK with having a random chump take care of a kid that wasn’t his own just because the girl felt he was the father?

Nancy: No, she’s just doing the best for herself and her kid. So what if he’s not the father; everyone, including the kid, will treat him as such. What else is she going to do?

Sam: How about telling the truth! How about taking responsibility for her actions and not screwing another man’s life over? This is the problem — few women, save some brave souls like Janice Fiamingo, speak out on these issues.

Nancy: Women get screwed over all the time.

Greg: I have to admit that’s kind of messed up.

Sam: These are problems only women — sane women, not feminists — can solve. It’s like the problem of transgenderism. The rainbow flag wasn’t good enough so they kept on adding colours and letters until we can’t define what a woman is anymore.

Nancy: Yeah, I draw the line at the bathroom.

Sam: A line has to be drawn somewhere, otherwise we’re living in a world without boundaries and this is just chaos. Perhaps that’s the point. Maybe we want to live in a world of birthing people and chest feeders so that the MAPs can have free reign.

Greg: What are MAPs?

Sam: Minor-attracted persons, otherwise known as pedophiles. You probably wondered what the plus sign meant in LGBTQ2+

Greg: I think Dave Chappelle calls them the alphabet people.

Sam: I never understood what was wrong with just saying gay and straight.

Nancy: It’s not inclusive.

Sam: It’s nonsensical, is what it is.

Nancy: Are you serious about the MAPs thing?

Sam: The fact that you have to ask that just shows how wrong things have become. We never say anything or anyone is wrong anymore. No one stands their ground because they have no idea where the line is drawn.

Greg: Anyway, did you ever know what happened to Jessica Khan?

Nancy: I saw her speak at a Women in STEM conference recently. She was talking about the challenges of obtaining tenure with trying to start a family. She said that she’s freezing her eggs until she meets the right person.

Sam: Wasn’t she with Prof. M?

Nancy: That’s the rumour. I heard he broke it off with her before she graduated.

Greg: I checked out her Insta recently, she has a lot of cats.

Sam: There’s a study that women without kids get cats because their meows sound like babies.

Nancy: You’re full of it!

Sam: Egg freezing is just another way of women extending their Disney princess syndrome into their mid-forties.

Nancy: What do you mean?

Sam: Take Jessica as an example. She could have married someone in her 20s and had kids. But no, she chose to ignore her biological clock and now she’s expecting her employer to pay for fertility treatments. Why should my tuition money be spent on saving Jessica Khan from the consequences of her poor life choices?

Greg: It’s not as simple as that.

Sam: Stop simping, Greg. It’s not rocket science. Jessica wanted it all on her own terms. She mistakenly thought she could pursue her career and there would be a man that would sweep her off her feet and they would have 2.5 kids and live happily ever after. Now she’s bitter because the man she wants to be with doesn’t want her.

Nancy: Why not? I think she’s amazing.

Sam: Of course you would say that, and I dare say if you were a lesbian she’d be your cup of tea. But most men don’t care for women with PhDs. It doesn’t make you hotter to us.

Nancy: That’s because you’re shallow and aren’t able to handle a strong and independent woman.

Sam: No, I value my peace and sanity. Men naturally want to provide for and protect women and children. You see this in any crisis. It’s always women and children first. Look at the death stats of the Titanic. It was men that went down with the ship. If there are a limited number of lifeboats, you better believe that men will get them last. Men don’t ask for much other than being appreciated for the sacrifices they are required to make. Women complain that men aren’t ‘stepping up’ but they never realize how shitty life is for the ordinary man. Regular dudes are pretty much invisible to most women. Women get all the attention when they’re young. If they’re unmarried and in their 40s they get to experience what most men in their 20s experience every day. Not being noticed, having to deal with getting rejected all the time. Jessica has fallen into this trap. She thought she could have fun in her 20s, pursue her career and land a man who would be her equal or higher. But that limits her mate selection to assistant or tenured profs, and guess what? Most of those guys are married. Her competition for that man isn’t women with PhDs, it’s hot grads in their late 20s.

Greg: I think Jessica has still got it. Have you seen her profile pic?

Sam: Get some standards, dumbass!

Greg: [Laughs]

Sam: Egg freezing is a prime example of what Prof. M. termed technological millennialism — the belief that technology would solve everything including the problem it creates. He argued that with the decline of religion, technology would become its own religion, because human beings need something to worship. It’s just a question of what they worship and with what consequence. The worship of technology, he said, explains how human beings became human resources. We believe what we feel is real. Gender has become a personal feeling rather than a biological fact. We can make and unmake ourselves according to how we feel, because that is all that we value. We think we’re being authentic, but we’re actually being neurotic. Ultimately the scientific rationalizations animate the secularist agenda and result in human reason getting sacrificed on the altar of technological efficiency. We create the machines and then become slaves to them. We no longer are reasonable because we are unable to reason. Smart tech has made us dumb. All that matters is that we conform to the current ideology until we are no longer able to think for ourselves.

Greg: I was there for that class. Prof. M compared artificial intelligence to the Tower of Babel. In man’s quest to grasp the transcendent, he loses purpose and meaning. It’s a powerful metaphor. Human nature strives to build itself to rival God only to be defeated time and time again, until we ask, do you serve your religion or does your religion serve you?

Sam: Yes, and by extension we assume incorrectly that the teleological end of law and policy is to maximize choice. This rests on the false belief that man is rational and will optimize the system via his self-interest. Man cannot know his interest apart from God. Law and policy are, fundamentally, expressions of morality that either arcs toward the creator or away from him.

Greg: Hold that thought, I’m just going to the washroom. [Leaves]

Nancy: So I’ve been having trouble putting this IKEA furniture together. You worked at IKEA didn’t you?

Sam: Yes…

Nancy: So you know how to put up shelving units, right?

Sam: Yes…

Nancy: So do you still have the skills?

Sam: Yes…I see where you’re going with this, I just want you to ask.

Nancy: Do you want to come over and help me?

Sam: What’s in it for me?

Nancy: I don’t know, what?

Sam: OK, text me your address.

Greg [Returns]: Hey, I have to get going. I have an interview with Prof. Ursula.

Sam: Oh yeah. What are you interviewing for?

Greg: She’s looking for a TA.

Sam: That’s cool. Good luck man.

Greg: Do you guys wanna hang out later?

Nancy: Thanks, but it’s been a long day and I’m just going to go home and relax.

Sam: Yeah, I’ve got a bunch of stuff to do, so…

Greg: No problem. Catch up with you later.

Sam: Take it easy.

Nancy: Bye.