Introduction

The HUMAN MALE

A Men's Liberation Draft Policy

A few years ago, some of the leaders in the Re-evaluation Counseling (RC) movement realized that not only are men mistreated (as all people in current societies are), but that men are also specifically oppressed as men. A considerable amount of thought and discussion has since taken place within RC about the nature of men's oppression and actions to be taken about it.1 Until now, however, there has been no comprehensive program for the liberation of men.2 This document is intended to serve as a basis for a discussion of the world-wide situation for men, an introduction to the processes of discharge and re-evaluation for those men who are not already acquainted with them, and a framework for a men's liberation movement.3

Societal and Institutionalized Oppressions

The one surviving species of human beings seems superficially to have solved its problems of survival in that the planet is currently supporting a very large number of its members (six billion and growing). A closer look, however, makes it plain that the very "success" of our massive reproduction rate is threatening disaster for ourselves and the rest of the marvelous planet on which we have arisen.

The size of the human population in itself is not the source of the problem, however. The basic problem is that our species has not been able to deal with the fact that we function in two completely different modes: In the first mode, we rely on the use of our flexible, creative intelligence. In the second mode, we behave unin-telligently, because our intelligence has been interfered with by an accumulation of rigid distress patterns which have been left upon us from individual experiences of being hurt.4 This non-intelligent mode has led to the development of class societies5 and other oppressive structures, which are dominated by and promote patterns of selfish, greedy exploitation. The oppressive societies, in their turn, install, maintain, and enforce unintelligent rigid behaviors on each new generation of humans.

It is crucial that as many of us as possible make the move to functioning on the basis of our intelligence rather than on the basis of distress recordings.6 
We need to begin to think about our total environment with as much care and devotion and effort as we have ever in the past turned on any beloved individual. Defense of our environment is crucial for the very survival and existence of life in general.

One of the basic discoveries of Re-evaluation Counseling (RC) is that the rigid, unintelligent patterns with which we have become infested can be eliminated. The key element in the recovery process is the discharge of physical and emotional distresses and subsequent re-evaluation, leading to recovery of intelligent, flexible functioning. This discovery is of crucial importance to the project of ensuring that intelligence determines the future of our species and our planet.

All groups of humans in our present societies tend to be conditioned against the discharge and re-evaluation process, but this conditioning7 falls with special intensity upon males, with the result that men are particularly set up to be agents for the continuation of class societies and all other oppressions.
Some of the verbal conditionings which have been put upon men, such as "big boys don't cry," "don't be a scaredy cat," "be a man," "it's a man's job to die for his country," begin in the very first moments of men's lives. These patterns not only begin to ruin the lives of males immediately, but also set them up to unintelligently accept and perpetrate the oppressions of all people.
In most societies, the process of growing from boyhood to manhood is beset by a deliberate discouragement and suppression of men's abilities to feel their own emotions and to discharge the distressed ones. Fear, grief, loneliness, and uncertainty are often covered over with a pretense of "confidence." For many men, the isolation that results from early violence, threats of violence, and harsh expectations of "what it is to be a man" leaves them literally unable to recognize, admit, and feel their feelings. This conditioning is one of the elements that forces men to play the often inhuman roles they are expected to play in our oppressive societies, be it in relation to women, to themselves, to children, or to society as a whole. (This is because undischarged distress creates a compulsion to replay the original hurt, sometimes in the victim role-as in the original incident-but often in the perpetrator role.) For all men to recover the ability and freedom to "feel their feelings" and not only "feel" but discharge their distressed feelings, and so recover their intelligence, is a key survival process that needs support from all men, and from all humans.

All humans claiming intelligence and goodwill need to make a frontal attack on the intensively organized suppression of little boys' natural ability to discharge. We need to say clearly and dramatically to parents and teachers that any small child (female as well as male) can, with persistent, informed support, be protected to emerge as an outstanding individual, universally celebrated for his or her brilliant qualities. We need to call for and launch organizational efforts to see to it that parents, schools, and religious institutions are informed and organized to stop the damage to males at the little-boy stage and to continue to protect them as they grow older so that they can be boldly and powerfully intelligent, kind, and effective.

Men, like all human beings, are inherently good, caring, gentle, and warm. Their excellent real nature is obscured and apparently distorted by the heavy conditioning society puts upon them, but it remains undestroyed and recoverable. Men's inherent attitude, as men, is to oppose and prevent any enforced inequalities with regard to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and to support all efforts toward liberation from oppression. As human males, they inherently strive to achieve and provide universal access to information and to the basic resources needed by all living things. It is an honor to be a man and, as such, to be able to lend resource, leadership, strength, information, and nurture to every person's struggle against enforced inequality, regardless of age, gender, background, or previous experience. The abundant examples of men acting in these ways in all eras and places are not exceptions, but show men's true inherent nature. Though males, like all humans, are by nature cooperative and caring, there is a widespread belief in most human cultures at present that boys and men are by nature violent or aggressive. This belief leaves boys alone with many struggles and paves the road for later, increased violence and aggression. When boys act violently, it must never be assumed that "all is normal." Boys are never violent or aggressive except as a result of having been brutalized.

Some other mistaken notions widespread in present cultures are that boys "don't need" to be held and nurtured in the same way that girls do, or that there's a goodness and innocence present in women that is absent in men, or that it's good for boys to hurt and suffer the hurts alone in order to "harden" them in preparation for manhood. Some other widely believed nonsense is that men don't feel pain as much as women do, or that men are inherently compulsive sexually.

None of these are true, and all of these need to be exposed and eliminated.
Until recently, most discussion in our societies about men's difficulties has been focused on concern about men's tendency toward "criminal or anti-social behavior." In recent years, some attention has been given to issues relating to men and health. As we reach for greater awareness in this area, we are forced to realize that men have fared and fare very badly. Men die younger than women.
Men commit suicide more often than women almost everywhere in the world, up to nine times as often in some countries (and these numbers are increasing).8 Men still make comparatively little use of medical services (and very little of the health information made public is aimed at men). Men have the highest rates of alcohol and other drug addictions, and of sexually-transmitted diseases.
With any other group, such figures would be taken as reliable indications that the group in question is oppressed.

Still, our society acts reluctant to recognize men as an oppressed group. The emphasis in the society is on men as agents of all oppressions. Yet thoughtful examination of the situation has led us in RC to conclude that men are indeed oppressed.

There is no designated group of people assigned by the oppressive society to carry out the oppression of males. (This is different from the situation with some other oppressions, in which a particular group is "trained and assigned" to be in the oppressive role relative to another group. For example, whites are "trained and assigned" to install and perpetuate racism-the oppression of people of color. Men are "trained and assigned" to
install and perpetuate sexism-the oppression of females.)

In carrying out the oppression of men, the society as a whole plays the role of the oppressor. Nearly everyone in our societies plays some role in men's oppression, and nearly everyone has rigid attitudes and "beliefs" that are oppressive to men. It will be essential in ending men's oppression to change these widely held attitudes and beliefs. It helps in the task of clarifying the situation, and organizing to change it, if we identify particular institutions as the agents of men's oppression.

THE INSTITUTIONS OF MEN'S OPPRESSION

There are several well-organized institutions that operate to install and perpetuate the oppression of men. These institutions' functions are usually characterized as "social," and some of them do indeed perform social functions in other ways, but even casual observation of their operation makes it plain that each of them plays a major role in constructing dehumanized versions of what a man is, and in disempowering and exploiting men.

Some of them are organized primarily to target males. This institutionalized concentration on oppressing men was often much plainer in past generations. In the name of "women's liberation," there has been some blurring of appearances in recent years, as the oppressing institutions have reached out to extend their contamination to females (often in the name of "fairness"). However, in this document we will focus on the impact of each of these institutions on males, and will propose actions to be taken to remedy these effects.

Before discussing in detail the institutions that oppress men, we need to
look at the way the oppression of males is "internalized."

Internalized Oppression

One of the results of the external, institutional oppression is the creation of distress recordings. This means that the person who has been oppressed carries around recordings of feeling oppressed which, when restimulated,9 act upon him or her to produce feelings as if fresh oppression was coming from outside, even if no new oppression is taking place. This is "internalized oppression," and it operates so as to have the man believe the negative stereotypes of men. Past invalidations have the effect on the man as if they were still being received and currently invalidating him.

Internalized oppression is the most insidious difficulty facing any oppressed group, and men are no different in this regard. Most of the difficulties endured by men are caused by male internalized oppression. These recordings, when restimulated, leave the man on whom the recordings have been made feeling discouraged, isolated, guilty, depressed, angry, and vulnerable to interacting with other men's negative recordings in mutual hostility, disappointment, etc.

The most effective means for contradicting men's internalized oppression is to find ways for men to become intelligent parts of each other's lives-to
show their flexible, warm, mutually-appreciative selves to each other.10

To achieve this goes to the root of the isolation internalized by individual men, makes it impossible for internalized oppression to drive men to hurt each other, and rocks the foundations of institutionalized men's oppression. For men to make close friends with other men is to enable them to become aware of the conditioning that has been put upon them and to want liberation from it. As men reach for friendship with men from different class backgrounds, different cultures, and so on, they will inevitably deepen and enrich their awareness of, and their intense desire for, liberation.

It may sometimes appear difficult to directly raise the issue of men's oppression. The main reason for this apparent difficulty is that men's stories have not been told-the "real" stories, that is, not just the "public" versions permitted by the oppression. When the real stories are told, then the real issues become clearer. Organizing men's groups in which men "take turns listening" to each other is a basic necessity for men's liberation.

Men need to reclaim an unshakable understanding of their own inherent goodness. At present most men struggle to even notice that they don't know they are completely good. This is a major obstacle to their quest to find ways to discharge the internalized oppression.

Being seen as the "bad ones" in society leaves men little room for recovery from their hurts. We have learned that, in many ways, the young person whose distress leads him (or her) to harm another young person can suffer more from the act than the recipient of that act. The one who has been hit on the head with the toy truck can be crying and receiving attention, while the one who did the deed can be abandoned in feeling bad and guilty. The other people around are most often (even when they know and understand RC theory) confused about the goodness of the one who did the hitting. Under these conditions, it is very hard for someone who acts out a distress to discharge on it. When a boy shows by an "unacceptable" act how he has been hurt, and receives disapproval, punishment, violence, and the reproaches of others, he has been pounded into a tight corner-even more so if the disapproval is expressed as blame for "being a boy." This is the situation for many men.

The liberation of women and of men go hand in hand. Because men have been used as the oppressor group toward women (through the systematic installation of sexist patterns, beginning very early in boys' lives), they need to deal specifically with the damage done to women by sexism. While it is not men's fault that they have been set up to be the oppressor group over women, men cannot afford any tolerance toward continuing to play that role. The slightest oppressive act is completely unworthy of men's inherent
excellence. Explicit renunciation of that role and the correction of it by eliminating any sexism anywhere in society falls logically to men. Not only can men throw off the oppressor role, they can also work to eliminate sexism from society and assist women to eliminate the women's internalized
sexism.11

In the present human population of approximately six billion people and in the probably huge emerging population of the next decades, support of the female gender as a whole is tremendously important to all humans. Large numbers of women world-wide still die in childbirth, lack adequate medical care and food during pregnancy, give birth to children who quickly become malnourished and ill, and receive little support from the men around them. This will change as present oppressions are ended, as modern science increases the possible choices before women, and as reproduction of the species becomes a question of free choice by individuals. But in all existing levels of society, a vital responsibility is still enforced upon women by their unavoidable role in the reproduction of the species. Currently, for simple survival of the species, ending the oppression of sexism is necessary. Assuming extra care and responsibility for support of women during reproduction and child rearing becomes a basic responsibility of men and, of course, of all humans.

TOWARDS A GENERAL PROGRAM
OF Ending Men's Oppression

Long-term Goal

Our long-term goal is to completely end the oppression of men. This will require eliminating or transforming the institutions that carry out men's oppression, and replacing them with rational human organizations. A central part of this will be to assist all men to reclaim the discharge process.

Supportive of this, it will be necessary to assist all people to arrive at an accurate view of the nature of men and to distinguish men's distress patterns from men's inherent goodness. On the way to this goal it will be necessary to engage men in eliminating sexism and all other oppressions of any humans. On a broad front, we will need to replace any part of human society that can be shown to be oppressive.

Strategies

a) Encourage and organize wide discussion of the nature of men's oppression and its existence as an oppression. Show how the present class system operates to harm all humans and serves as the basis for all oppressions, including men's oppression. Learn how to oppose and eliminate the oppression of men in every form that it exists. This will require organized
activity. Organize to end men's oppression.

b) Encourage men to speak out about what life has really been like for them. Publish stories, articles, and interviews with men about their lives, including the experiences of every variety of men in these publications. Organize thousands of men's support groups on an RC basis, with the intent of introducing men to the existence of internalized oppression and the
tools and processes available to discharge it.12

c) Promote widespread understanding that what the general population has come to think of as the "negative qualities of men" are actually distress recordings that result from men's oppression. Reject the widespread belief in society that boys and men are by nature violent or aggressive, and instead promote the understanding that males are inherently cooperative and caring. Ensure that boys are never raised in violent environments and never required to choose between hurting someone else or being hurt themselves. Train parents and caretakers of boys in helping boys to discharge any feelings of aggression. Train them to know the difference between patterns of violence or aggression and a male's inherent, energetic humanness, and to see any aggressive patterns as a boy's attempt to get help with his distresses.

d) Organize in every way to restore men's sense of their own goodness and worth. Work to eliminate all societal stereotypes that deny this truth and to eradicate or transform all institutions that oppress men and thereby leave recordings that men are dispensable, irrelevant, unfeeling, etc. Validate every boy's and man's inherent nature as good in every way.

e) Adapt social environments to accommodate the reality that men are human beings who have feelings. Schools, homes, playgrounds, workplaces-all need to be set up so that males are allowed to relax and openly show their feelings and share their thoughts without threats of isolation, intimidation, loss of closeness, or loss of self-esteem. No institution should be permitted to require that men suppress feelings or suppress discharge in order to function.

f) Organize all men to assume primary responsibility for eliminating sexist oppression from the world. Begin by rejecting the notion that there is any difference in the human qualities held by men and women. Insist that each gender is courageous, tender, bold, nurturing, etc. Expose sexism as a hurtful, limiting factor in both men's and women's lives by giving men the chance to discharge on their own hurts and to listen to women's personal experiences of being oppressed by sexism. Include the elimination of sexism as a part of every program for men's liberation.

g) Inside RC, organize large numbers of men's support groups. Multiply the number of men's leaders' groups, hold more men's workshops, and work toward the goal of having fifty percent men in every RC Community. Recruit women to support this process. Men's support groups should become "men's liberation groups." Our aggressively-pursued aim should be to change men's lives, not just to comfort one another in discussion groups.

h) Assist all men to discharge, act outside of, and eliminate every form of oppression that tries to divide them from other men. Form deep friendships with men of every class, nationality, age, race, and culture.

i) Introduce RC widely, making sure the tools of RC are available to men of all ages, all nationalities, all walks of life. In teaching RC, specifically address the suppression of the discharge process in men and boys in particular, and the connection of the suppression of discharge to men's oppression. Encourage the formation of support groups, for both men and women, which are working to end men's oppression and working to assist men to reclaim the discharge process.

The Principal Institutions Which Carry on the Oppression of Men

The principal institutions which carry on the oppression of males are:
* the armed services
* the criminal courts, police, and prisons
* the workplace exploitation of men as workers
* the "sex industries"
* the alcohol, tobacco, pharmaceutical, and illegal drug industries
* the "sports industries"
* schools
* religions
* the family

There is a relationship among these institutions. All of these institutions in some way serve the functioning of the economic system by which wealth is transferred from the working majority of the population to the owning-class minority of the population. This transfer is accomplished through the use of some legal structures or custom or through long-established, undisguised greed.

The owning classes of different nations compete for the "right" to exploit natural resources and markets. They often resort to military action and war to protect their "national interests." The workplace is the vehicle for creating and accumulating wealth, as the value produced by working people is largely placed in the hands of the owning-class institutions. The working-class majority of people would not agree to be exploited if not for the threats hanging over them from the criminal "justice" system. The addictive "power" of the sports, drug, and sex industries acts to keep the individual workers addicted. Schools, religions, and families are the channels and the places where the message about "what it is to be a man" is formulated and taught, and where people are trained and re-trained for participation in the system and for submission to it.

(c) copyright 1999
Rational Island Publishers
Reprinted on this site with permission of the copyright owner.

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