Position Is Power

Rod Dreher is a weak man and weak men crave strength. He is physically weak. He is emotionally weak; he makes no attempt to overcome his problems and takes out his pain on scapegoats while constantly stroking his own ego. And he is morally weak, for his first instinct is always to attack and harm others. Only a moral vacuum would consider Dreher a moral leader, which explains why David Brooks promoted him no doubt.

A weak, powerless man, whether he actually is or imagines he is, will often try to become more powerful. That is not easy and sometimes desperate times call for desperate measures. When the only advantage you have is your position in society-a (presumably) straight white male--you seek to use that advantage to leverage more power. You gravitate to positions that afford the straight white male an advantage, perhaps in the Church or Republican party. You find a patron who needs a straight white male to tell other straight white males what to do. You enter fields of study that traditionally exclude large segments of the population. But while kissing up is immensely satisfying and remunerative, it leave a great hole in ones' life. Serving others does not feed the fragile ego. One must have someone to kick down as well.

A weak, powerless man must tell himself that no matter how terrible he is, there is always someone worse. Less powerful, less admired, less moral, less civilized, less devout. Less anything. And by virtue of the power invested by God, men are better than women. Or designed better. Or designed to be superior. Smarter. A leader. The one on top.

There must always be someone on bottom so everyone knows who is on top. It just happens to be men, no offense, they didn't make it that way, it's just nature. Because we must have a hierarchy, men and women must be separated into inferior and superior. Because controlling half of the human population is not easy you must appeal to the very highest authority to maintain control. But because some of the official Authority laws are beneficial to men and some are not, men retain the right to enforce the laws they want and ignore the laws they do not.

Rod Dreher increases his personal power by attacking gays, the other not-men. He does it because he is insecure, because it sells books, and because he is mean. As time permits I will demonstrate numerous instances of Rod picking up stones, looking around, whistling, and putting them in his pockets in case he happens to find a sinner lingering around. I will also visit "The Little Way Of Ruthie Leming" for autobiographical background on Rod's weakness and insecurity, such as all the times Rod's little sister beat him up and mocked his elitist ways.

Rod tells his readers he's fighting for God. He is actually fighting to retain authoritarian control over sexuality because it personally benefits him.