It's Not That Complicated: Chapter 3 - Part Three

In this book, the term "statism" or "statist" receives a lot of play.  The problem is that I could not figure out what the Botkins actually meant by either term.

According to Wikipedia, statism is the involvement of the government in economic or social policy in some form.  This roughly corresponded with what I remember hazily from some poli-sci discussions held in college.   This sort of explained why the Botkins seemed to conflate any Marxist governmental system with statism, but there seemed to be something else missing.

Then, I received my $4.00 second-party seller copy of "So Much More".  In their "Endnotes", the Botkin Sisters note that

"Statism is the rival religion that put the government in the place of God.  The Messianic State assumes God's authority in the preserving and governing of His creatures and all their actions.  Known in America as the Welfare State or the Nanny State.  Its main characteristics are compulsory government schooling, high taxes, an entrenched bureaucracy, police-state powers, and an ever-growing body of laws and regulations."  (pg. 143)

Problems I see:

1. No one else defines statism as a rival religion - anywhere.
2. I know that the Botkin Sisters mean that statism = "welfare state" or "Nanny state", but technically that sentence structure read to me that the Messianic State is the welfare/nanny state.
3. The list of characteristics describes EVERY modern civilization since the body of laws and regulation grows over time.  

After that overview, here's a "history" lesson that is plunked in the middle of the chapter titled "Boys Are People Too".    Fair warning: the history is convoluted, exists mainly to hawk Botkin crap  merchandise and has nothing to do with the fact that boys are people.  On the positive side, it's a hoot to read aloud to your friends and family.  

"History gives us the next pieces of the puzzle.  What the record of history shows is that every time a society, like America, tries to move in a statist direction - towards centralized government rather than self-government - it puts power in the hands of the state instead of the people.  And it restricts those troublemakers who want to be freedom-fighters, leaders, outside-the-box thinkers, dominion-takers, conquerors - people who rock the boat or challenge the status quo.  In other words, people such as real men." (pg. 44)

• The second sentence is a common weak writing flaw.  The sentence says "when we move in a direction, we move in that direction!"  
• In the absence of a state, who the hell are the freedom-fighters fighting against?  Shouldn't they excel in a statist society?
• Leaders and out-of-box thinkers arise in every group of people.  Don't believe me?  Watch children at a park for awhile.....

"Different governments have had different ways of neutralizing men: taking their guns (like the British tried to do in Pre-Revolutionary War America), keeping them illiterate (like the pharaonic elite did in Ancient Egypt), controlling their work and the fruit of their hands (like Communist governments do), and distracting their energies with sports and games (like the rulers did in ancient Greece and Rome), among others." (p. 44)"

• That's quite a bizarre list.  The connection is the interests, businesses and products of the Botkin family.  
• British removal of guns: The Botkin Brothers bring home the money through T.Rex Arms - custom plastic gun accessories.  I find the entire site creepy and will not link it.  That's where the anti-gun control schtick comes from.  (On the positive side, the boys are in favor of the "Appendix" concealed carry which gives carriers the chance to shoot their genitals and/or femoral arteries while drawing OR from clothing movement).
• Illiteracy in Ancient Egypt: Issac Botkin did a whole "Ancient Egypt" movie and book.  (Also, Egypt was totally different than most societies within the last 100 years in terms of literacy /massive sarcasm)
• Anti-Communism: Another nod to Geoffrey Botkin's imaginary upbringing in a massively Marxist family.
• Can't find a direct link to the "Greece and Rome" bit, but I'm sure they'll pop something out.

"America began moving more deliberately in this direction in the 1930's, when a group of European socialists got a foothold in American education and media.  They were primarily working towards a goal that Karl Marx disciple Wilhelm Reich articulated: "to dethrone the patriarchal power of man." Or, as his comrade, Italian Comintern agent Antonio Gramsci, put it, imprisoning men's minds inside a psychic "iron cage" (where they couldn't cause any trouble)." (pg. 44)

• When you quote, you should cite the source of the quotation.  There are plenty of options for HOW you cite - I am a APA junkie, but there are so many other options - but just dropping quotations without citations would have gotten me in trouble starting in 5th grade which is ~11 years of age.
• I have no idea who this group of European socialists who moved into education and media are - but you should totally use them as a reason to opt out of public education and mainstream media.  Instead, you should use the Botkin Family Homeschooling Curriculum and allied Vision Forum films for entertainment!
• I needed to look up both Wilhelm Reich and Antonio Gramsci on Wikipedia.  Antonio Gramsci was a critical Marxist thinker who wrote over 3,000 pages of information.  Wilhelm Reich tried to align Marxism and psychoanalysis - but he had a lot of personal issues and seemed very unstable.  

"Though this might be starting to sound like a far-fetched conspiracy theory, it's nothing new (or far-fetched) for God's enemies to make plans and wage war against Him. (...) For ungodly men to want bigger governments and more power over other men is the most natural thing in the world.  It happens all the time, and is well-documented through history, from Babel to Ancient Egypt to militant Prussia to Red China.  "The land of the free and the home of the brave" has never been immune to this, either. (...)" (pg. 45),

• Conspiracy theories are (generally) interesting.  This feels like a novice attempt at a stream-of-consciousness conspiracy theory. 
• IMHO, men who know they are "more godly" than others want more control over others.
• Is there historical evidence for the Tower of Babel?  
• Note the Botkins ability to insult Germans and China in a single clause of a sentence; they have a lot of biases in this section.

"Well, in the last two hundred years, shady socialists have tried a new tactic for un-manning men, and discovered a most effective weapon....Women." (p. 45)

• Bomp-Bomp-Bomp!  The great reveal!  We have seen the enemy and it is US!

"Girl Power

Karl Marx declared in an 1868 letter, "Major social transformations are impossible without ferment among women." "Unless of millions of women are with us," stated communist dictator of Russia Vladimir Lenin, "we cannot exercise the proletarian dictatorship, cannot construct on communist lines.  We must find our way to them, we must study and try to find that way."  He insisted "There can be no real mass movement without women." His friend, Leon Trotsky wrote in 1917, "The women's liberation movement is a central part of the American socialist revolution in the making." (pg 45).

• I don't think that Karl Marx was the first person to realize that women can be catalysts for social change.  In the USA, women were highly involved in anti-slavery and temperance movements prior to 1868.
• Plus, I do have to give the underground Marxist/Communist/Socialist movement in the USA credit; they must be willing to play one hell of a long con game.  The most recent quote so far is from the 1930's and this book was published in 2011 when the USA was still a democratic republic.

"Plenty of women were ready to be recruited, including some of America's premier feminists, both first and second wave.  Wholesome, apple-pie Susan B. Anthony cut a surprising deal with a presidential candidate in 1905: "Give us suffrage, and we'll give you socialism."  More-radical Gloria Steinem declared, "Overthrowing capitalism is too small for us.  We must overthrow the whole #$#$ patriarchy."  Betty Friedan, possibly America's leading feminist, posed as a typical but disillusioned suburban housewife; but under her maiden name, Betty Goldstein, she was a Stalinist-Marxist activist, a professional propagandist working for the Communists. (...) And feminist leader Andrea Dworkin said: "Only when manhood is dead- and it will perish when ravaged femininity no longer sustains it - only then will we know what it is to be free." (p. 45)

• Paragraph summary: Women can make deals in exchange for full participation in society.  Damn.  That's deep.  It's like women are people, too.
• I feel that dropping Betty Friedman's maiden name has one purpose: anti-Semitism.   If she was only pretending to be a wife who found being a housewife boring as hell, she was a great actress; so many women agreed with her!
• This paragraph brings us up to 1975 with Dworkin's quote - but I can't find any information that said she was on the Marxist/Communist spectrum of politics.  That makes the most recent Marxist/Communist quote from 1974.  That was 37 years before the book was written.

"Egalitarianism - leveling everything between the sexes and classes - was the goal of these women.  Their modus operandi: to do away with the biblical hierarchical relationship between men and women; to destroy marriage; to end patriarchy; to obliterate traditional gender roles; and to ostracize assertiveness, leadership and strength in men.  Only then would we know what it is to be free. (p. 45-46)"

• Time out: what's wrong with getting rid of classes?  There are LOTS of Bible quotes about how to treat others and they lean strongly towards making sure the poor are taken care of?
• Wait.  I thought this was all worked out by the evil MALE social planners.  The Botkins alluded to that in the last chapter.  Now, the Botkin sisters are saying that WOMEN have goals.  Which is it?

Next post - New chapter: Learn about how guys work from your brothers!