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[Pre-order a copy of David Horowitz’s next book, America Betrayed, by clicking here. Orders will begin shipping on May 7th.]
The War on Children is a documentary addressing various social trends that damage children. The War on Children premiered on Twitter in February, 2024. War is two hours, twenty minutes long. The War on Children cites the following trends that damage children: child trafficking, trans extremism, online pornography, Marxist domination of public education, greedy corporations, and water pollution. The documentary recommends the following solutions: parents spending more time with their children in outdoor activities, limiting children’s internet access, attendance at Christian churches, men reclaiming their masculinity, and voting Republican.
War was produced and directed by 36-year-old Robby Starbuck, aka Robert Starbuck Newsome. In 2022, Starbuck ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for a Tennessee congressional seat. Before that, he was, according to his Vimeo bio, a video and film director. Interestingly, that bio states his preferred pronouns as “he/him.” The bio says he has worked with the celebrities “Akon, Smashing Pumpkins, Sarah Bareilles, Metric, Megadeth, Snoop Dogg, Machine Gun Kelly & Yellowcard.” Starbuck identifies as Cuban-American.
War also features Starbuck’s wife, Landon Starbuck, and their three children. On her website, Landon Starbuck says, “I’m passionate about faith, family, freedom, truth and justice … I speak, write, make music and advocate to protect all children. I left the music industry as a Billboard charting artist to focus on fighting child trafficking … I started my own non-profit combatting child abuse, exploitation and trafficking in 2021 … All glory goes to God. I love Jesus [and] my family.”
I follow movie news but I had heard nothing about The War on Children. I also follow Andrew Gutmann. In 2021, Gutmann received national attention when he published a protest against Woke education at Brearley, a private K-12 school for girls in Manhattan that charges $61,500 in annual tuition. Gutmann’s letter is here; a 2024 update is here. Gutmann recommended The War on Children, and Gutmann’s recommendation made War a must-see film for me.
I watched The War on Children on Twitter, straight through, twice. Though I share many of the filmmaker’s concerns, the film did not work for me. Both times, after watching it, I felt agitated, depressed, and powerless. War shares much in common with Matt Walsh’s 2022 documentary, What Is a Woman? I review What Is a Woman? here. What Is a Woman? worked for me in ways that The War on Children did not.
War did satisfy many other viewers. I can’t find a Rotten Tomatoes page for War. I’m guessing that the go-to movie review aggregation site is ignoring the film for political reasons. As of this writing, War has fourteen amateur reviews at the Internet Movie Database. Thirteen of those reviews award War a ten out of ten score. One review awards it a nine out of ten score.
The War on Children addresses a panoply of topics. It opposes what it calls the Woke agenda. This agenda includes sexual indoctrination in schools, the impact of sex researcher Alfred Kinsey, sexual theorist John Money, and Playboy founder Hugh Hefner. Scholastic, “the world’s largest publisher and distributor of children’s books,” publishes trans books; the Starbucks oppose this. War also opposes Drag Queen Story Hour, the medical transitioning of children, Child Protective Services’ trans agenda, and laws around the transing of children. War condemns Pornhub, widespread abandonment of Christianity, and excessive screentime. War raises alarms about a pesticide, atrazine, which is present in tap water. Atrazine has been shown to damage the sexual development and expression of frogs. War opposes men competing against women in athletic competitions. It opposes child sex trafficking.
The style of The War on Children reflects Robby Starbuck’s career as an award-winning music video director. Ironically, even as Starbuck condemns modern media’s negative impact on children’s minds, Starbuck uses the techniques that modern media use to appeal to the lizard brain. “Lizard brain” is a pop term. As Dr. Joseph Troncale put it, the lizard brain is in charge of “fight, flight, feeding, fear, freezing up, and fornication.” War uses multiple filmmaking tools to arouse fear, anger, and disgust.
The War on Children moves very quickly. Robby and Landon Starbuck interview multiple subjects. Not only are these interviews not shown in full, many times subjects aren’t even allowed to speak an entire sentence before the film cuts to a new image. One poor subject is allowed only to voice one or two word agreements with what Starbuck is saying. “Definitely,” she says, before the film cuts away from her.
Some interview subjects are seated in comfortable looking chairs placed over a Persian carpet. In some interviews, one can see horses grazing or other bucolic scenes out a window. In other interviews, Starbuck darkens the background and shines light on the speaker’s face. The combination of surrounding darkness and the bright lights on speakers’ faces is reminiscent of interrogation scenes from film noir. One such interview is of a vulnerable girl who underwent a double mastectomy after she had just turned 13. This poor child is clearly sad and has yet to find peace with what doctors did to her. The film’s choice to film her face surrounded by blackness struck this viewer as unkind.
Starbuck speaks with Brianna Titone, a member of the Colorado House of Representatives. Titone is a man who identifies as a woman. Titone supported a bill that would allow minors from states that ban the medical transing of minors to enter Colorado and to be transed in that state. The transing of children involves double mastectomies, castration, and the administration of drugs. The transing of children can harm the child for life, including through sterility, osteoporosis, and the inability ever to have an orgasm. Children do, sometimes, later regret being medically transed, and, of course, there is no road back. Breasts and wombs, penises and testicles cannot be re-installed once amputated. In other words, Titone supported a law that would facilitate health care providers doing damage to children. This fact alone is enough to cause viewers to oppose Titone. Starbuck is not satisfied with simple opposition. His filmmaking technique works to intensify hatred in the lizard brain.
Before Starbuck began his interview with Titone, Starbuck made a very quick reference to Stacie-Marie Laughton. Laughton is a man who identifies as a woman. Laughton was elected to the New Hampshire House of Representatives. Laughton is a sex criminal. He was charged with the sexual exploitation of children. Again, Starbuck introduces Laughton’s vile crimes very quickly, so quickly it’s hard for the viewer to understand how Laughton is associated with Titone. Both Laughton and Titone are men who identify as women but I’m unaware of any allegations that Titone is a sexual abuser of children.
Starbuck calls the bill Titone supported a “child trafficking” bill. Child trafficking has a specific meaning – the merchandising of children for sexual exploitation. That’s not what Titone supported. Starbuck phones Titone and they speak briefly. As he is speaking to Titone, Starbuck is filmed in a dark room, in silhouette, against a row of dirty windows, looking out at a brick wall. The soundtrack plays ominous music, the kind that would play in a slasher flick just before some cute chick in a miniskirt got whacked by a serial killer.
If all of that were not enough, the very next scene is of a hyena with a big, messy glob of pink meat hanging sloppily from its mouth. The camera moves back to Starbuck, who is raging against the transing of children. Then, the scene is intercut with images of vultures circling in the sky. Back to hyenas, back to Robby Starbuck in the darkened, filthy room, back to a hyena in a face off with a lion. We need to be like lions, Starbuck concludes.
I disagree with Brianna Titone. I want to see a nationwide ban on the transing of children. Here’s the thing. Brianna Titone is a human being, not an animal. Using film to reduce a human being to an animal image has a very bad history. I think immediately of The Eternal Jew, which equated Jews to rats. Dehumanization is a line no one who self-identifies as a Christian should ever cross.
In another bad choice, the documentary argues for a return to Christianity, and shows a simple cross lit up against a night sky. A lit up cross against a night sky called to mind, for this viewer, the KKK burning crosses. No, I’m sure the Starbucks are not KKK members, but that image should not have been included in the film.
The War on Children is not just fast, it is loud. The soundtrack overwhelmed this viewer. I felt as if I were being pounded over the head with a mallet. I didn’t need to be manipulated. The material onscreen was disturbing enough. Sometimes less is more.
War, just as in many TV docudramas, intercuts interviews with stock footage that is somehow related to the interview topic. Riley Gaines is a former competitive swimmer who was forced to compete against Lia Thomas, a man who identifies as a woman. Starbuck’s interview with Gaines repeatedly cuts away from her face and is interrupted by stock footage of people swimming. In a particularly bizarre touch, when Starbuck mentions that the transing drug Lupron is given to sex offenders to chemically castrate them, stock footage of tough looking men in orange jumpsuits is shown. I really didn’t need to view that footage to feel horrible about children being damaged by healthcare professionals. Starbuck’s interviews with real people affected by the trends he condemns are powerful in and of themselves. Riley Gaines describing being forced to share a locker room with a naked man pretending to be a woman is powerful enough. The stock footage of people swimming was impersonal and distanced me from the valuable Gaines interview.
The War on Children takes on many topics. Pesticides that ruin the sex of male frogs, retreat from organized religion, the state preventing parents from having contact with their own children, the impact of Playboy: all of these topics are appropriate fodder for documentaries all by themselves. Jamming them into one documentary, even one that is over two hours long, does not achieve a positive end. This overloaded documentary scares and saddens the viewer, but doesn’t offer any hope or actionable plan for most people.
I wasn’t familiar with many of the interview subjects in War, and only very brief introductions are provided. I had to supplement my viewing with internet searches. Sometimes these searches immediately turned up hostile websites. War did not provide me with enough information to counter the hostile material I found, so I had to keep digging.
In War, Justin Danhof provides a capsule view of how corporations manipulate society to serve the Woke agenda. His explanation was intriguing and I wish it had been given more time, and been presented more slowly. I searched Danhof on the web because I wanted to know more about his work. Google immediately turned up a hostile site, here. Ironically enough, even this hostile site made Danhof sound intriguing.
Kara Frederick’s bio at the Heritage Foundation website makes her sound like a powerhouse. Unfortunately War allows her to do little more than agree with statements made by Robby Starbuck. YouTube offers a ninety minute interview with Frederick entitled “Big Tech’s Totalitarianism” here.
I searched “Layla Jane,” a young lady featured in War. She is still very young and had only just turned 13 when doctors submitted her to a double mastectomy. She told Starbuck that social media brainwashed her into choosing trans extremism. Google took me to a webpage devoted to a court case. Layla Jane, I learned, is suing Kaiser Hospital Foundation. I wish her every success.
Layla Jane’s case’s webpage states, “Kaiser’s doctors failed to provide Layla Jane with the kind of counseling and treatment that would have helped address her underlying conditions. Instead, Kaiser’s doctors betrayed their oath to do no wrong” and pushed trans extremism on a 12-year-old child. Had they not done so, “Layla Jane would likely be one of many thriving women who experienced emotional troubles during adolescence. Instead, Layla Jane will spend the rest of her life dealing with lingering side effects.”
In War, Layla Jane described excruciating pain she experienced in her chest after the mastectomies. Professionals used distorted language to steer her into surgery. They said, “You won’t be able to chest feed,” using a misogynist euphemism for breast feeding. They also referred to the double mastectomy as “top surgery,” again, a misogynist term designed to diminish the complexity, power, and centrality of the human female breast. Layla Jane must live with pain, with unwanted facial and body hair, an Adam’s apple, and with a permanently deepened voice.
Victoria Kult is a former porn performer and current exercise and nutrition marketer. I tried learning more about her through an internet search and I found her old porn and her current exercise videos.
Chaya Raichik is the woman behind Libs of TikTok. She mentions how rapidly TikTok introduces trans extremist material to any new user. War contrasts what TikTok looks like in China – it features educational videos – with the perverse videos marketed in the US.
Jessica Tapia is the subject of an all-too-brief interview. She recounts, very briefly, having been sexually molested as a child. She immediately informed her mother of the attack and the criminal was apprehended, thus saving his own children, whom he was also violating. When Tapia, a schoolteacher, was told that she would have to hide the transing of her students from their parents, she balked, and was fired. Tapia is suing; you can read more about her court case here; a Daily Mail article is here.
Seth Gruber, a handsome and charming interview subject, is founder of the White Rose Resistance, a pro-life group. Gruber goes into detail on the impact of Alfred Kinsey, George Brock Chisholm – who said, “We have to eradicate the concept of right and wrong” – Frank Calderon, a burlesque producer, and his wife Mary Calderone, who pushed sex ed in schools, and Hugh Hefner.
Pastor John K. Amanchukwu opposes critical race theory and abortion. According to the book’s description on Amazon, Amanchukwu’s Eraced [sic]: Uncovering the Lies of Critical Race Theory and Abortion “dispels the myths surrounding abortion and CRT, and uncovers the Left’s sinister plot to destroy the black community and divide the church.”
Starbuck shows Amanchukwu illustrations from a comic book used in schools. The comic book graphically depicts children engaging in sex acts. Amanchukwu condemns the material. He says that men have abdicated their role as fathers, and they need to step up and protect children.
Lisa Logan identifies as a “Wife, mother, patriot. Exposing the sinister agenda behind Social Emotional Learning Programs.” She discusses how what was originally a good idea, social emotional learning, designed to help schools address bullying, was hijacked by the Woke agenda. You can learn more about Lisa Logan’s work here and here.
On his webpage, Alvin Lui describes himself thus. “I collaborate with pro-American organizations in navigating the culture war. With a focus on predicting emerging issues, crafting impactful narratives, and outmaneuvering woke opponents, I provide strategic insights that is valuable to your mission.” He developed “Courage is a Habit,” which provides, he says, “Actionable tools & strategies for parents to defend their children from indoctrination in K-12.” In his appearance in War, Lui uses the language of Communist China, where his grandfather was persecuted by Maoist college students. For example he refers to “struggle sessions” and “cultural revolutions.”
Aurora Regino is a mother whose child was transed by the school without the mother’s knowledge. The child’s father died and her mother had cancer. The distraught child sought counseling. Instead of helping the child, school personnel transed her. She wanted her mother to know what school personnel were doing to her, but the school refused. Once away from the school, the child resumed her natural identity as a girl. You can read more about her experience here.
Starbuck occasionally chats with teenagers. No information is given about these teenagers. We don’t know why these particular teens were chosen. Most are white girls. There is one black boy. While the white girls are interviewed in a group, the black boy is interviewed by himself. That felt odd. The teens all agreed with Starbuck, saying that it’s hard to find a “Godly” manly man these days, and that they would never allow their own children to access social media. The teens report that in schools, students who identify as trans receive preferential treatment from teachers and administrators, and that that special treatment is motivation for identifying as trans.
The Starbucks also cite research studies that support their point of view. They mention Lisa Littman’s 2018 study, “Rapid-onset gender dysphoria in adolescents and young adults: A study of parental reports.” Littman documented several trends. Recent years have seen an astronomical increase in adolescent girls insisting that they are trans. Many of these girls had never previously identified as boys or shown masculine qualities. These girls have other friends who identify as trans. They have been groomed by internet groups that push trans extremism. Littman relates girls who choose to identify as trans to girls who, in previous years, had become anorexic. Just as in anorexic subcultures anorexics mock girls who are not anorexic, girls experiencing rapid onset gender dysphoria mock girls who do not identify as trans. As in anorexia, girls who identified as trans isolated themselves from non-trans affirming people and sources of information.
The Starbucks also cite the 1991 article, “Mothers of boys with gender identity disorder: a comparison of matched controls.” This article found that 53% of the mothers researchers studied whose sons suffer from gender confusion suffer from borderline personality disorder. Six percent of mothers in a control group, that is mothers of sons who do not have gender confusion, met the criteria for BPD. The study concludes “Results of the Summers and Walsh Symbiosis Scale suggested that mothers of probands had child-rearing attitudes and practices that encouraged symbiosis and discouraged the development of autonomy.” It would be helpful if this study could be repeated, as most important scientific studies are. The problem is, of course, that trans extremists suppress science. Witness the fate of Lisa Littman. Her study on rapid onset gender dysphoria has been relentlessly attacked, while never being disproven.
The Starbucks also mention a Swedish study that concludes that post-surgery trans-identified persons have a higher risk for suicide and other forms of mortality than people who do not identify as trans. The 2011 article, “Long-Term Follow-Up of Transsexual Persons Undergoing Sex Reassignment Surgery: Cohort Study in Sweden,” concludes that “Persons with transsexualism, after sex reassignment, have considerably higher risks for mortality, suicidal behaviour, and psychiatric morbidity than the general population. Our findings suggest that sex reassignment, although alleviating gender dysphoria, may not suffice as treatment for transsexualism, and should inspire improved psychiatric and somatic care after sex reassignment for this patient group.”
Senator Rand Paul and his wife Kelley Ashby Paul are interviewed separately. In their case, the approach used with Layla Jane is not used. That is, the Pauls are not surrounded by darkness. They sit in a comfortable sun room with wicker furniture, a floral carpet, and, outside the room’s glass doors, brightly lit trees. They calmly discuss trans extremism.
In February, 2021, Senator Paul courageously questioned appointee Dr. Rachel Levine about Levine’s support for the transing of children. Levine, rather than answering Paul’s important question, simply stonewalled and repeated empty phrases. You can see that here.
Riley Gaines is interviewed next to an indoor pool. She talks about being forced to share a locker room with Lia Thomas, a naked male exposing his genitalia. Gaines mentions Payton McNabb. McNabb’s website provides a summary of what a man competing in women’s sports did to her. “McNabb was knocked unconscious and exhibited a fencing response following a forceful blow to the head from a volleyball spike by a biological male playing on the opponent’s team. The sheer impact of the ball has left McNabb with significant long-term physical and mental effects, including impaired vision, partial paralysis on her right side, and anxiety and depression.”
Harrison Tinsley is a California father. Tinsley fathered his son by a girlfriend, not a wife. Tinsley and his girlfriend broke up. Tinsley’s former girlfriend erected many obstacles to Tinsley having any contact with his son. She identifies the boy as “non-binary” and Tinsley has seen photos of the boy in dresses. You can read more about Tinsley’s case here.
Other people the Starbucks interview include William Lamberth, who serves in the Tennessee House of Representatives and opposes trans extremism; the receptionist for Dr. Marci Bowers, a man who identifies as a woman and performs plastic surgery on men to provide them with pseudo vaginas; Jolene Vargas, who criticizes parents who exploit their transed children through online videos with the goal of becoming influencers and earning cash; Keelin Washington, who was sexually trafficked as a minor; and Laurie Betito, a sex therapist who works at Pornhub.
Veronika Electronika is a man who performs misogynist drag minstrelsy. The Starbucks are courteous in the questions they ask this grotesquely costumed man; he responds with hostility and does not address a single point they raise. The interview is a waste of time except as a demonstration of trans extremists’ resistance to substantive discourse. According to his website, this man who mocks women through performance “has been very active in Tennessee politics and local political organizations like Tennessee Equality Project, the ACLU, Drag Out the Vote as well as one of her favorite partnerships, Drag Story Hour.” That a man who can’t respond to the most basic questions about his worldview is politically active is unfortunate.
One of the longest interviews is with Abigail Martinez. This interview takes place in a building that looks like a church. The room is dimly lit. Martinez is an immigrant from El Salvador. Like many from Central America, her face has strong Maya features. She speaks with reserve but one can sense the pain she feels. Her daughter, Yaeli, was transed at school. Child Protective Services removed Yaeli from the home. Eventually, Yaeli placed herself in front of an oncoming train. Martinez begged the morgue worker to be allowed to have contact with her daughters’ body. The morgue worker denied her access, saying that seeing her daughter’s body would traumatize her for life. You can read more about this case here.
The Starbucks end their film with happy scenes of their family cavorting on their extensive property in Tennessee. The children learn shooting, they interact with horses and dogs, and they play outside.
Again, I agree with many of the Starbucks’ concerns and positions. I oppose water pollution and Drag Queen Story Hour, for example. Even so, this documentary did not work for me.
I think of Dr. Jordan Peterson’s January, 2023 interview with Chloe Cole. Cole is a California teenager. She began transing at 12 and rejected the process at 17. She deeply regrets the harm that transing did to her body and her mind. Dr. Peterson’s interview with Chloe Cole took place over the internet. Both Peterson and Cole were in pleasant settings with normal lighting. The interview was over two hours long. Cole reported deeply disturbing details revealing the transing of children as heartbreaking and as criminal. Peterson is fully professional throughout. He does not become histrionic. He does not insert images of hyenas or vultures. He doesn’t have to. What adults did to Chloe Cole is tantamount to child sacrifice. Cole’s lovely young face is all you need to see to understand.
I think, also, of Matt Walsh’s What Is a Woman? Walsh’s doc is tightly focused on one question. He asks that question over and over, of feminists in a march, of men on the street in San Francisco, and of Masai in Kenya. That tight focus clarifies his ultimate message.
One of the most devastating interviews in What Is a Woman? takes place with Michelle Forcier, a transer of children. In October of 2023, Daily Mail reported that two former patients were suing the team who transed them. Michelle Forcier participated in the transing of both of these litigants (here and here).
In the interview, Walsh and Forcier sit face to face in a pleasant setting. It is a brightly lit room with a large houseplant and a chair with a pillow. There’s no dramatic lighting, no heavy-handed music. The pleasant setting and Walsh’s low-key, poker-faced persona do nothing to interfere with the demented horror of Forcier’s statements, famously including “Does a chicken cry?” Popular responses to this interview on YouTube include, “Frightening,” “scary,” and “terrifying.”
You might say that few viewers are going to devote time to Peterson’s two-hour interview with Chloe Cole, and that many viewers are too dense to pick up on the truths expressed in Walsh’s deadpan approach. I’d respond that that may be true, but I’m concerned about the message that viewers do pick up from Starbuck’s fast-paced, disjointed, loud, heavy-handed approach. The serious scholarly research that the Starbucks cite deserves more than the mere seconds that the Starbucks devotes to it. Shoving a bunch of facts under the viewer’s nose and pulling the camera away to another intense stimuli confuses and agitates rather than educates.
Those of us who oppose trans extremism are accused of hating all gender non-conforming persons. Not true. I am a gender non-conforming person myself. I’m a feminist and a grown-up tomboy. I actively support equal rights for LGBT people, and I actively resist bullying and hate. In fact not a few LGBT persons have come out against trans extremism. These include Buck Angel, Blair White, and Caitlyn Jenner, who, in March, 2024, argued against males competing against females in sports. “Trans women are competing against women, taking valuable opportunities for the long-protected class under Title IX, and causing physical harm,” Jenner said. In 2022, Blair White, a man who identifies as a woman, tweeted that “A transgender 4 year old is like a vegan cat. We all know who’s making the lifestyle choices.” In other words, adults steer children to choose trans identities.
If someone asked me if the Starbuck film were anti-extremism or simply anti-GLBT, I’d have to confess that I suspect that the filmmakers don’t like GLBT people. I could be wrong but I wish their film had made things more clear.
I don’t agree with the Starbucks’ diagnosis of the core problem. I don’t think that those who dump pesticides into water supplies, those who trans kids, Hugh Hefner, falling church attendance, kids’ addiction to media and their not playing outside, and the management of TikTok are all part of some vast, coordinated conspiracy. I think that some of the phenomena they address are related, and others are not.
Most importantly, I think that the source of all these problems is us, not them. We are the ones not going to church. We are the ones patronizing porn. We are the ones who are not volunteering to lead scout troops or mentor fatherless youth. We are the ones having sex outside of marriage or not maintaining close and self-sacrificial family ties. We are the parents who plop kids down in front of screens to buy ourselves some quiet time. We are the ones who spray destructive chemicals on our lawns, chemicals that flow into the river and sink into the water supply. It’s not Republicans or Democrats or Christians or Atheists. It’s not them. It’s us.
Capitalism made all these choices possible for us. Yes, centuries ago, our ancestors lived in villages where people had to conform and multiple choices for questionable recreational activities were not available to us. Now we can access the most vile porn with the mere slide of a computer mouse.
I’m a vocal proponent of the benefit of religious observance in the Judeo-Christian tradition. Alas, religiosity is no cure for child abuse. Every religious denomination, Catholicism, Protestantism, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism has had its sexual abuse scandals. In any case many Americans, unlike the Starbucks, are not Christian.
Nor is the vote for a Republican a cure-all. I’ve been in educational institutions in the US for decades. These institutions have been dominated by Marxism-light and sometimes full on Marxism under Republican presidents and Democratic presidents. No matter who is in the White House, corporations and billionaires like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk are going to use their clout to manipulate the gullible and the vulnerable. If corporations decide to stop doing business in a given state because of its policies, very few politicians from any party will stand up to them. Check the statistics. Divorce, abortion, and porn are all found in red states and blue states, and they are all evident under Republican and Democratic presidencies.
When it comes to porn or pesticides, trans extremism or empty church pews and kids with no adults willing to take time to show them the way, the solution is not outside us. The solutions are within each of us, in our day to day choices.
Danusha Goska is the author of God Through Binoculars: A Hitchhiker at a Monastery.
“…self-sacrificial family ties.”
Self-sacrificial family ties is when a Muslima wants to be independent and have a career but her Muslim family denies her an education and forces her to have ten children for Allah.
Only a parent who loves their child SELFISHLY and rationally can have the rational motivation and the rational intention to raise that child rationally, lovingly, and benevolently.
“PLAYBOY:
Do you believe that women as well as men should organize their lives around work—and if so, what kind of work?
RAND:
Of course. I believe that women are human beings. What is proper for a man is proper for a woman. The basic principles are the same. I would not attempt to prescribe what kind of work a man should do, and I would not attempt it in regard to women. There is no particular work which is specifically feminine. Women can choose their work according to their own purpose and premises in the same manner as men do.
PLAYBOY:
In your opinion, is a woman immoral who chooses to devote herself to home and family instead of a career?
RAND:
Not immoral—I would say she is impractical, because a home cannot be a full-time occupation, except when her children are young. However, if she wants a family and wants to make that her career, at least for a while, it would be proper—if she approaches it as a career, that is, if she studies the subject, if she defines the rules and principles by which she wants to bring up her children, if she approaches her task in an intellectual manner. It is a very responsible task and a very important one, but only when treated as a science, not as a mere emotional indulgence.
“Playboy Interview: Ayn Rand,”
Playboy, March, 1964
Wow, 1964. Always up to date with the Rand/Lenny interviews. Where do you keep them so you can retrieve them at moments notice?
Are you sure that you and your girlfriend are the ones to be dispensing advice about child rearing?
And were you tripping over yourself to be the first to get a comment up?
Guess what T. She still won’t date you.
“The War on Children” seems very histrionic and clumsy. Based on your article, I’m not going to watch it, although I know it isn’t your intention to prevent people from watching it. It just seems not worth watching.
I think you’d be better off watching “Cabrini” again, Goska.
Boy is that movie good. That chick was just too tough to give up against what were supposed to be insurmountable odds….but they weren’t insurmountable for her! She charmed the Pope, brought out the humanity in the corrupt Mayor of New York City, had the local Archbishop tell her he admired her and even dug up water with her sisters on land the Jesuits failed to do. (I’m not a big fan of the Jesuits. Commies, if you ask me.) In the movie, she was a bit sanctimonious and haughty but her bravery and determination were inspiring. Strong work and an odd acumen for real estate were her answer to everything, and I admire that.
Anyway, you wrote an article about Cabrini which inspired me to get off my ass and watch it, so I appreciate that. The movie is long but not long enough, in my opinion. At least when we watch that movie, we feel good. I don’t need to be preached to by a documentary.
So glad you liked “Cabrini” !
For leftists(liberals, progressives, marxists, whatever they are called) child sacrifice is the highest honor and is to be sought ahead of all other goals. It doesn’t matter whether it’s teaching children moral relativism, sexualizing them, aborting them, mutilating them, or just warping their minds and spitefully using them to achieve their political goals it is their offering to the father of lies. I believe we have already started but it will take 3 generations to take back the institutions of education with a positive and much more attractive and exciting vision for the youth of freedom and openness of ideas. There is a great yearning among people to return to traditional values and community, they just don’t know what it is anymore.
Slavery, misogyny, child labor, tribalism, feudalism, Divine Monarchy, these are all traditional “values”.
In the “good” ole days (and today in the third world) families had as many children as possible, not out of love, but from the need to survive and because there was no reliable contraception. If the child was sickly it was abandoned and left to die or killed outright.
The “good” ole traditional days were not all that good.
What men need to live and flourish are rational values regardless of whether a value is ancient or new. Rational values are values consonant and harmonious with man’s nature and the demands of the facts of reality.
“The “neo-conservatives” are now trying to tell us that America was the product of “faith in revealed truths” and of uncritical respect for the traditions of the past (!).
It is certainly irrational to use the “new” as a standard of value, to believe that an idea or a policy is good merely because it is new. But it is much more preposterously irrational to use the “old” as a standard of value, to claim that an idea or a policy is good merely because it is ancient. The “liberals” are constantly asserting that they represent the future, that they are “new,” “progressive,” “forward-looking,” etc.—and they denounce the “conservatives” as old-fashioned representatives of a dead past. The “conservatives” concede it, and thus help the “liberals” to propagate one of today’s most grotesque inversions: collectivism, the ancient, frozen, status society, is offered to us in the name of progress—while capitalism, the only free, dynamic, creative society ever devised, is defended in the name of stagnation…. (continued below)
Hi again THX – Or, as Ecclesiastes 7:10 says: Do not say, “Why were the former days better than these?” for it is not out of wisdom that you ask this..” Another Bible translation renders this verse: “Never ask, ‘Oh, why were things so much better in the old days?’ It’s not an intelligent question.”
We have the example of the ancient Israelites recorded for us in the Hebrew Scriptures. After leaving Egypt, they quickly forgot how hard their life had been there. Instead, they focused on the good food they had enjoyed. They said: “How fondly we remember the fish that we used to eat without cost in Egypt, also the cucumbers, the watermelons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic!” (Num. 11:5) But was it really “without cost” that they ate that food? No. The Israelites paid a heavy price; at the time, they were being severely oppressed as slaves in Egypt. (Ex. 1:13, 14; 3:6-9)
How easily we can make the same mistake today. But not if we pay attention to God’s inspired word, his message to us. Then we can look forward to the paradise earth that lies ahead, under the loving rule of the heavenly government, the Kingdom of God.
Hello Sue, it’s always nice to hear from you, your decency and good will are always evident and appreciated.
May you live long and prosper.
I don’t know what sick world you live in. Your list of so-called traditional values are not values at all. They are simply a very partial history of what happened over the years. Most of them have been rejected except perhaps in the more backwards areas of the world. But nice try in your efforts to project them onto our world.
If you really want to “change the world” Mr. Messiah, which seems to be your endless obsession, how about actually going to those parts of the world where those values still exist and try to get these people to change. You will be lucky if you don’t get your head handed to you.
So many things to fix in your world….so little time. And you can’t change anything by writing little anti-altruism missives on a lightly traveled comment board.
“The plea to preserve “tradition” as such, can appeal only to those who have given up or to those who never intended to achieve anything in life. It is a plea that appeals to the worst elements in men and rejects the best: it appeals to fear, sloth, cowardice, conformity, self-doubt—and rejects creativeness, originality, courage, independence, self-reliance. It is an outrageous plea to address to human beings anywhere, but particularly outrageous here, in America, the country based on the principle that man must stand on his own feet, live by his own judgment, and move constantly forward as a productive, creative innovator.
The argument that we must respect “tradition” as such, respect it merely because it is a “tradition,” means that we must accept the values other men have chosen, merely because other men have chosen them—with the necessary implication of: who are we to change them? The affront to a man’s self-esteem, in such an argument, and the profound contempt for man’s nature are obvious….
America was created by men who broke with all political traditions and who originated a system unprecedented in history, relying on nothing but the “unaided” power of their own intellect.” – Ayn Rand, “Conservatism: An Obituary”
Ms. Rand I think misses the point that men relying on the power of their own intellect assumes they have an intellect in the first place, something sadly not always true. Further, usurping tradition has the unintended consequence of destroying cultural identity and the social cohesion that goes with it. This results in cultural chaos. We are seeing that in spades in the USA.
Interesting response, but I live in the real world, not the world of philosophical gobbeldygook.
OMG, another homework assignment from our rezidentura scold….a 60 year old lecture on how we never practice capitalism…..and yet we are surrounded by the evidence of capitalism in practice on every street in every city.
Your problem is it’s not Ayn Rand’s version of capitalism….thank God.
Thanks T….I’ll pass. I have a life to get on with.
This Global Warming/Climate Change is a perfect example on the Brainwashing their dong to the Kids Greta Thunberg is a example of this all of the Government Run Schools
A thorough review of a movie that, unfortunately, opens the door for those supporting the policies it descries to criticize its approach.
As you say, Professor Goska, “We are the ones” who need to take responsibility for and try to heal our culture and civilization.
Another thoughtful and deeply researched review.
Thank you!
Charles, thank you so much.
Thank you for another intelligent review. The first question I would ask (I’ve not seen this yet) is who is the target audience? If Starbuck intended this for younger audiences, then perhaps the overstimulated approach (reptile brain) works more effectively, considering the current state of youthful attention spans. OTOH, since Starbuck learned his trade in music videos, perhaps that’s all he can do. Either way, I do applaud him for bringing this out for discussion.
I think that our fearless leaders are doing experiments on us and our children. How terrible! First there’s partial birth abortion and the sale of body parts, for the good of all mankind sort of speak. And then there’s the Covid shots with all of the detrimental side effects. Some of those, the vaccinated, will not discover their ailments until years later. Do I trust big Pharma? NO! Just as Yeshua said, “Physician, heal thyself.” (Luke 4:23)
The kids seem too dependent on someone other than their parents. Perhaps their parents are too busy working at a job and trust the school system to take care of them. Idk Ever since Christine Jorgensen hit the stage, I can’t believe how our government schools (and in some cases even religious schools) have taken on the banner of experimental science on confused and vulnerable youth.
I made it through another Danusha Goska review but it was compelling so I didn’t mind so much., I can agree with some of her conclusions about the nature of our society. We are losing our way. Godliness has lost at least some of its appeal to us. We weren’t meant to live this wretched way. It doesn’t work. It pollutes us.
It takes work to build and maintain a workable and decent culture and defend it against temptation and corruption. It also takes a spiritual nature and the faith in a higher being. We don’t seem to be able to do it on our own. I know, that sounds so uncool at a time when people want to act cool and look hot.
God is much better at handling things than we are. And if anyone wants to say “well, I’m an atheist”. Big deal, What does that prove? I used to be one myself. Is what we call intellect going to save us from ourselves?
We’ve had thousands of years to figure things out and it’s been thousands of years of misery, horror and oppression.
We could make the case that the human race is mentally ill. Is the Bible too quaint or uncool because it calls it sin instead? Does THAT make the Bible unreliable? How many people have even read the Bible before dismissing it?
And don’t blame God for what’s happened. It’s certainly not His fault. We need to try being on His side. No matter what.
Your comment reminds me again of my favorite Chesterton remark, that the real tragedy of a man who no longer believes in God is not that he believes in nothing but rather will believe in anything. I think the current trans wokeness fits the “anything” catagory nicely.
“God is much better at handling things than we are. And if anyone wants to say “well, I’m an atheist”. Big deal, What does that prove? I used to be one myself. Is what we call intellect going to save us from ourselves?,,, How many people have even read the Bible before dismissing it?”
How was penicillin and anti-biotics discovered? How was the internal combustion engine invented? How did man go from living in caves to living in skyscrapers? By the proper use of his intellect! How did man get to the moon? Man’s proper use of his intellect. What makes it possible for you to comment here? The internet and computer technology are the product of man’s proper use of his intellect.
If you want to believe in God, that’s your right. But God helps those who help themselves, not simply getting on your knees, praying, and waiting to be saved by God.
“Nothing can raise a country’s productivity except technology, and technology is the final product of a complex of sciences (including philosophy), each of them kept alive and moving by the achievements of a few independent minds. [by man’s proper and moral use of his intellect]…
If you consider, not merely the length, but the kind of life men have to lead in the undeveloped parts of the world—“the quality of life,” to borrow, with full meaning, the ecologists’ meaningless catch phrase—if you consider the squalor, the misery, the helplessness, the fear, the unspeakably hard labor, the festering diseases, the plagues, the starvation, you will begin to appreciate the role of technology in man’s existence….
Have you ever looked for the root of production? Take a look at an electric generator and dare tell yourself that it was created by the muscular effort of unthinking brutes. Try to grow a seed of wheat without the knowledge left to you by men who had to discover it for the first time. Try to obtain your food by means of nothing but physical motions—and you’ll learn that man’s mind is the root of all the goods produced and of all the wealth that has ever existed on earth.” – Ayn Rand
Do you know what medieval Christianity was? It was pure and puritan Christianity, it was actual fundamentalist Christianity.
It was thoroughly serious and thoroughly literal Christianity. It was Christianity pushed to its ultimate logical and complete meaning.
Man because of Original Sin is depraved by nature. Life on earth is a punishment for disobedience of God. Man’s intellect is impotent to understand reality. His only chance at happiness is renunciation, ascetism, and self-sacrifice and praying on his knees for grace and salvation and maybe gaining entrance to Heaven after death.
You’re a modern Christian living in a modern and secularized West, enjoying the technological, capitalist, benefits of that secularization. And you have no idea, none at all, what Christianity in its pure, unsecularized, form transforms into. In its pure, fundamentalist, form Christianity becomes a brutal theocracy of abject renunciation and poverty.
“What were the practical results of the medieval approach? The Dark Ages were dark on principle. Augustine fought against secular philosophy, science, art; he regarded all of it as an abomination to be swept aside; he cursed science in particular as “the lust of the eyes.” Unlike many Americans today, who drive to church in their Cadillac or tape their favorite reverend on the VCR so as not to interrupt their tennis practice, the medievals took religion seriously. They proceeded to create a society that was anti-materialistic and anti-intellectual. I do not have to remind you of the lives of the saints, who were the heroes of the period, including the men who ate only sheep’s gall and ashes, quenched their thirst with laundry water, and slept with a rock for their pillow. These were men resolutely defying nature, the body, sex, pleasure, all the snares of this life — and they were canonized for it, as, by the essence of religion, they should have been. The economic and social results of this kind of value code were inevitable; mass stagnation and abject poverty, ignorance and mass illiteracy, waves of insanity that swept whole towns, a life expectancy in the teens. “Woe unto ye who laugh now,” the Sermon on the Mount had said. Well, they were pretty safe on this count. They had precious little to laugh about.” – Leonard Peikoff, “Religion versus America”
From what I remember of you, you don’t believe in charity. Am I wrong? But say whatever you like. We should be seeking God and learning from Him. If you don’t want to. then don’t. That’s obviously your choice as a free moral agent. But you are not the only one who gets to comment. If my posts anger you, then ignore them. Or wear yourself out criticizing them if you feel like doing that. But on the day you come face to face with the Creator, come up with something better to say.
He has already told you He loves you and even died for you.
If you want to praise technology, then also, go ahead and do that. but if you boil it all down, technology has made only a few things possible: it has made it possible for more people to live on this planet at one time and it has made it possible to kill more people at once. Look at Moscow, Ukraine, Israel, Syria. The bloodiest war in human history was only about 80 years ago. Millions, scores of millions, were killed. We used nukes on humans. What do you think of that technology?
It is God’s hope to make us into givers and forgivers. In other words, have a heart that cares about others. Help others, because life is difficult. Have charity because there is need. for it.
There should be no pride or ego in that, just caring. It is supposed to be our mission to help those babies who won’t make it to their 28th day of life. To get help to those mothers who can only find some leaves to make a bitter tea to serve their children. This is reality on Earth today.
Intellect isn’t enough. A caring spirit aligned with God’s purpose does bring help to those who need it. Imagine a world where more people see that.
“From what I remember of you, you don’t believe in charity. Am I wrong? ”
You’re wrong, as an Objectivist I believe in charity. Rational, freely chosen, selective, and discriminating charity. Rational, voluntary, and efficacious charity.
I believe in NON-SACRIFICIAL charity, in other words charity that does not harm you or others. First, do no harm, to yourself, or to others.
Should I donate to Hamas? Should I donate to the United Nations? Should I donate to Obama? Should I donate to the drug addict or alcoholic on the street corner who is begging for money to get his next fix or bottle?
Charity and helping others is NOT intrinsically good, charity can be evil and destructive. Throwing money at problems does not solve problems.
And above all, charity is not a duty, but a choice. Charity is a minor virtue at best, what do I mean by that? I mean that charity is wholly dependent on PRODUCTION. Production is the major virtue on which charity wholly depends. Before you can feed a hungry person who cannot feed himself, you must first be able to produce enough food for yourself to survive and prosper and then produce enough extra food for the hungry person. That’s what Reverend Ike meant by saying, “The best thing you can do for the poor is not be poor yourself but if you feel compelled to help a poor man don’t give him a fish to eat, teach him how to fish”.
“My views on charity are very simple. I do not consider it a major virtue and, above all, I do not consider it a moral duty. There is nothing wrong in helping other people, if and when they are worthy of the help and you can afford to help them. I regard charity as a marginal issue. What I am fighting is the idea that charity is a moral duty and a primary virtue.” – Ayn Rand
Bible: “Their vine comes from the vine of Sodom and from the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are filled with poison, and their clusters with bitterness”.