The Turtoises And The Rabbits

One metaphor that we see all sorts of people currently use is the one between the rabbits and the tortoises. The rabbit is faster than the tortoise; but the tortoise outdoes the rabbit through deliberate committed effort.

I am reminded of the Brazilian soccer team. For a long time the Brazilian soccer team had the flair but not the discipline. They would play scintillating soccer; but they would lose. So then they had a coach who corrected that state of affairs. Under him, the Brazilian soccer team would play boring soccer; but they would win.

In the last two world cups they had neither the flair nor the discipline, and they played boring soccer and went down in flaming defeat.

There are implications for this in all sorts of things that are more important than soccer.

For a long time, when faced with men's success at achieving economic and political power, women decided that they were going to copy men. In the process they denied what they were as women. And this allowed some of them to get political and economic power even as they militated against the qualities in women that are superior to those of men.

My mother had a sign on her refrigerator that said that “women who want to be equal with men lack ambition.” She achieved significant success in computer industry, but she remained very much a woman through all this situation. She is very beautiful, very compassionate and very kind. People like her have a lot to teach feminists.

And no, I do not lust after her.

When faced with the success of a different or a hostile social group, it is valid to see what they have done in order to achieve this success. It is in no way valid to deny what you are in the process. If tortoises win through a determined effort, then it is valid to learn from them the habits of the determined effort. It is not valid to deny as a process what you are as a rabbit.

The women who want to be copy to bad men may in fact achieve professional success, but they will not be happy as a result. They will only be happy if they learn from the men what they have to learn from the men while remaining women in the process. Right now, in America at least, we are seeing women from places such as Slovenia achieving great success and great influence. They have every right to this success and they have the right to this influence. They are women who have learned what they had to learn from men while themselves remaining women.

This confusion therefore stands to be solved through correct learning of historical lessons. There are men who have learned to be effective in one way or another, and there are women who have learned to be effective by learning one thing or another that has been appropriaxed by men. Joan of Arc achieved great success – and respect for the women in her own country – by beating men at their own game. She did not do so by becoming mean or ignorant in the process.

I have every interest in seeing women advance in society. That stands to benefit women such as my mother and my daughter. I however have no interest in seeing women become an inferior imitation of bad men. If I wanted another man, I would be a homosexual. Whereas I have interest interest in seeing women who are genuinely good people advance.

Are turtoises capable of advancing? Of course they are capable of advancing. But that does not mean that rabbits have to adopt the worst course fallicies of turtoises in order to advance as well. Learn from the tortoises what you have to learn, while yourself remaining rabbits. And then you will achieve a success that is owed to rabbits regardless of what turtoises around you happen to do.