Book Review: The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love by Bell Hooks

 

Bell Hooks says that militant feminism gave women permission to unleash their rage and hatred at men but it did not allow us to talk about what it meant to love men in patriarchal culture, to know how we could express that love without fear of exploitation and oppression. To simply label men as oppressors and dismiss them meant we never had to give voice to the gaps in our understanding or to talk about maleness in complex ways. She believes that feminist thinking and practice are the only way in which the crises of masculinity can be addressed.

The author writes that ‘we live in a culture where emotionally starved, deprived females are desperately seeking male love.’ She admits that many women cannot hear male pain about love because it sounds like an indictment of female failure. Moreover, she also writes about her own case where she did not want to hear about her partner’s feelings and pain. Moreover, in the book the author says that majority of the patriarchal attitudes are taught by mothers. These attitudes are reinforced in schools and religious institutions.

The author states that dismantling and changing patriarchal culture is the work that men and women must do together (p. 24). Further in the book, the author writes that feminist researchers are often unwilling or reluctant to target practical thinking. She believes that when men embrace feminist thinking and practice, which emphasizes the value of mutual growth and self-actualization in all relationships, their emotional well-being will be enhanced.

The popularization of gangsta rap, spearheaded by white male executives in the music industry, gave a public voice to patriarchy and woman-hating. The author views contemporary books and movies offer clear portraits of the evils of patriarchy without offering any direction for change. In her view until there is creation of a popular culture that affirms and celebrates masculinity without upholding patriarchy, there will be no change in the way masses of males think about the nature of their identity.

Further in the book, the author writes that it is possible to critique patriarchy without hating men. Without citing any figures, the author states that working women are far more likely than other women to be irritable. She states that ‘women want to be recognized, seen, and cared about by the men in our lives.’ She further stresses that love cannot exist with domination.

In the concluding chapter the author writes that those of us who love men do not want to continue our journey without them. We need them beside us because we love them. She believes that a culture of healing that empowers males to change is in the making. Healing does not take place in isolation. Men who love and men who long to love know this. She stresses that women should stand by them, with open hearts and open arms (p. 188).

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Book Review: Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics by Joseph S. Nye, Jr.

 

Power is the ability to influence the behavior of others to get the outcomes one wants. This can be done through coerce by threats, induce them with payments or through attraction and co-option. Soft power is the ability to get what you want through attraction rather than coercion or payments. When you can get others to admire your ideals and to want what you want, you do not have to spend as much on sticks and carrots to move them in your direction. The U.S government spends four hundred times more on hard power than on soft power.

Soft power involves agenda setting, attraction and co-opt. Government policies at home and abroad are another potential source of soft power. For example, in the 1950s racial segregation at home undercut American soft power in Africa. Much of American soft power has been produced by Hollywood, Harvard, Microsoft, and Michael Jordan. It is true that firms, universities, foundations, churches, and other nongovernmental groups develop soft power of their own that may reinforce or be at odds with official foreign policy goals. Credibility is an important source of soft power.

The author categorizes power into three types. This includes military power, economic power and soft power. He further stresses that soft power is not a constant, but something that varies by time and space. Stating culture as a source of soft power, the author quotes Secretary of State Colin Power saying that ‘I can think of no more valuable asset to our country than the friendship of future world leaders who have been educated here.’ He further argues that hard power created the stand-off of military containment, but soft power eroded the Soviet system from within.

Regarding the soft power of NGOs, the author says that the information revolution has greatly enhanced it. NGOs and network organizations have soft-power resources and do not hesitate to use them. The early efforts of soft-power resources can be observed in France. In the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century France promoted its culture. One example is the creation of Alliance Francaise in 1883 for the promotion of French language and literature. In Britain BBC was founded in 1922 which later broadcasted in all major European languages. As far as the United States is concerned VOA broadcasts in 53 languages to an estimated audience pf 91 million people (p. 104).

The author mentions three dimensions of public diplomacy. First is daily communication which involves explaining the context of domestic and foreign policy decisions. Second, is strategic communication in which a set of simple themes is developed, much like what occurs in a political or advertising campaign. Third is the development of lasting relationships with key individuals over many years through scholarships, exchanges, training, seminars, conferences, and access to media channels.

The author believes that the United States cannot meet the new threat identified in the national security strategy without the cooperation of other countries. He creates a need for learning how to better combine hard and soft power to meet new challenges. He wants the budget of public diplomacy to be doubled. In the concluding paragraph of the last chapter the author stresses that ‘America’s success will depend upon our developing a deeper understanding of the role of soft power and developing a better balance of hard and soft power in our foreign policy. That will be smart power. We have done it before; we can do it again.’

Ney emphasizes that soft power will help America deal with critical global issues that require multilateral cooperation.

 

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Book Review: One-Dimensional Man by Herbert Marcuse

 

In 1940s there were two tendencies within the history of Critical Theory. First, the philosophical-cultural analysis of the trends of Western civilization developed by Horkheimer and Adorno in Dialectic of Enlightenment. Second, the more practical-political development of Critical Theory as a theory of social change proposed by Marcuse and Neumann. For them, Critical Theory would be developed as a theory of social change that would connect philosophy, social theory, and radical politics- precisely the project of 1930s Critical Theory that Horkheimer and Adorno were abandoning in the early 1940s in their turn toward philosophical and cultural criticism divorced from social theory and radical politics.  Horkheimer and Adorno had neglected the theory of social change. It is exactly what Marcuse and Neumann were focusing on.

One-Dimensional Man was first published in 1964. It critiques the new modes of domination and social control. As capitalism and technology developed, advanced industrial society demanded increasing accommodation to the economic and social apparatus and submission to increasing domination and administration. Marcuse writes that independence of thought, autonomy, and the right to political opposition are being deprived of their basic critical function in a society. According to him, political power asserts itself through its power over the machine process and over the technical organization of the apparatus.

He distinguishes between true and false needs.  According to him, the need to relax, to have fun, to behave and consume in accordance with the advertisements, to love and hate what others love and hate, belong to this category of false needs. The distinguishing feature of advanced industrial society is its effective suffocation of those needs which demand liberation- liberation also from that which is tolerable and rewarding and comfortable- while it sustains and absolves the destructive power and repressive function of the affluent society.

The means of mass transportation and communication, the commodities of lodging, food, and clothing, the irresistible output of the entertainment and information industry carry with them prescribed attitudes and habits, certain intellectual and emotional reactions which bind the consumers more or less pleasantly to the producers and, through the latter, to the whole. The products indoctrinate and manipulate. They promote a false consciousness. The indoctrination becomes a way of life. Thus, emerges a pattern of one-dimensional thought and behavior.

Technology rationality reveals its political character as it becomes the great vehicle of better domination, creating a truly totalitarian universe in which society and nature, mind and body are kept in a state of permanent mobilization for the defense of this universe (p.20).  

Just as people know or feel that advertisements and political platforms must not be necessarily true or right, and yet hear and read them and even let themselves be guided by them, so they accept the traditional values and make them part of their mental equipment. Domination has its own aesthetics, and democratic domination has its democratic aesthetics. It is good that almost everyone can now have the fine arts at his fingertips, by just turning a knob on his set, or by just stepping into his drugstore. In this diffusion, however, they become cogs in a culture-machine which remakes their content.

The rulers of the world are losing their metaphysical features. Their appearance on television, at press conferences, in parliament, and at public hearings is hardly suitable for drama beyond that of the advertisement, while the consequences of their actions surpass the scope of the drama (p.74). Free election of masters does not abolish the masters of the slaves (p.10).

The established societies themselves are changing, or have already changed the basic institutions in the direction of increased planning. In Marcuse’s view the power of reason and freedom are declining in the late industrial society. With the increasing concentration and effectiveness of economic, political, and cultural controls, the opposition in all these fields has been pacified, coordinated, or liquidated. One-dimensional man means conforming to existing thought and behavior and lacking a critical dimension and a dimension of potentialities that transcend the existing society. ‘’One-dimensional man’’ has lost, or is losing, individuality, freedom, and the ability to dissent and to control one’s own destiny.

Marcuse was one of the first theorists to analyze consumer society through analyzing how consumerism, advertising, mass culture, and ideology integrate individuals into and stabilize the capitalist system. One-dimensional man does not know it’s true needs because its needs are not its own- they are administered, superimposed, and heteronomous; it is not able to resist domination, nor to act autonomously, for it identifies with public behavior and imitates an submits to the powers that be. Lacking the power of authentic self-activity, one dimensional man submits to increasingly total domination (xxviii).

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Book Review: Bhopal Connections Vignettes of Royal Rule by Shaharyar Muhammed Khan

 

Khan, the grandson of the last ruling Nawab of Bhopal writes about the dramatic events, characters, scandals, social practices, culture and history of Bhopal. Specific attention has been given to the four successive women rulers of Bhopal. Some of the social customs are shown through the lens of foreigners including Badcock, and Marjorie Memsahib. The first part of the book covers the history of Bhopal and the second part covers the contemporary anecdotes.

The Bhopal state was founded by Dost Muhammad Khan, an Orakzai Pashtun soldier in the Mughal army. As a result of the Anglo-Bhopal treaty Bhopal became a state in 1818. Bhopal was ruled by four begums from 1819 to 1926. Bhopal had a French connection. Before Nadir Shah attacked India in 1739, the French people had moved their estate. At Shergarh, the Bourbons built a housing colony church, school and a small fortress. They mainly married into the Indian Christian community. Still in Bhopal there is presence of the French people.

Bhopal was very loyal to the British. The mutiny of August 1857 had reached the princely state of Bhopal as it was one of the most loyal supporters of the British. The ruler at that time was Sikander Begum. According to the author, once she slapped the British Political Agent Lancelot Wilkinson in public, when he touched her ear-ring. The Rani of Jhansi challenged her (Sikander Begum) because she was a British loyalist. She accepted the challenge threating her by firearms. By December 1857 the Rani of Jhansi was killed in battle. Sikander Begum took control over the state. The British recognized the services of Sikander Begum.

The author of the book states the Sikander Begum went to the famous Jama Masjid in Delhi. This masjid was converted by the British as a stable for their horses. Sikander ordered the closure of the stable and gave a large sum for the renovation of the mosque. In Bhopal the ruling elite sought permission from the British regarding matters of marriage.

In 1911, Sultan Jahan Begum, the fourth Begum of Bhopal embarked on a journey to Europe. She attended the coronation of King George V. She also visited Paris and the embarked in a train towards Istanbul. She was disappointed to see that women were wearing high heels and frocks. The Turk Sultan wanted to confer an award on her, but the British did not approve of this. The Begum was very disappointed.

The second half of the book covers interesting stories about Maimoona, the Prince of Wales’ Tiger Hunt, Badcock, Marjorie Memsahib, The Cricket Match and Maan Saab (the second Begum of Junagadh). The author of the book mentions Badcock as the royal butler who served for twenty-three years. He first served the Begum of Bhopal in 1925. The Begum was there to plead the succession of her surviving son, Hamidullah Khan.

In 1921 the Prince of Wales reached India. He visited Bhopal for hunting tigers. For the hunting guests, it was said that back then the tigers were drugged and hunted. The hunters remained unaware of this. In some cases, circus tigers were also used to please the guests.

The story of Mubarak who leaves for London to sell a necklace is very interesting (p.120). Mubarak meets a lady in London. She accompanies him to India. The stories of Nawab of Junagadh and his wife shows their opulent lifestyle and their treatment of subordinates. Once the Nawab ordered his minions to throw a young Pathan tennis coach to the hungry lions, as he developed a crush on the Nawab’s flirtatious daughter.

Maan Saab, the abandoned wife of the Nawab needed the company of men. She collected a few gigolos from the feudal gentry of Bhopal. When Bano, a maid of Maan Saab urinated in her bathroom, Maan Saab gave her a thorough beating. She was in a hurry so she ordered Allah Rakhi to teach her a lesson. She was so brutally tortured that she passed away. Maan Saab was arrested and served sixteen months in prison.

The author tries to recreate life and times of the rulers of Bhopal. Some of the interesting points in the book include the women rulers, loyalty to the British, French connections, tiger hunts and the meeting between the ruler of Bhopal and the Ottoman Sultan.

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