Live Free or Die

The state motto of New Hampshire. Much in the news at the moment, as there’s some sort of presidential primary going on there today. It’s rather worked its way into my core, as I largely agree with it; I’m not frightened of death, and I am very frightened of living without freedom. Obviously not in the sense that most Americans, including those in New Hampshire, understand it; Americans live in a state of slavery to their employers which I would find rather comparable to life in Nazi Germany. I have to say, though, that (in feminist parlance) freedom is not an absolute value but a gendered preference; women don’t believe in it at all. I wonder if Hillary Clinton has the brass neck to cry “Live Free or Die!” to the voters of New Hampshire. If she does, fifty quid says she gets the horse’s laugh.

Women don’t believe in freedom for each other. Look at the whole “fashion victim” business, and the diet and thinness obsession. It isn’t caused by men, though no doubt some men see chances to make money out of it. It’s caused by women who have made the sacrifices just not being willing to accept other women not having bothered to do so. Women who are thin have suffered to be thin, and they aren’t prepared to see anyone not undergoing the same suffering. It’s all part of Cipriano’s First Law of the Perpetuation of Oppression: If you’ve eaten shit, the last thing you want to see is someone not enjoying their lovely faeces.

And, of course, once a woman gets her hooks in a man, it’s like the Red Army in Eastern Europe in 1945. There will be free elections, except everyone knows who has to win them. Any kind of objection is depicted as a typical example of outdated reactionary revanchism, and thus is usually stifled before it is expressed. You want to spend some time on your own? Sorry, that wasn’t part of the deal, and how on earth could you have possibly thought that it was? That’s really hurtful and inconsiderate. Don‘t you understand that you’re in a Relationship now? The idea that any of your time or your money is your own is the ultimate betrayal. As regards betrayal, women have completely reversed the old male double standard on infidelity. They see a huge crime in sleeping with another woman’s man, but if the man is single it’s no problem, even for married women. That’s not infidelity at all.

And the way a woman who has landed a man turns her brain off. Immediately, all responsibility for any sort of arrangement becomes yours. No address, phone number, or any other practical fact is ever remembered again. She might have been running her life successfully for ten years before she met you; all that stops instantly. Suddenly you are responsible for everything in the world, and had better accept this with a stiff upper lip; the slightest visible wavering will never be forgiven.

Work is horrible, and bears no resemblance to any sort of freedom, but is embraced by many men as the only permitted way to get out of the house. Brits and Americans, in particular, are notorious for staying impossibly long in the office; what this mainly shows is how reluctant they are to go home.

Isn’t it time we started making it clear that we dump them when they become unbearable, or even moderately difficult? And that we’re prepared to take ourselves beyond the reach of divorce courts? After all, it’s not worth any divorced guy working in the West. Thailand, for instance. Just think of it. Thirty quid a go, max. A clear improvement on "all your money and all your time, forever". And don't take any notice of people who say it's shameful to pay for it. Everybody fucking pays for it. The only question is how much.