NYT Response

(In response to Thomas B. Edsall's "The Gender War, 2018 Edition"

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/25/opinion/gender-gap-midterms-2018.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage#commentsContainer

It may well be that a major obstacle to women's progress is the belief, especially among women and Democrats, that male behavior is primarily determined by social influences, and that if men were just parented differently, or schooled differently, their behavior would change. Gradually, it is assumed, society would change and eventually women would be safe.

There is no doubt that humankind has already seen this, has already progressed from barbarism to 'civilization'. Fits and starts, for sure. But social progress.

And yet, to thsi day, in spite of mothers telling their sons to be 'good boys', in spite of laws and Golden Rules and parental example, boys go through the hormonal transition and become 'men'. Then, when they're away from Mom, when they're among other boys, each of them obeys genes that tell him to claim his manhood, to take risks, to experience the thrills of hunting, war, violence, conquest and sex.
Throughout humankind's entire 3 million years, societies in which the young men responded to these calls, in which they became the courageous hunters and warriors, these societies had health and security.

But now we've filled the Earth. The tumult we experience is evidence that we are in the process of becoming a global village. The majority of people want peace. They want to save the natural world.

Among the masses, however, are males still driven to invade, conquer and subjugate. The drive will not go away just because society says it should.