sessing or exercising them. The VirginiarnMilitary Institute’s “rat line,” a typicallyrnmale institution for the breaking ofrnyoung colts by stallions, is horrific ifrnmanned by males, but somehow terrificrnif populated by sweating, shorn, andrnswearing females. Men’s-club or lockerroomrncamaraderie is reprehensible, butrnthe same behavior transposed to a femalernkey is right on. Boys and men arernridiculed (and medicated) for havingrn”testosterone poisoning,” while womenrnbulk up on steroids to win Olympicrnmedals.rnNow there are those who suspect thatrnthis massive female invasion of male turfrnis only a scheme hatched by levelers andrnpacifists to neuter men’s warlike naturernand thereby destroy “militarism” fromrnwithin. And such may well be the case;rncertainly this is the aim of Patsy Schroederrnand the next Chief Justice of thernSupreme Court, Ruth Bader Ginsburg.rnAny wicked fairy tale can come true inrnthe Age of Clinton.rnNevertheless, the female masses arernnot wise to the plot. They have boughtrnand swallowed the regendering programrnwhole. In high schools and collegesrnthroughout the country, it is verboten forrngirls to admit they would like to be wivesrnand mothers when they grow up. Thernonly way to escape the program—and arnway increasing numbers of desperate girlsrnare taking—is to get pregnant and optrnout of “higher education” altogether.rnFor the rest, their lives as women will be,rnand in many cases already have been,rnsacrificed to the dizzyingly swift ongoingrninversion of all values. Thus we get therngrisly spectacle of women lobbying passionatelyrnfor partial-birth abortions whilernunderstandably crazed men shoot uprnabortuaries. The former protected statusrnof women as the more vulnerable sex willrnprobably never recover. Women face thernworst of both worlds: vulnerability andrn”equality.”rnDaughters brought up motherless dornnot learn to be mothers. Mothedess sonsrndo not learn to respect or love women.rnSuch denatured generations are swiftlyrnarising to overtake us. The underclass,rnfrom which “welfare” has banished fathering,rnexperiences little but mortallyrnwounded mothering, while the formerrnmiddle class, now thoroughly proletarianized,rnmanages its own demoralizationrnalong convergent lines, slavishly conformingrnto the state’s desire to turn allrnhuman activity into taxable wage labor.rnParticularly hard hit are young men, alwaysrnmore difficult to socialize in anyrncase. Ironically, most high-achievingrnmen have had mothers with strong,rndominant personalities—precisely thernsort of women least likely to have or stayrnhome with children in the modern era.rnHardest hit of all are young white men,rnwhose precipitous drop from top of thernheap to lowest of the low is surely thernmost spectacular sociopolitical descentrnin the annals of man.rnWhat sort of world will motherlessrnchildren make, these feckless youths andrncharmless maidens? An awful sullenness;rna routine violence; an aggressive,rngnawing sense of entitlement superimposedrnupon an even deeper conviction ofrnworthlessness (euphemistically calledrn”lack of self-esteem”); a cynical disbeliefrnin any ideal, in anything noble or transcendentrnin the human project; a reductionist,rnmaterialist stupefaction unresponsivernto beauty or truth; and in thernmidst of all this, a most superstitiousrncredulity. The sudden wholesale returnrnof pagan pantheism with its dreamcatchersrnand fetishes and angel apparitionsrn—hallucinations born of religiousrndeprivation—gives new life to G.K.rnChesterton’s words: “When man nornlonger believes in God, he does not thenrnbelieve in nothing, but in anything.”rnThe unsettling thing about modernrnyouth is their lack, not of manners, but ofrnsouls. Among the many practices thatrnshould distinguish human society fromrnanimal life, the most important is thernquality and intensity of mothering, supportedrnmanfully by fathering. No otherrnspecies invests more time and energy,rnmore nurturing, more love in its offspringrnthan humans do. And this pays off: thernoffspring are humanized. They developrnthat special, species-specific luxury, arnsoul. It is solely for the sake of that soulrnthat human beings cherish one another.rnWhen it disappears, the self-conceptionrnthat makes possible the human socialrnworld dies with it.rnAnd so does God Himself. As LudwigrnFeuerbach observed, our idea of Godrnflows from the physical reality of thernfamily, die Heilige Familie: father-judge,rnmother-nurturer, child-beloved. Whatrnwill God become once bereft of the family?rnWhat He is already fast becoming:rnthe criminally negligent but judgmentproofrnnanny state, jealously clutching itsrnhoard of dead souls.rnMarian Kester Coombs writes fromrnCrofton, Maryland.rnEDUCATIONrnRose HillrnCollegernby Clyde WilsonrnHistorians of the future who lookrnback at us, assuming the survival ofrncritical intelligence in the future, willrncharacterize our times as the Age of Bureaucracy.rnA time in which nearly everyrnhuman endeavor—religion, education,rneconomy, national defense—was swallowedrnup in huge institutions whichrnexisted for their own sakes rather than forrnthe purposes they purported to accomplish.rnTo espy healthy, purposeful institutionsrnone must look in small out-of-thewayrnplaces like Rose Hill College, now inrnits first year of operation. In my capacityrnas a politically incorrect professor, I havernoften been asked by concerned parentsrnfor guidance as to the colleges to whichrnthey might entrust their children—rnplaces of sound education and decentrnmoral atmosphere. I have been hardpressedrnto answer, usually being limitedrnto pointing out that some places arernworse than others.rnThe appearance of Rose Hill fills arngenuine need. It joins the handful of institutionsrnthat one can recommend tornsuch parents and promises to becomernthe St. Thomas Aquinas College of thernSouth. Located on a five-acre estate inrnthe historic district of the charmingrnsmall city of Aiken, South Carolina, RosernHill is paying sincere attention to bothrnrigorous traditional education andrnwholesome spiritual atmosphere.rnThe launching of a college in theserndays is, to say the least, a bold and riskyrnact. Rose Hill is largely the creation ofrnone man, Owen Jones, a native of Floridarnand former Episcopal priest, now devoutlyrnOrthodox. Jones has sunk his ownrnintellectual, spiritual, and moral capitalrninto the school to make a reality of hisrnvision, a rare thing in these days whenrninstitutional visions are more oftenrnperverted than made flesh and whenrnoverweening government has absorbedrnso much private wealth that new institutionsrnare beyond even thought for mostrnMAY 1997/45rnrnrn