The Problems Facing Modern Civilization

Every man stands between God and his fellow men. So far as the man-to-man relationship is concerned, every man has his full freedom. But the great, overriding consideration is that man is in complete subjugation to God. As compared to the Almighty, no man has any freedom. This means that in the modern world, man has to use his freedom so that he abides by God’s commandments in all circumstances. It is this awareness of the value of restraint which is the greatest guarantee of the proper use of freedom. THE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF AN AMERICAN LEADER The well-known American novelist and a leader of the feminist movement, Rhoda Lerman, visited India in 1987. The Times of India published her interview, which is reproduced here: “I come with very bad news,” says Rhoda Lerman. Speaking on the changing role of women in society, she revealed that 77 percent of the poor in America are women and children. The reason she offers is the high wage differential between the earnings of men and women. Women earn 62 percent of what men earn, merely because of the “pink-collared” jobs offered to them. “Equal opportunities and equal pay for equal work are just a myth,” she declares. Women have been able to infiltrate only the lower and middle management and are offered innumerable jobs in food chains and the secretarial cadres. This discrimination, she believes, is due to the male bias which works against women, branding them as ‘undependable, since they go in for maternity leave and have children.’ Although 96 percent of the working women have children, only 67 percent of them can enjoy maternity leave, without fear of jeopardising their jobs. However, seniority almost always suffers, says Ms. Lerman. “Maternity and child care are the cause of high wage differentials,” she adds, “economic reality having nothing to do with spiritual equality.” Activists had clamored for sexual equality and abortion rights and won them, without anticipating the economic backlash that would ensue. With radical feminism accepted as the code, women are treated as equal, without any concessions to their biological differences. For instance, one out of two marriages in America is ending in divorce, with the responsibility of childcare devolving on the mother alone. Alimony and maintenance are merely laws, rarely put into practice. A mere 5-10 percent of the men pay maintenance, and that too, only for the first year. For the rest, the burden is borne solely by the mother. Thus, the quality of life of a divorced woman reduces by 73 percent and that of a man increases by 43 percent. Single households, headed by women trying to play the role of “super-moms,” are on the increase, she revealed. In the next ten years, therefore, 40-50 percent of the children will be living in female-headed households, an unhealthy phenomenon, which has its repercussions in increased suicides amongst children. “Due to a lapse in the dependency structure, suicide is becoming endemic amongst chil­dren,” she said. Socialist feminism, which takes into account the intrinsic differences between men and women, is the call of the hour, Ms. Lerman believes. We have had an excess of the American