Arjuna Ardagh has posted a video blog that continues the important conversation that has been going on on Masculinity Movies for the last couple of weeks based on my criticism of his manifesto (see below).
He mentions me in it, in a way which doesn’t really represent very well what actually happened. I was never outraged, though Arjuna believes I was – which made him angry (which is pretty obvious if you read his comments on my website). He hates David Deida so he decided to hate me for having translated his book. Only for a short while though. And he apologized for that so all is cool. I criticized the manifesto with the wish to open up a dialogue around how it could be improved. I believe I achieved my goal.
Unfortunately, Arjuna has at this point chosen to keep me out of the debate, choosing not to approve a comment in which I acknowledged his heart for the work and how there are points of improvement, but I’m not too bothered by it. What’s important is that this debate is proving very valuable for me as I’m getting closer and closer to the core of what is subtly wrong about his approach, despite any wonderful healing it is currently providing (which is obviously a good thing). And it involves the importance of understanding the path from boy to man fully.
But I’m lead to believe that perhaps the manifesto for conscious men was never primarily about building men’s self esteem and sense of worth, maybe it was more about healing women. Good if any of that happened, even better if healing could become an inclusive process.
I will return to this when it all gets clearer.