Hacker Cinema
Drums Along the Mohawk
1939 · Film · 100 min
Directed by John Ford
Albany, New York, 1776. After marrying, Gil and Lana travel north to settle on a small farm in the Mohawk River Valley, but soon their growing prosperity and happiness are threatened by the sinister sound of drums that announce dark times of revolution and war.
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Part II
I concluded:
The subject of sex differences is MUCH deeper than we know, so deep that for nearly anything new it as if Mother Nature was there long before we were. If you look like a really good candidate for being a good father and want her to be a good mommy, then likely you have something promising; for anything else very good for her, f'get about it. If she's not a mommy and soccer mom in an SUV, etc., then she can be a nurse, school teacher, HR staffer, customer service representative, retail clerk, pediatrician, OB/GYN, CPA, and a few more. How do we know? Just observe facts. Beginning to understand?
In this case, for that old theme of "The Great Natural Order", take it seriously.
Men: If you see your way clear to striking out in new directions on an adventure to do new things, then by all means go for it. When you get back with your fortune, then by all means sweep her off her feet with flowers, etc, and marry her and make her a mommy (maybe not in this order!), with a nice house with a white picket fence, her own SUV, etc. But if you bring her along on your adventure before you have your fortune, then far too soon she will be terrified and crying in her sleep. Remember the scene in the 1939 'Drums Along the Mohawk' with Henry Fonda and Claudette Colbert when as newly married they reached their frontier log cabin, an Indian friend dropped by to pay a visit, and she went all hysterical; movie audiences understood right away, and so should hackers.
Candidate reason: For nearly anything we might try having women do what men now do, long ago there were things sufficiently similar and for those Mother Nature had her way: Mother Nature pruned weak, sick, and dead limbs on the tree. So, for anything we want women to do that is very different from the patterns of strong limbs on the tree, long ago women who did such things just are not our ancestors.
Try hard enough to go against those patterns of strong limbs on the tree, and Mother Nature will open a Pandora's box of monsters. I've seen some of those monsters; you can't win against them; don't open that box; don't go against those patterns; don't try to fool Mother Nature. You can learn this lesson quickly, easily from me now or with great pain as you throw much of your life away later.
I have to insert one crucial point so far omitted: Women are MUCH more emotional than men. So, whenever a man looks at some subject in ways that are rational, if the subject has to do with her own life mostly what will really concern her is what is emotional. Sorry about all that rationality guys: For her own life, her emotions overwhelm. It's not that she has no ability at rationality; she can be brilliant at rationality. It's just that for her own life her emotions overwhelm. The rationality is still there, and for subjects far from her own life can be fully meaningful and effective, but for her own life her emotions can and nearly always will overwhelm.
Chalk up this mechanism to Mother Nature. What fraction of men really understood that Mother Nature could have such a rationality blocking mechanism, that is, have her be brilliant at rationality and carry around that brilliance but in crucial ways not be able to use it? What fraction, guys? Getting an idea of what you are up against, how strong are Mother Nature's defenses?
Or, the Henry Fonda character, with his rationality, that he was comfortable with, saw his way clear to a good life starting with just that log cabin, but for the Claudette Colbert character, for that situation so close to her own life, his rationality was meaningless and her emotions overwhelmed.