It’s a surreal experience to behold the death throes of our culture.  And yet watching those who have been elevated to the highest positions of trust in our civil society issue statements that are contrary not just to nature or common sense, but to rationality itself, you can’t help but realize that that is precisely what we are witnessing.  To wit, here was a portion of the actual announcement made by United States secretary of defense Ash Carter in proclaiming that our national military will end the policy of treating male and female troops according to their biology:

Embedded within our Constitution is the very principle that all Americans are free and equal. And we as an Army are sworn to protect and defend that very principle.  And we are sworn to even die for that principle. So if we in uniform are willing to die for that principle than we in uniform should be willing to live by that principle.

This is the kind of declaration that makes those attached to reality only by the cords of their feelings and emotions swoon.  They retweet and repost this kind of intellectually useless word salad.  Nowhere is it embedded in the Constitution that a biological male with a mental confusion (or dysphoria, as we are now calling it) that makes him long to be a girl is to be culturally embraced as such.  Nowhere is it embedded in the Constitution that Americans are not “free and equal” if biological reality is putative and respected.

Further, how offensive is it that the secretary of defense is suggests that two centuries of brave American warriors who have died for the principles of the Constitution did not “live” according to those principles, given that they did not embrace this absurd cult of subjective self-identification?

But this is more than just another national embarrassment and humiliation brought on by a juvenile administration whose official mandates actually allege that a person can be “male, female, neither, or a combination of male and female.” 

Roger Severino, former Harvard Law standout and attorney for the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, asks some logical questions about the negative impact this new social experiment will have on our country’s military.  For instance, will males who think they are female have to do 35 pushups (for men) or 13 pushups (for women) to pass basic training? 

And beyond that, what will be the cost to the American taxpayer for the retraining of military doctors so that they are equipped to provide “transition-related care”?  Carter stated emphatically that “[w]e will take care of them, and pay for necessary medical treatment.”  But what is “necessary medical treatment”?  Given that Carter went on to acknowledge that so-called gender transition (sex “reassignment” surgeries) is becoming socially and politically “normalized,” will taxpayers now be paying for breast implants and filing down Adam’s apples in men?  In a sane culture, is this the best use of funds set aside for national defense?

As much as the self-ordained arbiters of tolerance may want to pretend they are pioneering the next great phase of America’s struggle over civil rights, they are instead making fools of themselves and all of us. 

Patriotic Americans struggling with sexual confusion have always been allowed to serve, provided that they (like everyone else) abide by the military code of conduct required to produce the most effective and prepared fighting force possible.

That code of conduct is undermined by this mindless policy change that allows males the ability to not only openly dress as females, but also use private areas like showers, restrooms, and barracks reserved for females.  Pretending that such a move won’t have a negative impact on the morale or readiness of our military forces is an exercise in willful ignorance.

But that is the state of our brave new culture – one where we embrace political correctness over military needs, and one where the security of those living under the American flag becomes secondary to the mindless ovations and social media approbation of those hoisting the rainbow one.

Peter Heck is a speaker, author and teacher.  Follow him @peterheck, email peter@peterheck.com,  or visit www.peterheck.com.