A bit too much like jumping into a rolling mini-van, seven months pregnant, huh?
Seriously. Except I don't have the excuse of pregnancy brain.
I'm not sure I fully agree with Joss' analysis, but I think "what is wrong with women?" is a great question to ask. It may just be as simple as "men beat the crap out of women because they can."
I also disagree that we are devolving into violence. I think we are only recently enough above that level to see how awful it is, and to try and stop it. There was no such thing as EqualityNow even 40 years ago.
I also disagree that we are devolving into violence. I think we are only recently enough above that level to see how awful it is, and to try and stop it.
Yes. This.
Can someone return my motivation? It seems to have fled. The kids didn't sleep well last night so I didn't get a lot of sleep. And it's sort of hot out there. I had a good excuse in that I was waiting for a friend to call about coming over to pick up some outgrown baby clothes. But she never called and now I'm waiting until 4 when I can call our new, potential dog sitter to come over and meet the crew.
Can someone return my motivation? It seems to have fled.
I'd loan you mine, but I seem to have left it on one of the internets.
I also disagree that we are devolving into violence. I think we are only recently enough above that level to see how awful it is, and to try and stop it. There was no such thing as EqualityNow even 40 years ago.
Absolutely this. Just like the notion that child abuse is somehow worse now than ever before. We just communicate more about every kind of abuse more now than we were either willing or able to in the past.
It reminds me of a history prof in my undergrad days talking about how Confucius, that party animal, idealized the Sung dynasty...claiming that everything was better in the 'golden days'...leaving out that it was one of the bloodiest eras in human history.
There's an Egyptian papyrus from about 2300 BCE that starts off lamenting, "things are not as they were" and goes on about how behavior has gotten worse, the gods fallen into disrespect. I think there's something about "you kids get offa my sand."
I also disagree that we are devolving into violence. I think we are only recently enough above that level to see how awful it is, and to try and stop it.
Same here.
Visciously slaughtering the underclass (complete with actual legality or at least tacit permission) in order to keep them in line is as old as people. Samurai could behead anyone beneath them. Romans crucified their slaves for minor infractions. Pogroms, purges, lynchings... its all the same impulse.
Cell phone video of a stoning is only technologically different than the picture postcards and "souveniers" of ears and fingers from American lynchings not that long ago.
The sense that "they" do this... and its so exotic and foreign and mideval and *gasp*
Muslim
drives me bananas. Its such a prevalent attitute. (No one here, I'm reading too many Salon Letters -- and letters to various editors in general)
We just communicate more about every kind of abuse more now than we were either willing or able to in the past.
That is a flip side to the increasing better communication in the world.
There was a professor on NPR the other day saying that it's not that Autism is currently in epidemic proportions, it's that we are finding and testing people. It seems like an epidemic, because Autism is such a wide spectrum and the broad sharing of data via the internet is making it appear so.
So too will many of our world's painful nooks and crannies be swept into the light. Eventually all the new revelations will even out, though. In the mean time we have to endure revelations about our selves and our cultures that have been swept under the rug for eons.
Going back to the hiding isn't the answer. Dealing with these unpleasant facts may actually lead to a better human condition.
Unfortunately it's going to be a tough road, with a lot of infighting and recriminations.
revelations about our selves and our culture that have been swept under the rug for eons.
Going back to the hiding isn't the answer. Dealing with these unpleasant facts may actually lead to a better human condition.
Unfortunately it's going to be a tough road, with a lot of infighting and recriminations.
Completely agree.
Another prof used to day, "Sweeping things under the rug only gives us more lumps to trip over."
Yeah, I mean, hangings and beheadings have always been overly well-attended.
