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.
Yeah, I mean, hangings and beheadings have always been overly well-attended.
Tom Waits reports that theaters are traditionally closed on Mondays because hangings and executions happened on Mondays and they couldn't compete. This may be apocryphal, though.
The whole thing just makes me want to cry. Joss's post was inspiring though. I think I'll look more at Equality Now when I'm at home.
And now, a mini-meara of much less earth-shattering things:
Urban Decay has a smudgeproof eyeliner that is my new love.
I have decided to try this. I have nasty eye allergies, but I'm hopeful that if it doesn't smudge, it may not get into the eye, and thus will be unable to produce allergens there. I live in hope.
8 cavities in the last 4 months after years of none. Not fair.
It's not fair GC. If it makes you feel any better, a similar thing happened to me, and the dentist said it was because, over time microcavities had formed, and sort of all at once they got to the point where they were big enough to do anything about them. So it's probably not really from the last four months.
Or conversely, mom needs to say "Since you think it'd be such an imposition for me to STAY IN MY OWN FUCKING HOUSE, you can find your own damn place with all the privacy you want."
Wrod. I mean, I might make that choice to get my own place, since my mom and I love each other dearly, but don't do well staying in the same place for long. But I can't imagine being upset at my mom for using her own house. Jeesh.
And apropos of nothing, I went out to brunch with friends last weekend, and one of the party ordered blueberry pancakes. When the bill came, it said
blu cakes.
I'm not sure why I love that so much, but it just seems adorable to me.
Zenkitty: Dua Khalil's murder has hit the same way Matthew Shepard's murder did. I can't stop thinking about it, I can't stop crying, and I'm so angry, with no one in front of me to blame and punch.
This. I hadn't made the Matthew Shepherd connection, but you're absolutely right.
Raq: 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.
And very much this. It's the same reason that I get ranty and soap-boxy whenever anyone talks about "today's awful teenagers" and how schools are going downhill. Dude. Yes, schools with no funding are exploding at the seams with problems, but that has less to do with the kids than with their homes, environments, and limited opportunities. I've been working with teens for a decade, and they haven't changed much, not in important ways. As for education itself, are we forgetting the "teaching" used to consist of lecturing and not taking questions and that corporal punishment was legal and even encouraged? And that girls had to take Home Ec and Typing and minorities were sent off to another school altogether? ARRRGGGHH.
