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TechnoratiSavagery and Silence in the First World
In America -- in my country -- I fear we are losing the battle for our humanity. Some say we have already lost it.
Deep down I think they may be right.
Such is the level of violence, voyeurism and detachment displayed this October in Richmond, California, when at least two dozen students cheered, laughed or simply stood by and watched as a 15-year-old girl was repeatedly raped, beaten and brutalized by an "unknown number of assailants."
This horrific act of terrorism took place in the parking lot of Richmond High School, just yards away from where the school was holding its annual homecoming dance.
One school administrator told a reporter that, "the dance itself was successful."
It seems the perpetrators of the crime had also staged a "successful" event. The assault reportedly went on for between two and three hours. During the entire time, everyone was cool, no one freaked out, no one called 911.
Some of the onlookers took photos with their cell phones. Others were composed enough to text their friends. Still another had the presence of mind to take the victim's wallet before leaving the scene of the crime.
An officer at the scene could barely contain himself as he spoke to reporters. "They treated [the rape] as if it were something to be viewed," he said. "Like an exhibit."
"She was raped, beaten, robbed and dehumanized by several suspects who were obviously OK enough with it to behave that way in each other's presence," another patrol supervisor in the city's Northern Policing District in Richmond said. "What makes it even more disturbing is the presence of others. People came by, saw what was happening, and failed to report it."
We Like to Watch
"Being an American has become a spectator sport," wrote Bob Herbert recently in his column for the New York Times.
Herbert was right.
The savage nature of the rape at Richmond High is horrific enough on its own, yet at least as alarming is the national pandemic of ‘violence as spectator sport.'
The passive voyeurism of those who stood by cheering and laughing like an audience at some macabre sideshow while their classmate was being ruthlessly dehumanized is only one of many such incidents making news recently. This phenomenon further demonstrates how complacent Americans have become even in the face of unspeakable crimes and real life inhumanity.
Coincidentally, the cowardly act of terrorism that took place in Richmond, California came virtually on the heels of a less publicized, but equally disgusting display of soullessness. This one however, was perpetrated not by thugs in a Richmond schoolyard but by 30 Republican Senators in the Hallowed Halls of the US Senate when, in early October they opposed an amendment to close a legal loophole denying employees of private defense contractors the right to sue if sexually abused or gang raped while on the job.
The amendment, sponsored by Senator Al Franken (D-Minn.), was inspired by the brutal gang rape of KBR employee Jamie Leigh Jones in 2005 by her fellow employees. It passed on October 21 by a vote of 68-30 over the vehement objections of Department of Defense, who lobbied the ‘Gang of 30' Republicans relentlessly. In a transparent attempt to justify their unjustifiable position, DOD wrote in a memo to the Senate that, "Enforcement would be problematic."
The Savagery of Silence
American youth have garnered an arguably well-deserved reputation for being lazy, self-absorbed and detached from reality, a phenomenon that may well be (at least in part) the result of too much television and gaming and not enough natural and social contact. To be sure, television marked the beginning of the ‘spectator mentality,' and there is little doubt that the high-tech industry, with its relentless hype of texting and tweeting on trendy, over-priced toys has taken this spectatorship to a dangerous new level.
Here in the US, most people understand that (if we have not already reached it) we are approaching critical mass -- not only with respect to our ‘spectator mentality' or our detached indifference to violence, but with respect to almost everything. The problem isn't that we don't know what is wrong. The problem is that we fail to act -- or to speak out -- even when we do. This was no more apparent than when the mother of one of the alleged perpetrators in the Richmond attack told police, "My son wouldn't do that. He knows better."
I often read the comments of readers, many of whom express feelings of hopelessness and despair over the degree to which American culture is disintegrating or the state of the world in general. Others have nothing but contempt for anyone with a shred of idealism or who (god-forbid), still believe the American political system -- or Democracy itself -- can be salvaged. Still others seem to be falling into darkness. I recall in particular one reader who asked, "What good are all of your eloquent words? No matter what you or anyone else says, America is hopelessly lost."
Those who make such comments might be interested to know that I actually agree with most of them - - or at least with their basic sentiments. But I've long since accepted that being an activist and a writer, futile though it may be, is who I am. The ship may be going down, but like the orchestra on the Titanic, I keep playing.
To those who content themselves with sitting in the bleachers heckling rather than doing or sneering rather than speaking out, I would submit that the process of de-humanization is a slow and stealthy one. Like the incident at Richmond High School or the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan or over-consumption waste and greed, de-humanization requires at least some degree of complicity.
One click and it can cross over.
263 Comments so far
Show AllSandy is right - our society has become the proverbial Big Apple, beautiful on the outside but rotten at the core.
While it behoves us all to try to dynamite the entire edifice, we need not sit on our hands and wait for it to happen, There are practical steps we could take in this situation.
My first lover was raped and murdered - I found the body. Yet, since I am opposed to the death penalty, I am not prepared to approve the animals responsible for these atrocities being killed, however painful the method. So, after some thought, I have come up with some suggestions:
a) The perpetrators should each be placed in a cell with a big tattooed gentleman called "Donkey" who would teach them to feel what the girl felt - every day and night for a year;
b) Those who watched, laughed and took pictures should be sentenced to twelve months treating victims of rape and domestic violence in ERs and Crisis Centres;
c) The entire school administration should be fired and barred from taking employment in any public-service capacity for five years. The charmer who claimed that the affair was a "success"" should be considered unemployable for the term of their natural life;
d) The school should be turned into a Domestic Violence/Rape Crisis Centre;
e) Since it is unlikely that she would ever get an apology, the victim should be compensated to the tune of at least several millions of dollars;
f) And finally the 'mom' who said that her darling son 'knew better,' (and those of her holier-than-thou peer 'moms and dads' who would doubtless claim that the victim "asked for it" or was being "punished by god") should be forced to view the photos, watch the videos and listen to the recordings - confiscated from the onlookers' phones and cameras - of the girl's suffering non-stop for a week.
Small steps, but a start.
"Don't take Sioux Rose seriously. She is dishonest with herself and others as well. She uses black magic bs to explain her point of view when she lacks the facts to back up her claims. She also has a male-hating gender bias in her and it shows. She thinks she's goddess. HA ! I feel bad for her husband if he's reading this if she's married."
Absolute nonsense! She has never lied about her credentials and is an astrologer not a necromancer. She is neither megalomaniacal nor misandrist.
Sioux Rose
THE GREAT ROCKY: Shawn Berry has tried to do a smear campaign against me using alleged rumors, false accusations, misrepresentations of my writing, ideas, and perspective on NUMEROUS occasions. He is a plant, and an ignorant fool to boot. I also believe he posts under a number of names, and is joined by a few fellow intruders who seem to have a need to malign either: anti-militarism voices, strong empowered female voices, and anything related to a wide and encompassing spirituality that is a threat to his beliefs and far beyond his understanding.
A typical coward, he likes to attack me behind my back, and then his little group all converge to pretend they own a consensus on what I have said, what it meant, and how the forum ought interpret it. He wants me to stoop to his level of attacking back, so he can say, "Look! She's not spiritual. See how she reacted when I threw rotten eggs at her or assaulted her word and all she believes in." It's typical right wing Karl Rove playbook stuff... keep throwing shit until some sticks and then pretend the shit belongs to the one that's been targeted.
If I leave the forum, scum like this creep win. I tire of the nonsense, however. And question who's financing these pretenders?
I've done no such thing. Except for that comment where I called you dishonest and took back, I've never said anything against you personally. All I questioned were your posts that mixed up astrology and politics and you went all over it. I have never teamed up with or conspired with anyone. I may agreed or disagreed with posts but that's it. I never said leave the forum and I never will. A pretender I am not and I'm not financed. I'm just another regular person on a public site just like you. I may not have flown around the world or gone to college unlike you but I don't blow off. I'm just my own self and I never use multiple names or conspire with anyone. Anything that I express is my own opinion. If others such as AGG, maxpayne, and whoever want to debate or correct me then I'm all open ears even if I don't agree with their posts.
I rest my case.
I should have said that some of her posts simply make no sense. Nothing personal against her but some of her posts drive me nuts. Anyone who uses astrology to make a point scares the hell outta me and that's why I call it black magic. She may be an astrologer but sometimes her posts go too far against men. Some of us don't like it. Progressivism never said use astrology to discriminate against men and neither does astrology itself. I'm sorry I said she was a misandrist but her bias against men shows in some of her posts. If that's a lie to you, I respectfully disagree at that.
Peace
Sioux Rose
SHAWN: They make no sense to one with an IQ under 100. You can bypass them.
And for SHE who speaks with FORKED TONGUE: You are an angry woman who generally only spews venom into this forum. I do not like you, and you also have a need to put others down, me included. When I defend myself you say I am a megalomaniac.
You like to brag that you are by turns: a professor, an accountant, worked for a big PR firm and drove a Mercedes, are an astrologer, have met Chavez... but for whatever jobs you held or prospered by in the US, you then turn to scream "gringo" at everyone, wish this nation a dark fate, think we owe it to YOU to give back lands.
You resent MY philosophy because it is not so black/white in assigning who is right or wrong, but rather asks that we join a circle, an entirely different orientation that seeks UNITY. Since I believe in reincarnation, the soul has had MANY journeys on the earth plane and as I shared once before.. it could well have been YOU as the white settler who caused the Indigenous so much pain and harm. So your demands on the part of Indigenous heritage are ridiculous as are YOU.
If you stop talking about me behind my back, I will do you the courtesy of having no need to respond. I think you add NOTHING to the forum, except on RARE occasions. It is your right to be here, but not your right to side with the trolls who are doing an attack campaign aimed at me. If you had an ounce of spirituality you would be able to recognize things your hatred doesn't allow. Your Lupus is a product of your harboring hatred.
I am not who you claim I am. nativetongueredux is someone else I have no goddamn knowledge of. I don't know everything about your philosophy but I don't hate you personally. I just don't understand your posts when you mix up astrology and politics. I'll skip over them and leave you and your private club to quibble and drool on it. Stop mistaking me for someone else and I won't call you liar. You don't know me personally and you never will. You have no business associating me with nativetongueredux. If you are not a liar, you won't dare associate me with that freak.
Both of you quit already. I may have objections about some of Rose's posts but you're acting even worse. Everyone on this forum has tried to calm you down but you won't listen. Stop pissing off everyone. I don't know who the hell either one of you are and I don't give a damn to know. Neither one of you are superior and never will be. We're all human so drop it both of you !
This is not surprising. Even here, there are some people who believe in violence and act like hypocrites. The "blame the misogynist" crowd doesn't get it either. This article goes beyond just women and deplores violence against anyone. The culture of violence gives us this kind of shit 24/7/365.
Thank you for writing this piece. As horrifying as it is, I'm relieved that you're saying it out loud. When I talked about this subject vis a vis what I witnessed in Iraq during the US invasion, most people refused to believe that American soldiers could be suffering from bloodlust and acting it out in the battlefield. I promise you there are plenty of US soldiers out there thrilled at having a machine gun in their hands and shooting people. They also take utterly ghoulish pictures and trophies of human body parts and such unbelievable but true atrocities. One can imagine what happens to the poor women in their paths. I'm not suggesting that all US soldiers act savagely. One would think though that one such sadist would cause a huge scandal. Instead there are many and it doesn't cause a hint of moral outrage as far as I can tell. Some soldiers even have parties when they return to the US showing their videos of slaughtering people.
Until the bloodlust underlying US brutality is discussed openly, I doubt there's any chance of finding protection from it. We're all vulnerable because it's been dramatically shown that the US will attack whenever it wants and has no scruples against leaving tons of depleted uranium in it's wake, not to mention an astronomical death, injury, orphaning and displacement toll.
"America is hopelessly lost."
Indeed, it is not. If anything, it's mankind that's hopelessly lost.
Reports of this incident circulated round the world. We read about it in our daily newspapers in India. We, too, were horrified. And those very newspapers *also* reported something they called an "Honor Killing" and an "Honor Rape": in some remote corner of the country, because a young couple married against their parents' wishes, defied community norms that dictate who can love whom, the man was murdered and the girl raped for days ... including by her own relatives, and their friends.
No, it is not America. It is us, all of us, everywhere. In America there will, I believe, be justice. That is more than can be said about many parts of the world where so-called justice systems themselves hand down punishments like rape. In America, you can write this, and gain support for your views, and lobby for action and justice, and it will be delivered. That, at least, is something to live for and to hold on to.
Someone said men are animals. I have to disagree. Animals don't do this kind of thing. Monsters do.
I ask this: we know who the victim was, and she, and her family, have all our support and sympathy. But who are the criminals, the perpetrators? I believe we'd be wrong to stop with the actual rapists. For everyone who watched, who cheered, who filmed is as guilty and as much a rapist.
Actually, coming from the other side of the pond, and at a great physical distance, I have to agree. Two things I notice here: First, way too much umbrage being taken about what people like nativetongueredux have to say. Some of the points NTR makes are good. One may not appreciate the manner in which the point is made, but surely that shouldn't obscure the validity of the argument. We should separate the substance from the form.
Second, far too many are offended by this word "gringo". Why? Look beneath and I think you'll find that what is being said is true. America today has a position, for whatever reason, never enjoyed by any country in history. It represents, or should represent, an idea and an ideal. Sadly, we see that both the idea and the ideal are deeply flawed and increasingly corrupted. Yet its political and economic leadership continues to assert and claim a moral and ethical superiority. Perhaps the average American citizen does not, but its 'public face' does.
NativeTongueRedux questions that, is offended by it, and is not alone in doing so. Correct me if I'm wrong, but all that NativeTongueRedux and Sioux Rose are saying is that the fact that this happened is not the more startling or reprehensible because it happened in America; for, they say, America's claim to a higher moral standard is false and hollow. Are they right, are they wrong? Expressing shock or dismay at it having happened in America irks NativeTongueRedux and SiouxRose, and perhaps rightly, for that only reinforces a claim that is without basis. That, at least as I understand it, is their case.
Instead of diatribes against NTR, Sioux Rose and others, wouldn't we better off addressing the very disquieting questions Sandy raises? She points to an increasingly voyeuristic society that has lost its ability to reason and to distinguish good from evil, right from wrong. Whether this happens in America or elsewhere is not the point. It should not happen at all.
And please let's stop calling these perpetrators "animals". No animal deserves that opprobrium.
There have been some articles i read and documentaries on a particular country: SWEDEN.
what I learned was that :
in sweden for a long time now - they have developed a national "ethos" , one might say, that FIRMLY teaches children - from the very beginning, even in nursery,
that TOLERANCE is very important..and that BULLYING is a BIG NO NO.
contrast this with what some research has shown to be a kind of epidemic of bullying among teens - whether in school or community or street in the USA...which also includes both sexes bullying their same-sex members.
it of course is related to the very widespread glorification of violence, punishing and a twisted form of "accountability" mentality in the USA that mainly is directed at the ones that are perceived to BE weaker or vulnerable or "losers".
consider these signs.
the documentaries or articles i found also showed that in Sweden - schoolchildren , particularly girls - are
BY around age 12 - are already very , very responsible with an education level about that of a 15 or 16 year old american...AND are taught at an early eage about sexuality..i mean both males and females are educated very early.
in any case - Sweden - according to research, TODAY , is the country where the "equality of sexes" is the highest in achievement.
It is a Fact - that in sweden - if a woman gets pregnant - (meaning : wife , or live-in partner, whatever arrangement for both parents) -
HER HUSBAND is allowed, with state support and employer support (SWEDEN's economy is actually 90 percent PRIVATE business but SMALL and medium sized) - to TAKE OFF 9 MONTHS
"Pregnancy leave" to be at home - and do the housework and pay attention to the lady so HER pregnancy will be as healthy and as happy as possible.
One thing I remember So clearly from spending a weekend with a friend and her mom when her mom was visiting from Sweden - we went to the beach and took walks in the woods, made music, just relaxed...--
she told me:
"IN SWEDEN - we have rich and less rich of course -- but our society REALLY does look DOWN upon unreasonable wealth for a few people...we simply don't think that is acceptable at all".
The situation is similar in many other European countries. The Danes have the lowest teen pregnancy rates although their teenagers aren't exactly practicing abstinence. In Germany the (paid) maternity leave is 3 years. While it's called 'maternity leave' it's up to the parents to decide who stays home - him or her - or they can divide the 3 years and share the experience. Germany is also a country with very, very low school bullying rates.
While mental illness affects around 25% Americans, almost as many Brits and around 20% of Australians, the numbers across Europe are much, much lower. Why is that?
Murder rates in the US are 3x as high as in the UK, while the UK numbers are much higher than anywhere else in Europe.
Somebody mentioned in a comment that guns lower the violence. I'm not sure I agree. Apparently after the British 'bobbies' were given guns the violence increased significantly. I guess, if you have a reason to expect that your vis-a-vis has a gun you're much likelier to use yours. Before they have a chance to use theirs.
The American prison system focuses on punishment. The Dutch prison system focuses on rehabilitation. The prisoners get an education, they work, often outside the prison walls, returning for the night, they can spend weekends outside. In the US around 2/3 re-offend. The relapse rate in Holland? 1/3....
Also, the 'tough on drugs' US is one of the biggest consumers of illegal substances unlike Holland and other 'soft on drugs' countries where the levels of drug abuse are very low in comparison.
And while the Americans pride themselves as being the hardest working people, working long hours, sometimes 2 or more jobs for a pittance, they're not the most productive workers. productivity is much higher in countries where treated humanely in their work place, paid a decent wage, given breaks and holidays and maybe even flexible work time and various perks, like company creche or just a comfortable, ergonomically designed chair.
In countries like that people tend to trust and respect each other more and that's what they teach their children.
I was thinking about that word all day:
BULLYING.
it makes more sense to me now :
THE USA is the world's biggest BULLY. its leaders and corporate culture promote BULLYING...(they call it "competition") --
is it any wonder that people BULLY each other - given the slightest chance in any situation in the USA. it is cultural .. of that I am convinced now.
and some of its results:
teens raping and beating and slashing each other up...
mothers (regardless of social ills and circumstances that may lead to it) ...actually beating and even KILLING their own children (a news in new york just recorded another mother and her "house-guest/boyfriend" pouring cold water on HER OWN 4 year old son in the bathtub as punishment "because he touched himself" (who taught him,? maybe he was being molested actually by the man?) - --
and THEN FOR TWO DAYS beat him up so severaly - he was peeing blood...and even his painful moaning heard by relatives over the phone was lied about by the mother, so they could continue to beat him up some more....
until she had to call the hospital emergency and that's the only way they were discovered....and he died in teh hospital.
what kind of MONSTERS are these?
It just really kills me to think about that child and others ....
I can't stop thinking:
"what must have that little boy been thinking through ALL those minutes and hours and days of PAIN and anger directed at him -- BY HIS OWN mother? how could such a little child be sent to his death - TORTURED like that..and never have a chance to live a full life - and might have even had NOTHING but sadness and fear in all his 4 years of life?"
WHAT KIND of society is that?
I really wish - in times like that - that I am GOD and can just wave my hand and take all the pain away from people, especially children, the old, the weak and the vulnerable and defenseless.
it just really hurts to KNOW that such things occur ESPECIALLY in what should be loving homes and environments.
sorry to vent in such a disorderly way ....the thoughts of that child in the news yesterday just really gets to me so badly...
Some information for those believe that rape is a problem in California due to gun restrictions:
Crimes rates per 100,000 people, from various cities across the US, from the FBI:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_cities_by_crime_rate
Selected cities:
Wichita, Kansas had 75 rapes per 100K.
Anaheim, CA, 29
Bakersfield, CA, 13
Fresno, CA, 21
Long Beach, CA, 29
LA, CA 26
Oakland, CA 75 (Oakland is notorious for crime)
Riverside, CA 30
Sacramento, CA 42
SD, CA 23
SF, CA, 17
San Jose CA, 23
Santa Ana CA, 19
Stockton CA, 35
Crimes per 100,000 people by state:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_the_United_States
Rapes per 100k people, selected states:
Kansas, 40.4
California, 26.8
Texas, 37.3
National average 32.2
The rate of rapes in California is BELOW the national average. The rate of rates in Kansas is ABOVE the national average.
The state with the highest rate of rapes, is Sarah Palin's state: 85.1 rapes per 100K people.
rfloh,
Omission is a crude tool often used by politicians or anyone with an agenda.
Fact- Most rape, incest, child molestation in Alaska is committed by Native-Americans.
In Houston, out of the more than 70 child molesters/predators posted by the Houston Police Dept over 80% are Hispanic.
In fact, if people want a wakeup call google "anycity most wanted" and look at the offenses and surnames. If it offends the senses then go back to sleep but it's better to be prepared, especially if you have young children and daughters.
I know this is a bitter pill to swallow but don't confuse racism with realism.
Go ahead, play your one and only card.
" from the FBI"
I am quite sure this means that the FBI merely gathered stats that were originally compiled from states. We should assume that definitions of "crimes" differ, as well as the methods of of gathering the data, from state to state. What metadata does the source cited by Wikipedia provide that would tell us how the differing methods and definitions from the states can be reasonably compared like apples to apples? Just asking.
Some background information on Richmond, from wikipedia:
In 2004, Richmond was statistically the second most dangerous city in California and was named the 8th most dangerous city in the country.[49] However, those rankings have changed and Richmond is now the third most dangerous in California behind Compton and Oakland and 11th most dangerous nationally according to the Morgan Quitno rankings.[50] For every 100,000 people there were 38.3 murders, 50.4 rapes, 485.8 robberies, 512 assaults, 1110.7 burglaries, 3497.4 counts of larceny and 2471.4 thefts of vehicles.[13] Richmond had 42 murders in 2006; and the city experienced a record of 62 homicides in 1991.[51]"
Thanks for mentioning that. As someone who has lived in the area, you just don't slow down or roll down your windows in Richmond. It's been that way since forever.
A voter in Wyoming is worth 80 voters in California (in the Senate), and 3 voters in California (in the Presidency). This is almost certainly why California and other populated blue states get 60 cents from the Feds for every dollar in taxes they send TO the Feds, while Wyoming, and other rural red states, gets $1.5 or MORE from the Fed's for every dollar they send TO the Feds. Bottom line: CA is robbed to 'float' red-state America, and most other blue states find themselves in the same position (ex: NJ). This has been going on for at least 80 years. People talk about the failure of Detroit. Detroit was killed by Wash DC... period.
What do over-taxed Californians do? If they have money, they migrate out of the inner cities, to the suburbs, and let the inner cities fall into hell. Richmond is a perfect example of this phenomenon. Indeed, this phenomenon exerts itself repeatedly throughout America. If there is a place where the 'rubber meets the road' in capitalism, its the inner cities of America.
Fixing this system might start with America fixing her democracy. I've had enough of Red-State rural Americans foisting the ethic of individuality on the rest of us while driving on paved roads and using electricity that the rest of us paid for. One Bridge, ONE BRIDGE, in rural, Red-State America probably gets more in maintenance every year from the Federal Government than the entire city of Richmond, yet the loss of that one bridge would turn Red-State America into Siberia. It's time to give more to our blue states, who do so much more to earn it (and have for decades). So that they can give more to their inner cities, where the unwanted Americans are sent to die or, if they are lucky, to rape and then die.
Nanoo
As the author states, In America we have lost our humanity. Real hard to disagree with that one, as our former war criminal president walks free, replaced with our current no change policy president. Sure as shit, where the banksters are rewarded with more big money. Football is right up there worshipped with money. Wow, what a culture, wonderful place to raise kids who don't have any respect for their parents either.
Tragic for the girl.
How can we expect our youth to act differently from our political leaders? From the top down, there's a culture of machismo, aggression, sexual excess, and violence. Our "leaders" go to war at will--lying about the need for it--and send thousands to their death. They are corrupt, racist, and rich, hence they literally get away with murder (if that weren't so, Bush and Cheney would be in jail right now). If the leaders of this country don't set the tone, then the youth will simply follow the money.
"How can we expect our youth to act differently from our political leaders? "
Think of how the great majority actually behave quite well.
Nary a mention about the Latino regard for females. It was a gang of Latinos who raped the girl. Oh, sorry, did I offend anyone? People refuse to wake up and realize we have a gangster culture arising in our very society but for the sake of political correctness and self-loathing we'll assign the blame elsewhere.
Vest suckered everyone here by regarding the perpetrators as of our world, hence all the two-bit psychoanalysis and criticism of contemporary society.
All I can say is I'm not surprised, I've grown use to their antics.
All I can say is I'm not surprised that the right wing racists are all crawling out of the woodwork.
Yes, that is all you can say, the standard retort from the La Raza handbook.
Youth are often violent, especially when they are not taught to be otherwise, and given something constructive to do with a cauldron of aimless energy. NOTHING new about that.
This country is a nation of violence that perpetuates a society of macho and physical confrontation over sensitivity and intellect.
The elites discovered to their dismay in the 1960s that when you educate a generation too well, they very well might take power and create an equal society where the chosen few do not benefit the most. Plus these aholes always think people need to be ruled with an iron fist - one of their self-serving rationalizations.
So its no surprise that schools have been deliberately decimated. There are other factors, however.
Despite being a musical form way past its prime that once had a revolutionary tone, rap music glorifies homophobic violence, misogyny, materialism, macho, and cynical ignorance of issues of community and justice and is sold throughout the country along with the requisite alcohol and pot (a drug with plenty of violent potential - dont let anyone tell you otherwise).
The powers that be cleaned the revolution of Public Enemy and even NWA out of the music, and its all about the me. Even women buy into this subculture by competing to see who is the most attractive, and the most difficult. Older people cannot imagine the cycle of sexual oneupmanship that goes on in the youth of today.
And yeah, there's a bit of the impassioned media consumer going on. But its mostly about education. And nobody's going to help any community from the outside. You have to help yourselves. Plus there's just not enough blue-collar jobs in our society anymore.
Too many people, not enough to do. Community workers overwhelmed by too little outside help and too much to do.
Young people have to shown how to stop being suckers for the media, the elites, and the pentagon. Awareness of place should be a mandatory class in all schools.
Sioux Rose
ESOLESEK: I got in late last night and didn't have the energy to respond to this thread; but it amazed me that violence was spoken of as "generic," some went to state-to-state statistics in some kind of "loyal to zone" species of competition, and NO ONE mentioned the machismo/misogyny aspect at all. Till you. Gracias!
A few months ago I brought up the horrific info taken from Robert Jensen's research book on pornography. We're not talking sexual images, we're talking DEGRADATION of the female. When men feel powerless, they often take out their feelings of anger and rage on females. Nations that are occupied, or have been, and tainted by the humiliation of former colonialization, generally celebrate rites of machismo. It's the only way the men are left to feel like men, to feel their hardness or power.
ANNAK mentioned that it was Latinos involved, and RFLOH brought up relevant statistics; but few are willing to recognize the degree to which entertainment has normalized views that turn women's bodies into portals that too many men feel justified in desecrating. This is a whole new species of AMERICAN machismo, and this article is a spillover of its toxic brew.
The vagina, as LIFE canal, would be seen as something sacred in a society that really respected life, and saw in the act of coitus, a sacred union between Yin and Yang. Rap "music," the bulk of violent entertainment (when it's not about war per se) generally involves a FEMALE victim, and very often a sexual defilement is involved. Even a show like "Law and Order: Special Crimes Unit" has to come up with more and more disgusting plot lines to fit this genre. When the darkest deeds become an acceptable part of mainstream culture, even as "entertainment," a subliminal threshold is crossed.
The celebration of force by all the nation's uniformed guards, by Hollywood films, TV, even video games! by rap, by porn (the # 1 "thing" consumed on the web), the obscene sums spent on weapons: taken together, all of these are direct ASSAULTS on life, and the female, as bringer of life, becomes the target, the projection screen for fantasies so divorced from beauty, sanctity, decency, and purpose as to signify how SICK this nation has become.
The uber: identification with force, the masculine macho, HARD expression of the god of war, is having a deleterious impact on his intended co-equal, cosmic "as above, so below" partner: Venus. SHE signifies beauty, sensuality, romantic love, culture, art, music, gardens, peace-making efforts, diplomacy, and LAW. I note a definitive deficit in "all of the aforementioned."
To the degree a society turns on its female population, desecrates LOVEMAKING (by turning it into a carnal circle of depravity), makes weapons, turns killing into entertainment is the degree to which a society has broken down. Utterly. If we really wanted to heal this nation, for all the talk of smarter, fairer economics, or closing military bases, we would still need to HEAL the mindset that has torn women, the Divine feminine, from all religious equations. The result is that even MOTHER nature, all of her sacred creatures and ecosystems, are bombed, poisoned, ruined and yes RAPED. Everywhere the FORCE, which is based on a balance of Yin and Yang energetic expressions, is off kilter, and every policy decision, along with far too much of our tainted culture reflects this disparity.
I feel sorry for any girls watching in that high school crowd. I suppose they were afraid if they had spoken up, they'd be next. And I feel sorry for girls who join the military to prove to their families that "They can be somebody, too," or show their big brother they are not a sissy. Here, too, the macho perception of what represents a person's value is constructed on totally masculine terms. Not unlike the days when medical studies were ONLY done on men, with results generalized to women. Hey, we only got the vote a century ago, and if the fundamentalists had their way, we'd be barefoot and pregnant and at our fathers' or husbands' mercy.
It's sadly apparent that even in this forum, so many men don't get it, and their conversation is all about diversion. It's clear they don't WANT to get it. It makes the ego feel good to just have ITS perception validated, and the brutality of overt and covert sexism in our midst, and in our society, is another inconvenient truth.
Hey, guys, I have news for you: given the long evolutionary spiral of reincarnation, you'll get the vaginas next time. Better think about that, next time you tread with disrespect upon the feminine side of The Force.
Why is it that when a girl watches violence for pleasure, she's scared but when a guy does it he's a villian? It does not matter if a boy or a girl watches and has fun watching someone else getting raped and butchered. They're guilty for enabling it. You can't set one standard for girls and another for boys. Femininity has nothing to do with wishing boys that their next life will be bad. The men in this forum get it and they're not biased. Misogyny is irrelevant here.
Sioux Rose
Martian bachelor: There is a concept known as "consciousness raising" that you are utterly lacking. You have no understanding of what the cultural saturation in and of patriarchal beliefs & programming means, and how THIS factor has socialized both men and women. My points go way beyond what boys and girls "do." You would be wise to do some reading. Your views are naive and uninformed. Opinions are more compelling to me when they're backed up either by unique personal experience, or someone taking the time to study, learn, and read up on issues. Dare to enter the mind of one of the key feminist thinkers: Betty Friedan, Shulamith Firestone, Gloria Steinem, etc. Then come back and we can talk. You're voicing an opinion on something you really know nothing about. And due to your misconceptions, you project your opinions onto my words, but these do NOT dovetail. It's like trying to explain to someone an experience entirely alien to them. Until they "get it," the words will roll off the page like droplets of water meeting an oil-slick surface. Sorry. Maybe if you hang around the forum you'll actually penetrate the mystery and experience an epiphany.
You didn't answer my question but tried to get around answering it. I don't know your beliefs but calling men incapable of misunderstanding women I take offense at. I understand feminism very well and real feminism is not about women taking revenge. Unfortunately, feminism has turned into a special privilege idea of making sure women only get everything even at the cost of going against men. I did a thorough lookup of "consciousness raising" and I'm not against women but if someone commits a crime, man or woman, using feminism to shield the woman or masculinism to shield the man is wrong. Just what is so naive about being subjective? You cannot invent excuses when girls do the same wrong actions as men. It is shocking that some girls would laugh and take video pictures of another woman to you and I understand that but in this case, you cannot possibly excuse them by saying that they were scared to speak out. No human being, male or female, who laughs and video tapes a raped victim for 2-3 hours could possibly be scared. No woman's meeting would condone those girls who joined the guys for doing this. This is inexcusable and no amount of gender biasing can cover up for it. I'll be happy to stick around and learn some more but don't call me a misogynist because I'm not one. Honest.
Don't take Sioux Rose seriously. She is dishonest with herself and others as well. She uses black magic bs to explain her point of view when she lacks the facts to back up her claims. She also has a male-hating gender bias in her and it shows. She thinks she's goddess. HA ! I feel bad for her husband if he's reading this if she's married.
I'm not here to get personal with anyone or judge them. I am just as disgusted with the guys who raped the young girl as is Sioux Rose. Where we differ is where she says that any girl laughing and taking pictures is afraid to stand up and I find it wrong. I saw her other posts on this page where she sites misogyny as the culprit. As a man, I'm left with the impression that she thinks it's ok for a guy to be beaten publicly but not a girl. I don't support anyone being tortured public like this boy or girl. Furthermore, I do not support anyone, boy or girl, who laughs and takes pictures of the victim, male or female. If Rose doesn't have a bias against gender, then my apologies. If she does, then she's not the first one I met and won't be the last. I have come across plenty of misogynists and misandrists. I am objective and I don't believe in gender bias but if I have to share my good and bad experiences with women to explain something, I'll do it.
Based on a number of back and forths with Sioux I conclude she means well and has noble intentions. I think she may well have a problem with masculinity as opposed to with men.
Sioux?
Sioux Rose
JAKE: I use the construct of the Zodiac circle, the LOGOS, as a template for human types. This broad universal model allots 6 masculine prototypes and 6 feminine ones. In this forum I speak effectively and repetitively about the emphasis on the archetype of MARS as god of war, maker of conflict, as being a force too much with us. IF any FOOLS conclude from that that I dislike men, it is a reflection of their simplistic, if not stupid, thought process.
I speak about greater potentials for humanity. If any take that to mean I take myself for being "spiritually superior" once again that is a reflection of their egos being threatened by a vision that transcends what they, themselves, cannot yet recognize as valid and ultimately liberating.
The astrologer has been misunderstood, persecuted, and marginalized for centuries. It's a shame since the vision we relate is an effective remedy for saving mankind from itself. So ironic, too, in a nation that looks endlessly into the sewer, studies the post mortum of dead bodies in endless CSI shows, or watches sick porn, or makes light of the pornography that results from a national policy of violence, enacted through wars based on prefabricated pretexts, it is still astrology, to LOOK UP for meaning, that remains the great taboo.
I have posted in this forum for about as long as comments have been invited. Any who wish to believe those who misappropriate my words and vision, as opposed to what I seek to share, are more invested in darkness than Light. They are probably not the "audience" to whom I wish to speak. I do, indeed, have noble intentions; however, I also am a human being who feels what is going on in this world, and these are NOT easy times for any of us. Thankfully, MANY have told me my comments hold meaning for them. I suppose anyone with anything real to say will stir some controversy. In better times, I'd say that any publicity is good publicity. Peace.
"JAKE: I use the construct of the Zodiac circle, the LOGOS, as a template for human types."
Thank you for your response, I am not familiar with the above. I had previously only speculated about your feeling on men and masculinity, in passing. My interest here is almost always elsewhere though, please see my response to JenniferBedingfield November 2nd, 2009 1:09 am
"Any who wish to believe those who misappropriate my words and vision, as opposed to what I seek to share, are more invested in darkness than Light. They are probably not the "audience" to whom I wish to speak."
This is likely true much of the time, that's just how it is I think.
"Peace."
And to you, lord knows we could use more.
jakenewton, thank you. As a male, I like both femininity and masculinity but my problem is when a guy justifies wrongdoing with masculinity or a woman justifies wrongdoing with femininity. I was offended by part of her posts where she goes to great lengths about "vagina" and towards the end of her post where she wished "vaginas on men" in their next lives. This is why I fear matriarchy to be just as dangerous as patriarchy. I wished she would have posted with a bit of sensitivity in mind. I'm an adult too but I get sensitive on things like that.
I confess I really don't understand exactly where she is coming from vis a vis the points you make. I just don't see anything malicious on her part. Like many of us she may be stuck in what is called "confirmation bias", we all do it at least a little bit.
I don't think she meant to be malicious either but maybe her anger seeing a teenage girl being helplessly raped and beaten got the best of her. I don't know these people but this is an interesting forum to come to. I think I'll hang around and try to understand their point of view as best as I can. I have my biases too but I try not to let it get in the way. You sound reasonable. Thanks.
" I think I'll hang around and try to understand their point of view as best as I can. "
Good idea.
Jake and Martian,
It's ok. She doesn't mean anything against either of you. I have had days where I disagreed with her and I have had to prove to her that I was not naive about some issue or subject even when my posts were interpreted by her along that thought.
Martian, you don't have to conform your views to everyone but just understand and interpret what they post. Some of us on this forum have very deep thinking. Since you appear to be new to the forum, SR was willing to help you out but you are welcome to let her know where on her posts you disagree or have your doubts. In fact, most people are open to that.
I know that sometimes, there can be conflicts between factual and spiritual thinking I generally find a balanced thinking approach between the two.
By the way jake, I admire the way you bring up factual challenges now and then. We may not always agree on everything but I also thank you for your posts on helping me out. Feel free to correct me where I get it wrong in finance. Thanks.
"It's ok. She doesn't mean anything against either of you."
I am sure.
"By the way jake, I admire the way you bring up factual challenges now and then. We may not always agree on everything but I also thank you for your posts on helping me out. Feel free to correct me where I get it wrong in finance. Thanks."
Thanks, it's true I am almost exclusively interested in this area, that is, how facts and then reason lead to conclusions or positions. Where the facts are well known, and fairly simple, the reason is not much more than algebraic formula. In fact, logic is a branch of math. Where the facts are not as just described, there may be a greater variety of reasonable positions to be taken by thoughtful people with the limits of available information. Then you get into areas that transcend logic almost entirely, such as with religious or political philosophy.
It is sometimes frustrating the way people react when I might simply be asking a question about something. In a recent post, for example, a participant cited a well-known study to support his position. I asked a series of reasonable questions about the study. The questions remain unanswered. Instead I am told that I can't ask questions about the study. Instead I must cite some other study that disputes the first study, which is of course not a requirement anywhere in our world when one wishes to question or criticize a study. So the questions remain unanswered. I am told that I am wrong because I am a right wing neocon which is a Logical Fallacy because it ignores the questions. This despite having never stated my position on the subject, my position apparently gleaned simply because I asked questions. Since questions are not statements and have no veracity, this too is illogical. Then I am told that I likely never got past x level in school, and that I can barely construct a proper sentence. See how that goes sometimes?
It is obvious that I can't help some people think a bit better about purely factual and logical areas, when they refuse that they could possibly use some improvement in that area. But I suppose that I may have helped with some here a bit. We should ask ourselves why it is that we believe that something is true. With solid facts and reasoning we can be confident. Where that is not the case, it is perfectly OK to say that we just don't know right now.
Bye!
Perhaps the question is--what on earth has happened to our young people? Are we raising the most violent generation ever?
We know our young compatriots can't write songs or pick Presidential candidates. We know they mar their flesh with grotesque tattoos and body-piercings.
More seriously, we also know that young people in America today are intensely violence-prone. The Surgeon General even did a report on the problem--"Youth Violence: A Report of the Surgeon General":
"The [surge in youth violence from 1983-1993] has not been resolved. Another key indicator of violence--youths' confidential reports about their violent behavior--reveals no change since 1993 in the proportion of young people who have committed physically injurious and potentially lethal acts. Moreover, arrests for aggravated assault have declined only slightly and in 1999 remained nearly 70 percent higher than pre-epidemic levels. In 1999, there were 104,000 arrests of people under age 18 for a serious violent crime--robbery, forcible rape, aggravated assault, or homicide (Snyder, 2000). Of these, 1,400 were for homicides committed by adolescents (Snyder, 2000) and, on occasion, even younger children (Snyder & Sickmund, 1999).
http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/youthviolence/summary.htm
You may assign the primary reason for the fall to expectations. It starts early by telling each child that they deserve the same reward no matter what they do.
The next problem arises from the racist's that keep insisting that black and latino children cannot compete, are not of the same caliber as other ethnic groups. Insisting on lowering the level to their existing capacity rather than bringing their level up. This waters down the entire educational syatem.
Its not brain surgery to figure out whats wrong, but it is puzzling why we keep following policies proscribed by people that have produced this mess.
And it is NOT a lack of money.
Yes, yes, I know, Henry, your beloved military needs more, more, more, ever more money, but the schools and universities don't.
It's not about money? Shut down all private schools, slash the military budget by half, and use that money for public schools and public universities.
If I remember, sometime ago, Henry8 did acknowledge that the military budget needs to be seriously cut. I don't remember the percentage though, 25% I think but I agree that at least 50% is more like it (I prefer 80% cuts in the military).
As far as money goes, I agree that privatized education deserves no subsidization. Public schools deserve proper subsidization but Henry8 goes beyond the money. It's not just how much money you throw at public schools but how it's used. What is the point of giving a school, public or private, a large lumpsum of money if they do not put that money to wise use? Let's question the schools doing business with food contractors responsible for poisoning the young with processed garbage. Better yet, let's question why schools waste money overdecorating their schools with sports stadiums when that money could go towards defending progressive minded education. Even better, it does not take money to tell a school to allow children to self develop and let them think some things through for themselves. Teaching students Basic Interpersonal Communications Skills requires no money either. There are some things money cannot solve and where money is not the answer.
If all that could be improved, today's children will be bold enough to unite and whittle down the macho-egotistical mentality that is responsible for teenagers making fun of others getting raped publicly and allowing the young to remain wholly ignorant of Barry continuing Dubya's wars and Wall $treet bailouts.
I agree that how money spent on public education can be improved, obviously. Certainly money is not the panacea to every problem.
I'm not saying that it is.
I'm saying that there is a disparity between what a kid gets at a private school and what a kid gets at a public school. More money doesn't just mean better facilities. It means better school lunches, better teachers, and more of those better teachers. It means a more rounded education, one that includes music, art.
Why do you think that on the one hand, Obama is hypocritically championing charter schools to "reform" the public school system, while sending Princess Sasha and Princess Malia to an exclusive private school?
Why should Princess Sasha and Princess Malia get go to an exclusive expensive private school, while other kids don't?
Let me put it this way: use the money spent on the military to subsidisise every kid who could not afford it, to go to the kind of private schools that Princess Malia and Princess Sasha are going to.
Her parents will have a lot to suffer for what she has been through that day. My prayers go out to the victim and I hope she will recover from this. God bless her and her family.
And bless you for thinking of her poor parents. God help them in the coming years.
This is a tragic event that nonetheless confirms that we as a society choose to be as amoral as possible. Lots of great comments from all angles. Kernelz and JenniferB raise excellent points about the need for parents to step in and teach their kids to be kind and compassionate. Teddy, I cannot blame your aunt for not wanting to come to the USA although back then it wasn't as amoral.
I have come across amoral people of all ages and most of those amoral folks somehow find it cool to see others suffering. Ask them how they would feel if this were happening to them and they'll say "It ain't happening to me and it never will so I don't care !" or something like "Cool man, I wanna see more !". Even on things such as the war in Iraq and oil guzzling, I've come across amoral people say shit like "Hummers guzzle a lot ? Cool, buy me a couple more so I can smash those commie hybrids !" or something "People are getting blown up? Then let's blow up some more and smash those terrorists !" That said, I don't think that government alone will be able to resolve the amoral nature of this country. That responsibility will rest on us citizens who will have to unite and learn to stop having fun at other people's expenses.
thegreatrockyhill is correct to point out that the Right will use this as an excuse. It's already happening even in our current elections. Today at work, I came across the typical diehard Republicans, one of whom who said "See, welfare kiddies! California is so poor that stupid kids can own cell phones !" I could ask some of those who say that CA is too expensive to live in the question as to why teenagers can still afford cell phones. It's entirely possible that we have taken technology so much for granted that what used to be luxury 20 years ago is now "basic entitlement". Now wonder the big phone companies get so much money to bribe Congress to give them immunity and power to eavesdrop.
This event has nothing to do with politics. Amorality has gotten to the point past no return that there will have to be a total breakdown of society to overcome it.
Computers were also a luxury 20 years ago. 20 years ago, people were listening to music from cassette tape, and digital sources of music were considered something of a luxury.
People in CA can afford cellphones, despite the high cost of living, because cellphones are cheap. Cellphones are ubiquitous, not just in CA, but all over the world, even in poor countries, not because technology is taken for granted, but because like most technological things, as the technology advances, it becomes cheaper. Heck, in some poor countries, cellphones are more common than land line phones.
Points well taken. I have heard of plans to ban cell phones in certain places but I think that would be lame as banning television and dangerous in some ways. Cell phones have their advantages over land lines and it's just a matter of who chooses to use the technology wisely vs who doesn't.
Btw, I did read somewhere (unsubstantiated) that the victim was white. Did that have anything to do with the attack? It wouldn't shock me. The system pits us against each other in so many ways, and churns out so many people that are willing to hurt others.
You know the right-wingers will run with this.
I read this and could barely get through it. It one of those ugly stories that while it has to be told is obscene in the telling of it.
It has an immediate visceral impact but at the same time as ugly as it was and as tragic.
Todays local paper reported that some 4 more Murders have been pinned on one Robert Pickton. These Brutal rape murders where of "marginalized" women who were picked up by this man , taken to his farm and raped , murdered and dismembered. No one will ever know the total number of women he murdered but his killing spree went on for years while both the authorities and society "Ignored" all the disappearing women.
In that same paper another article. Native women meeting to address the violence committed against them. Over the past decade sveral hundred women have disappeared again with little urgency to find what happens to them.
This particular incident was seen and witnessed by many and nothing done, but what of all the rapes and murders and beatings that no one a witness to and that happen each and every day?
We KNOW they happen. We can only speculate as to how brutal those were. Should we speculate? Is that in itself a titalation ?
It very ugly. Incidents like this bring it to the fore but these things happen every day.
We have to rethink. The mindset is just all mucked up. Are we broken irrevocably? Whats WRONG in our heads and something is very very wrong. It not just with a small "few".
There no way this "Genetic" It is TAUGHT. To what purpose is this behaviour learned? What monster does it serve?
Excellent thoughts.
It's easy to condemn the people who assaulted that young girl. I hate them too. But you have understand WHY people do such things. Were these kids from affluent, well-adjusted homes? Did any of them have a future?
Our system currently forces working and poor people to often prey upon each other.
There are acts of depravity that occur everyday in this country and elsewhere, but there are also acts of kindness and solidarity to go along with that. To suggest otherwise is to wallow in hopelessness.
Don't let something like this reflect badly on all Americans. It kills me when people take incidents like this and then use it to paint all Americans as being bloodthirsty and violent while they shake their heads and act as if this nation is beyone saving, as if the silent majority deserves no salvation.
So far, it's been shown that the ringleaders of the attack were Hispanic. Would anyone here dare to suggest that Hispanic men are inherently violent and misogynistic?
Do you see what happens when you take that road?
Rape happens everywhere. Violence happens everywhere. But look at where it happens the least and you'll find the solutions to what ails America. It's the system that causes the soul sickness.
"USA founded and financially enrichened on indigenous genocide and slavery has always been savage."
And did any of that benefit anyone other than a small percentage of people? No.
I'm an American white hetero male who grew up Catholic. I've never wanted to subjugate anyone. I only want to hurt the people who hurt and hate, and I'd rather start at the very top, working my way down.
Rape is not about society. Rape is what men do. There is an epidemic of rape in Africa, in Sudan, Darfur, the Congo, Liberia. There is an epidemic of rape among the US military and even more so the mercenaries hired to fight our imperial wars. It just so telling that most of this post is a bunch of guys arguing about race and whether anyone is to blame and who. No one can stay on the reality that a woman was raped by a bunch of asshole guys and it happens all the time, in every country and little is done. At least my generation had an active women's movement that began to address the issues. Of course the backlash has been ferocious. It seems young women are too afraid to even take on male supremacy and its' vicious, disgusting, misogynist culture.
The only hope is an end to patriarchy. Now watch the boys go crazy!
Sioux Rose
ARTEMIX: I was unable to enter this thread till today, and I noticed you were one of a handful that brought up the fact that it is SEXUAL VIOLENCE aimed at WOMEN. This is not 'generic' violence to society. It's about how men, many men, treat and regard women. I wrote a lengthy post above. I just wanted to thank you for pointing out something especially missed by the boys fighting over whether California or Kansas or Texas have higher rates of violence. Talk about a sensitivity-lacking diversionary tacitc (or discussion). Like the 30 Republicans ready to consign that poor female to the "boys will be boys, and boys do bad things. She should not have been hanging out with that crowd," means of BLAMING the victim, the patiarchal religious programming that for CENTURIES has blamed EVE for handing the apple to Adam which HE ATE... for centuries women have carried the shame, been the ones (in fundamentalist Muslim zones women are punished for being raped! Families sometimes kill these daughters, the shame goes to them, and this type of culturally sick response is known as an "honor crime") upon whom MALE sins are projected.
The escalation of violence to which the US is indeed # 1... bleeds into all aspects of our lives. Heck, I see its shadow over modern medicine, how livestock are treated, how business deals are done. It's all about force, me-first/fuck you. Societies THIS depraved are always the recipients of some form of major cosmic therapy. OURS is not exempt. It is so painful to watch the fall. One can only pray the nation is worthy of a resurrection. First, all of its "operating principles" as per corrupted ideology, must be replaced by ideals that hold as sacred ALL people of ALL backgrounds, while recognizing that our lives depend upon respect for, and sound stewardship of the PRECIOUS kingdoms of nature.
Artemix, the boys don't want to see the truth. The guilt is unbearable. However, they need to realize WE are not seeking their guilt, but trying to catalyze a higher understanding as the nation cannot heal, nor can the world, until males recognize what mainstream culture DOES to women. So many men are oblivious, and so many women have dealt with rape, near rape, attack, living in fear... probably only gay men can understand this. And it's not so much about sex, as it is about POWER. Time for men to quit needing/wanting/demanding/inventing religious rationale for/legislating their superior status to women. It is time to become PARTNERS.
"At least my generation had an active women's movement that began to address the issues. Of course the backlash has been ferocious. It seems young women are too afraid to even take on male supremacy and its' vicious, disgusting, misogynist culture."
"The only hope is an end to patriarchy. Now watch the boys go crazy!"
Young women aren't afraid to take on male supremacy, sexism, etc. HOWEVER, they also refuse to follow the orders and dictates of your generation.
The only hope is an end to the patriarchy. To ALL authoritarianism. An end to the patriarchy, AND attempts to replace it with a matriarchy.
Sioux Rose
RFLOH: I hope you are right about the younger generation. Perhaps we need a new term to help us identify with what is now required. I agree that the authoritarian precepts stand in the way of personal freedom and allowing societies to evolve to the point they encourage the growth of their members. In contrast, the demand for strict allegiance to fundamentalist/authoritarian protocols and what tradition once held up as worthy, freezes progress. Persons march lockstep with past ways of doing things, (and thinking) and shortcircuit any hope for genuine progress.
In a sense, the amassing of dire weapons forces the understanding of the fundamental ONENESS of the family of mankind. Either we destroy each other or learn to cohabit this vital blue-green spinning sphere. A good artist could paint a magnificent tree and define each of its branches as a different ethnic group. The point is, all share the same "trunk," and thus to preserve its root system, ALL must water the tree and regard it with care.
Matriarchy sounds like "women rule," and I am not advocating for that (although my detractors who can only see life through the prism of black versus white, me versus you, might default to "that setting")... what is needed are authentic partnerships. Biology for each gender owns specific functions intended to complement the other. I believe there are spiritual equivalents. The female NOT trained by patriarchal culture, religion, educational precepts in many instances owns a different type of intelligence, and it's intuition based. There are men who have developed this aspect of sentience, and women who have let it atrophy. It is not a straight shot across gender lines, but gender is an influence. These different gifts are intended as complements.
For so long the power bastions have feared and resented the EMOTIONS of women. But where has cold logic governing the nation's policies gotten us? To war where human beings and their obscene and premature deaths are tossed aside as mere collateral damage, just a bleep on some computer screen? This depraved indifference is a direct result of shutting off the FEELINGS function. It is expected that children zip up those emotions when they enter school classes, ditto in the workplace, when they attain adult status.
A friend of mine took her (now X) husband to a counselor and no matter what scenario the counselor depicted in a hope to elicit emotions/feelings from this recalcitrant spouse, the ONLY one he could identify, or identify with was anger. Anger can become rage or hate, and it's a useful raw material for the make-war state. The suppression of HEALTHY feelings has gotten us the status of becoming a largerly sociopathic society. Perhaps the displaced feelings explain why so many are depressed, obese, alcoholic, on drugs, or just zoned out. Our nation's citizens in many ways resemble zombies likely due to the demand that feelings be dissected from all equations of living. If a land ever required collective therapy it would be this one. As per the logos, tough love will soon be on the way!
I get scared that matriarchy is turning out to be just as dangerous as patriarchy. Maybe we need a third gender just like we need a third party?
I agree we need to end all forms of domination. I did not propose a matriarchy. However it would be nice if we could build on the many waves of the women's movement which began in the USA in 1848 to keep making progress instead of buying the advertising slogans like it not your mother's this or that as the height of independence. Its just about dividing women.
The world keeps changing and young women have new perspectives to add. At this age though its hard not see how much stays the same and the project has ever been keep women divided by class, race, generations. No orders or dictates but we are stronger supporting each other.
Ok, I responded too strongly, which I have a tendency to do. I apologise.
I agree all the infighting is a distraction.
I respond strongly because I tire of older women constantly disparaging the younger generation of women, of the things that women such as Germaine Greer, Fay Weldon say.
Why would something men do be apart from society?
If there is anything that this event shows, it's that society lusts for not only violence and rape but also for watching others being the victim of such acts. Henry8 was correct to point out that the spectators are just as guilty as the perpetrators.
When I look back and think about all the violent television shows most of us came across from cartoons to adult movies, I think that these spectators have been long used to watching it on television that they felt that they would somehow feel just "great" to take pictures, videos, and spreading the news to their friends in text messaging. It's as if these foolish spectators were thinking that they were preparing themselves to be great film directors or news reporters when the painful truth is that none of them will make it without money.
But what's more is that here's another factor. If anyone here has studied George Lakoff and what he wrote about Strict Father Morality (Lakoff should have substituted Father with Authoritarian), they would know that in a society that conforms to the SFM world view, victims are supposed to be blamed for everything regardless. In fact, these same faux "conservatives" would much rather "reward" those perpetrators rather than punish them. As for the spectators, SFM dictates that it is not the job of strangers to jump in and help but that it is somehow "ok" to watch the victim getting persecuted as if the victim is "guilty" of not pulling herself up on her own. It is a sad reality that children are brainwashed into not only accepting bullying but are taught virtually no lessons about the fact that it is wrong to laugh at other people's misery for no reason.
This same world view can be applied to the ongoing wars and occupations in Iraq, Af/Pak, etc...
Sioux Rose
JB: Good post. I would only add that part of the "Rites of spectator sport" ensue from so many TV shows where people are invited to witness cops bursting into slum apartments on suspected drug charges, or lower income people spilling their guts for a shot on the likes of "Jerry Springer," or persons baring their savage impulses in a "reality show" like "Survivor." There are shows about addicts and how their families deal with their attempts at rehab, and that grotesque, "Dawg, the Bounty Hunter," hunting down people with warrants. The implication is that so many are guilty of something. I think these shows break down the concepts of privacy and "innocent until PROVEN guilty." They work hand in glove with the efforts on the part of a new stream of "unitary executives" to relax the safeguards of our Constitution and Bill of Rights. These images seep into the collective unconscious and form a new set of norms. We become an "armed and dangerous" society, loaded and off-balance. Great fun if you feel nostalgia for a 21st century return to the (new) Wild, wild west!
Speaking of those shows you mentioned, there's one thing they have in common. They're included in channels that fall under my cable company's "basic" plan. It's frustrating to find good channels being restricted to "premium" plans where I have to pay more per month though not as much as a movie channel. This is why I oppose banning the television but instead trying to reform our cable companies.
With today's vulgar shows being mainstream, I can only thank my stars that I don't get enough time to watch them. I'd much rather spend the time playing with my cat or talking to my friends and relatives who wish to get past the politics of everything. Thank goodness for ebay and amazon where people can buy and sell for less. I'd use those sites to get the good stuff worth watching. :)
Sioux Rose
Jennifer: I am surprised by your lack of FEELINGS on this subject. You are quite good at political analysis, up on facts and so forth, but you seem to lack empathy for this rape situation, or that once understood as the sentiment of "sisterhood." Are you reading from the tele-prompter on this one? As for TV, I have not watched in years and if I enter someone's home and the INTRUDER is on, I play sociologist checking out the data being spewed to program those silly enough to allow this mind control into their midsts on a regular basis. It does help to explain why so many have lost the capacity to discern true human suffering from another "TV reality show."
I am not insensitive to the issue of rape although I have sometimes been afraid to discuss the issue for personal reasons. Rape is an example of society's tolerance of a violent culture in general. The author and I agree that there is a fundamental problem with the way society chooses to solve problems because of the way most people are conditioned into looking at a disturbing event "coolly" and cashing in on someone's suffering. As one who almost got raped, I can tell you that very victims of rape want to discuss it. I don't get into television shows much and have moved long past that. I don't expect improvements but I do my best to request a little better for everyone. Please don't take me as insensitive to rape. Trust me, someday I too might be as brave to discuss it. I don't want someone taking my information and using it against me. I wish the 15 year old well and I hope she can fully recover even if it takes another 15 years. I understand the long term devastating effects of rape. That is why I thought that it was important to discuss the SFM world view in general and the fact that access to good channels is privatized. If more people were to be able to watch the fitness channels instead of violent shows every day, there would be far less cases of violence especially rape. Yoga, meditation, and in general good exercise could help lesson a guy's urge to rape a woman.
Your uncle is some dude! Take your trip through Texas with him!
Your point about violence on kids TV shows is well taken!
Thanks Henry. I saw your comments by the way and your dialogue with my Uncle Stan and thanks again. There's so much to connect the dots I can't even tell where to start at times. Some people have even suggested that we ban the television altogether but I don't see how that will solve anything. It will be a failure just like the alcohol prohibition or they'll just find ways around it such as going on the Internet and making a tougher case for privatizing the Internet so that the garbage channels and shows get to hog up the net. I've witnessed the various reasons why parents don't get in touch with their kids more often. Some can be reasons such as both parents having to work longer hours while other reasons include parents who just don't want to take the time to be with their kids because something or other is distracting them. When their parents neglect them, either they'll find someone or something to play around with or just get hooked to the television to get them out of the blues. I still don't see how banning the television will solve anything.
On taking the trip, I'm not sure I know enough about either CA or TX to make a final decision myself as to which is better. Since I don't allow politics to affect me, I'm already predicting that I will see both of those states differently outside the traditional red vs blue point of view. I promise that I won't say anything for or against either state until I visit them both. I also have relatives in both states.
Hi Jennifer
"On taking the trip, I'm not sure I know enough about either CA or TX to make a final decision myself as to which is better."
Flip a coin and go see whichever wins first. They are both beautiful states. California and Texas are similar in the respect that one section of the state is totally different from the other.
Most folks think of California as Southern California while Northern California is absolutely gorgeous. We have the Hill Country, South Texas, East Texas and West Texas you are familiar with. All very different.
When I grew up, both my parents worked. It had no effect on their expectations or help for me. I have never bought that excuse.
Cartoons seem much more violent and graphically so. I'd start there. I would return to the policy that nothing of adult content, cursing, semi nudity, graphic violence could be broadcast till 7:00 PM. I would add expectations for parents responsibility has been lowered too.
"Flip a coin and go see whichever wins first."
Oh Henry8, actually it's easy. TX is closer distance wise so I'll pick that first, then CA. :)
"When I grew up, both my parents worked. It had no effect on their expectations or help for me. I have never bought that excuse."
That might depend on which of the parents are working longer hours. If both parents are working longer hours, it could be harder to find enough time to care for the child. However, I guess they could makedo with that small amount of time everyday to basically communicate with their children and improve their communications skills. Come to think of it, the more they did that the less they would put working longer hours first and the more time they would give for them. I too have been overworked on some days but I can imagine being overworked as a mother and still making sure I have time to spend with my children like I do with my cat. Usually children like cats can lower one's blood pressure. I would also feel younger and drop some fatigue.
Hey folks, lets not eat our own.
A peaceful man with a gun and proud of his Heritage is still a peaceful man.
We all have blinders somewhere whether it is race, gender, class,etc.
We are all in this horrible mess together so lets pull each other over the top and not climb on each others backs.
Use facts and opinions and offer solutions and help but save your barbs for the mass murderers we are opposing.
What makes you think I am white, besides my milktoast handle?
I call for solidarity and you spit on me, possibly the one poster who reiterates indigenous genocide and enslaved people as much as any Blood poster?
For all you know I am Blood or Skin.
Your response to racism is more racism is that a solution?
It is the acceptance of racism that allows genocide.
Anyone can be angry but only the creative can channel that anger into life energy.
As I tell my daughter you are hurting yourself when you are angry at another.
I support reparations for indigenous and enslaved and would sincerely support giving one half of the continent back to indigenous peoples, their choice as to half.
As to rape I believe the article was emphasizing inhumanity among all the participants bystanders, rapists, thieves and batterers which I assume was at least of two genders. Assuredly the greatest crime was rape perpetrated by males but the article is focused on inhumanity in general in USA society so one can rightfully expect the thread to circle around the focus of the article.
Take your racism somewhere else please.
Since I'm not a racist, please come back whenever you like and welcome.
Which tribe did your tribe steal the land from? Gee, if you want to have a conversation about the absurdly silly notion that the nasty old white man came in and stole from the peaceful, reasonable, oh so civilized first immigrants, lets do. But the unpleasant truths you won't like.
That many parts of America were stolen from someone else by the first immigrants, that most tribes practiced slavery, that they had a great way to get rid of old people, go out into the woods and die, that they were very violent towards each other, that many of the tribes, the Commanche ledft a trail of dead of whites, Indians of various tribes and took many slaves on their immigration to Texas where they stiole land from the Mexicans and Mexican/Indians.
Your senario is an illusion put forth by a bunch of (gasp) white guys sitting around the University lounge. Its simply not true. But has some truth to it, however.
Gee, no more a squatter than you were.
I don't smoke, thats something I didn't (steal) from the first immigrants.
A young gentlemen above posted to you considering your anger and you should reaslly read it again. He is right.
Come on home though, theres plenty of room for all Americans...
Get this through your thick skull.
NONE OF US WERE BORN WHEN THE LAND WAS TAKEN. NINETY PERCENT OF THE NATIVE INDIANS DIED OF SYPHILLIS AND OTHER CONTAGIOUS DISEASES ACCIDENTALLY BROUGHT BY EARLY EXPLORERS. NATIVE AMERICANS BELIEVED IN SHARING AND OFFERED THE SETTLERS A CHANCE TO SETTLE. THE PROBLEM WAS THAT SOME OF THE SETTLERS WERE GREEDY BASTARDS WHO TOOK IT TOO FAR. BLAMING TODAY'S PEOPLE IS WRONG WRONG WRONG !
Again, such idiotic rambling. Nobody has to pack their bags. You chose to leave the USA for your own personal reasons. Mexico is no different from the US. Why don't you just move to Europe if you're all that mad about it? I have met Native American women around your age and none of them are immature and racist as you.
I'm not packing any bags and leaving. I love it here in Virginia. If you're so angry about the natives being destroyed in the USA, then explain why you don't mind the Spanish stealing and raping the culture in Mexico, Central and South America. Canada too had natives. Why don't you go to Europe and learn why Old Europe did what it did while today's Europe is different? Yeah, I thought so. LMAO !
Good points. Unfortunately, the natives were living in the stone-age when the "euro-trash" arrived. With a few exceptions, technologically disadvantaged cultures don't fare well when exploited. In contemporary terms, "Independence Day" is far more likely than "Close Encounters" or "ET".
I live in "Indian Country", they are a great culture, a little belligerent when passing thru their land or pueblos, but hey. I listen to Native American Calling with Harlan McKosato whenever I can.
It's unfortunate that all the angry NA's show up on CD because what I get from observing their culture is that although they never forget their holocaust they have learned forgiveness and reconciliation.
Great post!
Great comment Glenn.
Humans in their self isolation inside a crowd do howl and yap with excitement at the sight of assult and rape in progress, as if the victims loss was their very own personal gain. To be very charitable maybe it is a exaggerated relief that we are not the victim. It explains plenty enough about witch hunts. It explains the war mentality about the victims in Iraq and Afghanistan. It explains police shooting of unarmed and non-resisting blacks. It explains the everyone-is-guilty except the very rich system of justice. We do not even question the pecking order any more, it is just the way we are.
We are animals that behave no better than rats in a very overcrowded cage.
Speaking of our cage, otherwise known as the finite space and resources of earth, their is plenty of violent evidence of crises that are bounding up us around.
The only worthwhile human goals that human-kind can aim for now is to degrow. That is to shrink our numbers and environmental impact as fast as possible. Either that or the earth will become uninhabitable for humans, and the enforced shrinkage of humankind later on when it is too late may be unstoppable. Rather than economic growth, we need a few percent shrinkage every year. There is a choice. We can either lose more numbers, or reduce the per person impact.
The policies of the current US government seem to be a process of degrowing by increasing the wealth and power of a few, by taking away from everyone else. The end-stage is social breakdown and civil war. The parable of the talents is applied in full. Those that have not will be stripped even of what they have, particularly freedom and life. This is the full worked out implications of current conservative policies of Republican and Democrat kind. Its a real pity they cannot rationally see themselves as the animal kind that we all are.
Any person found spruiking economic and population growth is a eco-future-criminal, and should be shamed immediately. By definition of all our current circumstances, all economy boosters are just promoting their own welfare at the expence of the future, and at the expence of increased numbers of people who will have unavoidable suffering. If not for our planet and descendents, this being too abstract for most of our daily delusions, it is our very own welfare that is now at stake. The only advantage in more human numbers now, is that there are more candidates for natural selection to winnow out later.
This post worries about our lost humanity. Compared to when? When lynching parties were literally treated like town picnics?
Or maybe when company thugs were shooting and beating striking laborers?
Or when our bombs are dropped on wedding parties in Afghanistan?
Humans are animals. We are vulnerable to mob behavior that rewires our neurological circuitry. We are vulnerable to the dehumanization of the "other" and throughout history, in the battle for resources, we've had to be.
What happened in Richmond is inexcusable. The perpetrators should be arrested, tried, and punished to the fullest extent of the law.
Sure, we can change, but not in the course of a decade, let alone a century. Maybe two or three millenia. But even then, that old programming will lie dormant and come out when the conditions are right.
Change may be possible, over time, but meanwhile, let's not delude ourselves about human nature.
Coyotebreath, Excellent post.
There's no such thing as gringos. You must be living on another planet.
Kyle, pay no attention to nativetongueredux. That person has gotten into trouble several times for using the word "gringo" senselessly. He/she doesn't get taken seriously on this site anyway.
You know you're going to get into trouble again for such offensive talk so stop it already.
I know that this will fly over your head but you cannot expect to gain anything by simply telling everyone to pay up or pack up and leave. Blaming today's people is also wrong.
If you really wanted to undo the damage done to the raping of your culture, the least you would do is trying taking those values and teaching others about it for a change. Calling people "gringos" does nothing to solve the problems other than making yourself look more idiotic.
I have met 65 year old Native American women and none of them are as immature and racist as you are.