The Modern American Campus Cannot Comprehend Evil
Camille Paglia nails both the sociological experiment of turning men into eunuchs and the progressive driven mentality that everything is too "complicated" to be be pure evil. I am pleasantly surprised that TIME picked this up.
The other half of the coin is that women should not believe that they are safe - a woman who is a martial artist or who is carrying concealed probably has a slightly less risk of being 'prey'...
Male liberation - the freedom to be strong - has to be a part of female liberation. One does not gain ground by forcing different genders, different types of people into a single pigeonhole. There are different types of strength - not all is physical - but those who are strong in any manner should be free to express their excellence.
Jan
And, sexual predation isn't a right/left issue...
The Borg and the Federation, the Sith and the Rebellion.
Evil is all based on your perspective. Evil is determined by those in control or in charge, by those who make the determination of what basis and in what morality you must abide.
Throughout history the same discussion, the same perspective conflict is played out. The Greeks vs. the Persian. Greeks viewed Persia as Evil, and visa-versa.
The United States Constitution and the principals on what this country stands for is the basis in “our” morality our ethical behavior and our legal statutes.
Move to Iran and your sense of morality, evil, right and wrong are vastly different. One major failing in our education system is in NOT teaching cultural differences and differences in viewpoint. What makes the Nazi Evil and the Capitalist Virtuous? What perspective makes the Communist Virtuous and the Capitalist Evil. If you talk to an Anarchist, all order is evil.
Much like the adage, “History is written by the victors,” so too morality, evil, good are all dictated by those in control.
This was express very well by Abraham Lincoln in 1864.
The world has never had a good definition of the word liberty, and the American people, just now, are much in want of one. We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing. With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor; while with others the same word may mean for some men to do as they please with other men, and the product of other men’s labor. Here are two, not only different, but incompatible things, called by the same name -- liberty. And it follows that each of the things is, by the respective parties, called by two different and incompatible names --liberty and tyranny.
The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep’s throat, for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as a liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the same act as the destroyer of liberty, especially as the sheep was a black one. Plainly the sheep and the wolf are not agreed upon a definition of the word liberty; and precisely the same difference prevails today among us human creatures, even in the North, and all professing to love liberty. Hence we behold the processes by which thousands are daily passing from under the yoke of bondage, hailed by some as the advance of liberty, and bewailed by others as the destruction of all liberty. -- Abraham Lincoln, in a speech at a Sanitary Fair in Baltimore, MD, on April 18th, 1864
Going back to the article specifically, the Liberal and their "morality" assumes you have a better moral argument laying dead, raped and strangled with your own pantyhose, than if you had to argue why you pumped 9 rounds of .45 cal into the rapists chest.
Jan
I don’t think I missed the point of the article; that young girls need to take some responsibility to prevent these crimes and that society should not bear the sole responsibilities, but the author makes the same “progressive” mistakes by blaming the attackers’ actions on something larger than the individual.
My two cents? Instinct, at least not a gender specific instinct, is not to blame. It is the attacker. They are stupid, crazy, heartless and selfish. And yes, the victim should know there are looneys in the world and carry a sidearm or at least some pepper spray for protection.
She was on the right track in the beginning. Trying to make the issue about politics leads her to an ignoble place: "she was kind of asking for it"
This is plain begging the question.
Certainly if you are going to dress that way, it will help to have some means of defense close at hand, preferably something obvious (such as being arm-in-arm with a big beefy friend) so that you can deter the potential attack rather than find yourself in a fight, which is likely to cost you even if you win it.
Her pointed rhetoric is a shot on target in the ideologue littered world of Higher Educationally impaired intelligencia, and her exotic point, that too many men "Are from Mars . . . " and that Venus is there for their exclusive pleasure, and are beyond any real reformation is on point! As some of the commentary herein are proof positive statements thereof.
A very good entry. Utopians cannot accept the world as it is. They believe they can mold man and society if only granted enough power. In a way, this is its own kind of evil.
"Evil, for Objectivism, means the willful ignorance or defiance of reality. This has to mean that which cannot deal with reality, that which is whim ridden, context dropping, self contradictory. Evil is consistent in only one regard; its essence is consistently at war with all the values and virtues human life requires." OTPOAR pg. 329.
Evil is the opposite of creation it is a destroyer, devoid of virtue, objective standards of morality, and ethics. "The standard of value of the Objectivist ethics—the standard by which one judges what is good or evil—is man's life, or: that which is required for man's survival .." TARL. Evil's success depends largely upon the sanction of the victim, or the ignorance of its victims. "...evil is powerless and therefore, can exist only as a parasite on the good." OTPOAR pg.265
Moral relativism is a dodge and a trap. In human relations, evil is forcing one's will upon the unwilling.
Regards,
O.A.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkGMvM9S5...
sometimes you grimace a little and look away when you you come face to face with the 80s
I think we could dedicate that last song ("Oh Well"--- previous post) and this one also from the 80's to all those wonderful trolls we deal with.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqUa_G1h3...
I loved the 80's!
Regards,
O.A.
The 80's... yes... well...
Remember this one?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoLHfVo8B...
Was it that long ago? It seems like yesterday...
Hope all is well, and you get the answers you want. :)
O.A.
They comprehend ONLY from their personal viewpoint. If a viewpoint does not match theirs it is evil.
So many profound thoughts and complex thinking are portrayed in what appear to be simple scenes from movies. Here is the Question, who are the Jedi and who are the Sith. Liberal = Sith and Jedi = Conservative, or the other way around?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqSlaMME-...
Rand talked about one trouble with that: suppose A suspects B of stealing from him, and the security services of A and B clash when A tries to recover his stolen goods from B.
Here's another problem: what duty does a mercenary force have, and to whom, when an attack against the "homeland" comes? Now it turned out that Ragnar recruited half the male population of the valley, that being all the available aircraft could carry, into the Atlantis Air and Land Militia to search for and rescue John Galt. They succeeded. We all agree that was a moral result. But: was that result in accord with Objectivist ethics? This would seem a stretch on "The Ethics of Emergencies." And here's the worst problem: too many of those libertarians don't treat an attack against a "perfect stranger" who happens to reside in their neighborhood with the same seriousness as they would treat an attack against themselves.
But the "perfect stranger" problem exists even in places where there is only one set of authorities. Ferguson is a good example. There, the city government and police are controlled by an in-group which is not trusted, or trustworthy, as seen by most residents and would rather predate against them than protect them, so Rand's "war" would be better than the present tyranny.
My ideal solution would be to decentralize policing and courts as much as possible while still having a single central authority (more or less along the lines of David Friedman's writing about ancient Iceland).
Second best would be to bring back segregation, but more along party lines instead of racial ones, because at least a stable peace would be created that way.
Jan
Of course, this idea is about pragmatism, not rights. The concept of self-determination properly applies only to individuals.