tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9914392876978221362024-02-20T02:40:17.950-08:00Philosophy, Ronwise Style!ronwisegamgeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09597862399828580358noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-991439287697822136.post-25680103716675522752018-08-26T14:06:00.001-07:002018-08-26T14:07:17.430-07:00Response to Tim Pool's video titled "Socialism Won't Work Part 3, Homeless Guy Blows Money on Drugs"<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">This document is a response to Tim Pool's video titled "Socialism Won't Work Part 3, Homeless Guy Blows Money on Drugs," found here:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6njpeistr6w </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">He starts off the video with a case study about why UBI
won’t work, the case study being that of a homeless man being unable to access
money raised by GoFundMe in the amount of $400,000, half of which he spent but
still ended up being homeless, using drugs, and panhandling once again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The other half is being withheld on the
condition that he gets a job and stops using drugs.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The problem I see is that Tim is extrapolating this one
instance, a homeless man using drugs and panhandling that gets a bunch of
charity and doesn’t improve his situation, to demonstrate that paying a stipend
to a country’s citizenry with no strings attached won’t work (and calls it
Socialism, btw).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This argument is flawed
for several reasons:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">First, it’s reductionist on its face.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not everyone who would benefit from a stipend
is homeless and drug-addicted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not
everyone who gets a stipend will spend it on short-term pleasure and end up
back to where they are or worse.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Second (and closely related to the first), there’s also no evidence
that when a person gets a stipend, they will behave as an addict would and
spend their stipend to feed their addiction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I have had friends that have received a stipend from the military (the
Montgomery G.I. Bill) of $1980 a month for 33-months with the condition that
they go to school for at least two classes per semester (which are 100% paid
for by the government, btw).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes, that
makes the G.I. Bill a conditional stipend (both on prior military service of 24
months or more, a requirement to be enrolled for a minimum of two classes, AND
a limit on 33 months’ worth of benefits), but all that serves is that one
stipend is harder to qualify for than the other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I, myself, served in the U.S. Army for 22 months and
couldn’t take advantage of the G.I. Bill, and I REALLY could’ve used those
benefits to get back on my feet when returning to the civilian world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I came to learn several years later from a
friend and fellow veteran that I could’ve qualified for a 40% reduction in
post-secondary education fees (but no stipend whatsoever), but by that time, I
was already over $23,000 in student loan debt and in default.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve always tried to apply the following rule
of thumb when it came to income: while employed, if your bank account is higher
than it was your last paycheck, you’re going in the right direction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In other words, spend only a portion of what
I make so that I steadily accumulate more money.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On periods where an unexpected expense occurs
and I end up worse off than my last pay period, I tighten my belt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I foresee myself not getting paid during
a certain period, I tighten my belt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>While this strategy does allow me to eke out a living, my income limits
what I can buy and being default on my student loans drastically hinders my
ability to pursue higher levels of education in career fields that I’m
passionate about (mental health).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes, I
made a mistake in career path when I pursued the path of wanting to be a game
designer, but in simply being unable to repay my loans, loans that were
ultimately created at the touch of some keyboard strokes, do I really deserve
to be so hampered?</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Third, the argument he presents about how he knows a bunch
of people that would rather be aspiring professional skateboarders and guitar
players instead of plumbers and carpenters and that, if they had UBI, there
would be no useful professionals of this category.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If said handyman would REALLY quit his job to
pursue his passion for an art or a sport that he would ultimately not achieve
monetary gain in, then what happens next depends on how much the money they
earned actually mattered to them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If
they end up hurting financially for pursuing their passions, they can always
opt to go back to their handyman career, as society is always in need of
handymen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If they don’t go back to being
a handyman and continue to pursue their art or sport (or not), then we know
that their bar for homeostasis actually lies and they STILL get to participate
in the market by circulating their UBI to basic necessities, which the provider
of said necessities want (merchants want customers to buy their stuff).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The argument that no one would go back to
their old jobs is preposterous; people like making more money (to varying
extents) so that they can buy stuff they wouldn’t have access to without their
jobs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For those that are content with
little, they still need to eat and participate in society with dignity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Regardless of the matter, said “handyman
aspiring to be an artist” doesn’t need to be forced to stay as a handyman just
to survive and can actually find out whether or not they’ll be a professional
artist, and if they don’t reach that goal but stay with their choice, they can
still participate in the market and keep themselves alive and not living in
abject desperation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes, they’ll deprive
their surrounding portion of society of their trade, but they may provide an
experiential benefit to those they choose to provide for.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And if not, (and they’re law-abiding
citizens), it’s their fucking life!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Seriously!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Fourth (closely related to the third), not everything that
people are good at is marketable or marketable enough to illicit sufficient
exchange value (which is the be-all, end-all of someone who wants to dominate
in a market environment).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The fetishization
of exchange value, however, severely undervalues (or completely ignores)
experiential value in and of itself, especially when said purveyor of
experiential value cannot be commodified.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Why is the ineptitude of providing exchange value condemned with the
promise of exile and death (as is the case with the homeless man presented or
with an unskilled person who doesn’t want to cosign his waking hours to being a
meat robot)?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is a highly
misanthropic view of the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There
has to come a point in time when we have to remove the market society lenses
and see what kind of lives we’re living.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>For those that refuse to do so, people need to be able to buy your
products and services, regardless of how they got the money they’re exchanging
with you.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Fifth (and somewhat related to the forth), when someone
exchanges money with you for your commodities, the fact that the exchange can
be made on terms the two of you agreed to should be all that matters, not how
they came about this money.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you found
out that someone was buying your stuff with charity money, are you going to
cancel the exchange because they want to pay you with charity money as opposed
to “hard-earned” money?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Money is money
and works as money does, regardless of how the buyer came across it.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Sixth (and somewhat related to the fifth), and straight to
the crux of one of his big beefs, do lazy people who just want to live in
miserly leisure deserve to starve?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That’s really the crux of it all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He’s concerned about being taxed to sustain lazy people who don’t want
to change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let’s grant Tim that a
certain portion of the population just want to sit at home and engage in
leisurely activities and not get a job or help anyone out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do they deserve to starve?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even lazy people need to eat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is a market for food (duh!)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Money gets circulated in the economy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The lazy people spend money to eat AND to buy
commodities related to their leisure to continue their lazy lives and the
circulation of these exchanges are what are required for the continued health
of a market economy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If these people
should instead starve because it induces indignation, then certain merchants,
by consequence, should be deprived of a portion of their customer base.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But shouldn’t the free market decide who gets
to buy what?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why should these merchants
have your “indignation tax” imposed on them?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>What makes you the moral arbiter of who should participate in a free
market and who should not?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And this is
in regards to lazy-ass motherfuckers, if we’re being frank here.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I get where this indignation comes from; I often feel
indignant with lazy people AT WORK.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Big
emphasis on “at work,” because while they may have a job (which is what your
big concern is), they don’t pull their weight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But they’re employed, and that’s all that matters, right?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And despite the anger that arises when
lazy-ass motherfuckers don’t pull their motherfucking weight and I have to pick
up their slack, I still don’t think they deserve to starve.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Honestly, if they hate the work so much, I’d
rather they quit and live off of benefits while the company I work for can hire
and keep more industrious individuals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
think that a satiated lazy person is preferable to a starving lazy person who
is unable to find gainful employment and resorts to crime.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They can be someone’s customer more readily
with something like UBI without robbing or hurting their fellow neighbor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Trying to fix lazy is largely a failing
proposition, IMO.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Seventh (closely related to the first), when he says “if
everyone gets something no matter what, then I feel like too many people are
going to be like, ‘Why bother working if I’m funding people who aren’t working
either?’”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That issue addresses something
more fundamental that what appears on the surface.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why do you work?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To provide for yourself and your family.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Work requires time and effort.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Timewise, we are all capped at 168 hours a
week, though our capacity for effort may vary as well as our ability to
multiply our effort by employing others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But how much time and effort would you truly devote if you had, say, an
extra $1000 every month, just for being a citizen?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That ultimately depends on how you feel about
the work you do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you hate your job
and can manage to get by on less, then of course you’re going to work less and
focus your time on enriching your life with more gratifying experiences.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">But what of vital work that needs to be done?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well, the strategy doesn’t really need to
change: offer people more money for vital work!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>UBI won’t make people like money less (I certainly won’t).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even then, that might not motivate enough
people to work 80-hour a week+ jobs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why
not make training for those jobs more readily available?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People can take on apprenticeships with
professionals without the need to be paid, since they’ll be getting a stipend,
eventually becoming professionals themselves and lightening the workload of
those who can perform vital work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Have
there never been poor geniuses or savants?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">What if enough people leave jobs that it makes the product
or service diminish or vanish altogether?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Perhaps that product or service was never needed in the first
place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In other words, perhaps it was a
bullshit job that people didn’t want to do anymore.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What if, in this exodus of bullshit jobs, new
products or services emerge that come in demand?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or, God forbid, what if people start doing
more humanitarian work that doesn’t have a demand in the market because that’s
where their true calling lies and they don’t have to starve for pursing these
activities?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even if it’s just a couple
of hours a week or a month?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What if
people want to pursue the life of a Renaissance Man and dabble in a lot of
things at a time?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Who’s to say there’s
no value in that, regardless of what the market dictates?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The market doesn’t have to be the be-all, end-all of human
civilization.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some people excel in that
environment, others don’t.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Stuff needs
to get done, there’s no doubt about that, but trying to wedge every possible
solution through a market lens is unfeasible and often very harmful, as those
most successful in the market economy contribute to the greatest amount of
destruction in the natural environment (stuff comes from our natural
environment, after all).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Also, you only
need so much money in order to achieve optimal satisfaction (where income is
concerned): this ranges somewhere from $55,000 to around $80,000 a year,
according to some study I have to site.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Making over this range does nothing to increase long-term happiness and
having obscene incomes (multi-millionaires and billionaires) create
catastrophic hemorrhages in society.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
ronwisegamgeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09597862399828580358noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-991439287697822136.post-44051938465183906632012-11-02T14:34:00.000-07:002012-11-02T14:34:41.647-07:00Is the portrayal of Patriarchy realistic?<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Hello, folks. I've always been a strong proponent for equality between the sexes. To that end, I've been doing what I can to keep myself educated in what I've always thought to be movement that pushes said equality forward, that movement being feminism. As a male, I've always thought that it was my place to do my best to learn as much as I can about the issue of feminism before opening my mouth, since I am inherently on the outside by virtue of my sexual orientation and women know a hell of a lot more about the trials and tribulations that they go through than I ever will. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Even with that being said, the learning process has been a sobering one, such as the concept of Schrodinger's Rapist, where a woman is always on the look-out for a potential rapist because she just doesn't know a man well enough to discount that possibility in a society where 1 in 6 women have been raped at least once in their lives. I myself would never entertain the possibility of raping another human being, but simply knowing that a woman who doesn't know me may think of me as Schrodinger's Rapist in any case makes me feel, in some way, like a monster, because I have the physical capabilities of performing such a heinous act.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">But that's besides the point. I delved into feminism for my own educational benefit and I feel all the richer for it. Recently, however, I ran into the Youtube channel of a user named "girlwriteswhat" who also has a blog called Owning Your Shit (owningyourshit.blogspot.com). Her Youtube videos contain critiques about feminism and feminist concepts, which brings me to the topic of this blog post: Patriarchy and whether or not its depiction of men as historically being the privileged class and women as historically being the subjugated class holds any merit in comparison with the narrative. To illustrate whether or not the theory of patriarchy has any merit, I want to compare it to another social structure where the privileged class derive maximum advantage and minimal disadvantage and where the reverse is true for the subjugated class: rich vs. poor.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Before I begin, I would like to insert a disclaimer. These are just musings and my opinions. This is not a complete dismissal of the idea of patriarchy, but it is a critical look at its veracity as a privilege-subjugation social structure. I am open to and welcome critiques of this post as long as they amount to more than just an argumentum ad hominem.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">As I said before, patriarchy is postulated by feminist theory as a social structure where men are the privileged class and women are the subjugated class. In any society where there is a privileged class and a subjugated class, the privileged class derive maximum advantage and minimal disadvantage, while the subjugated class derive minimal advantage and maximum disadvantage. Is this really the case in the patriarchy as depicted by mainstream feminist theory? I don't think so. To illustrate this point, I'm going to use another example of a social structure with privileged and subjugated classes: rich people vs. poor people (more specifically, not-rich people).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Societies that utilize slavery, feudalism, and/or capitalism divide people into two economic categories: those who are wealthy (masters, lords, capitalists, chair folk of the board of directors, etc.) and those who are not (slaves, serfs, wage earners, etc.). The wealthy enjoy an immense amount of privilege that workers do not, due to the vast amounts of resources that wealthy people have that are unavailable to the working class (due to lack of resources). Wealthy people simply have more options in just about every aspect of life because they can afford it. Furthermore, wealthy people have the resources to minimize any opposition they may encounter in society, such as paying off expensive lawyers to reduce the taxes that they pay or to get the best possible defense in a court hearing, or lobbying or flat-out buying off politicians so that they can change laws to their favor, frequently at the expense of the average working class. The average worker must make due with what they are paid or with what product they can make for themselves with their own brains and muscles, and must make a considerable effort to make any changes to laws that impact their lives, usually by gathering and organizing a group of like-minded workers.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">When such a society gets involved in a war, invariably it will be those among the working class who are on the front lines fighting and dying for their society. On the other hand, it is those among the wealthy that are able to profit from war by coming up with an enterprise that is involved with a particular product or service related to the war effort (uniforms, weapons, ammunition, rations, etc.). When such a society suffers an economic crisis (due to the poor economic decisions of particular wealthy people), the wealthy tangled with the mechanisms that spell "doom and gloom" for society should their institutions fall will receive massive bailouts from the government, while the working class will pay the price either through increased taxes, a reduction in public services, or a combination of the two. When a wealthy person lays off thousands of working class people in order to cut costs, it's business as usual. When a working class person steals some office equipment, they risk jail time. And so on and so on.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">This, folks, is what it is to have a social structure of a privileged class and a subjugated class, with the privileged min-maxing (to utilize a role-playing game term) societal rewards almost invariably at a direct proportion to the subjugated class being screwed over. Is this the case with patriarchy? Have men enjoyed privilege in the same proportions that wealthy people have in societies with exploitative economic systems? Have women suffered subjugation in the same proportions that working class people have in societies with exploitative economic systems?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">In terms of war, it has historically been the men who go off to fight and die in the battlefield, while women and children were to be protected at all costs. Historically, a woman's inherent worth is seen in her being a woman, whereas a man's worth is seen in his capabilities and is earned. If a man is not capable enough or if he serves his purpose and dies in battle, he is seen by society as a disposable commodity. Women, however, possess inherent value and are physically weaker than men and must be protected from the horrors of war at all costs, even if it's at the cost of many more of the lives of men. Are men as obviously privileged in times of war as wealthy people are? Are women as obviously subjugated in times of war as working class people are? Not by a long shot.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">In secular societies, women are afforded many of the same rights as men and, in a number of cases, more rights. Conversely, in terms of imprisonment, men typically serve 40% more time in prison than women and, in cases of domestic violence, is more likely to go to jail if he strikes her than if she strikes him. In terms of planned pregnancy and post-pregnancy, the woman has all of the agency as to whether or not she wants to be a parent, whereas the man who impregnated the woman without the intention or inclination of wanting to be a father must pay child support regardless and will be imprisoned if he fails to make sufficient amounts of payments (in other words, is thrown in a debtors' prison, which has been outlawed since 1833). I don't know about you, but this doesn't look like the case where men are the unanimous privileged class and women are the unanimous subjugated class in the social structure called patriarchy, not in the same ways as the dichotomy between the wealthy and the working class in societies with exploitative economic systems.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">One place where I will give credence to the concept of patriarchy are in the Abrahamic religions and societies with a strong prevalence in said religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam). In each of these religions, the gender roles are clearly spelled out: man is primary and woman is made to serve man, and woman is at fault for man's shortcomings. Women are clearly placed in subordinate roles and their testimony is worth less than an equal quantity of men. The explicit goals in regards to women is to ultimately deny her consent and autonomy, lest she face God's wrath (directly or through proxy). A direct correlation exists between the religiosity of a society and the violation of women's rights (as religiosity increases, so do the violations). It is men who hold the most important positions within each respective Abrahamic religion. It's just blatantly obvious to anyone with enough intellectual honesty to investigate that men are the big dogs in the Abrahamic religions and women better know their place.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">In conclusion, I don't think that the portrayal of patriarchy as given my mainstream feminist theory reflects the reality of the matter when it comes to the privilege of men and the subjugation of women. That's not to say that it isn't there; in many cases, it is, as I've demonstrated with the Abrahamic religions, for example. However, I've also seen in blogs dedicated to feminism that there is a general mockery whenever the issue of men involved in a similar situation of suffering is presented as "what about the menz?!" To present women's issues and completely disregard when men are similarly affected and are instead brought up as the monolithic villain is really looking at it with one eye shut in many cases. With that being said, I am not, in any way, disregarding feminist issues, but I'm also going to start being more wary when I see men as solely the antagonist. Furthermore, to more accurately represent my position on gender equality, I shall drop the feminist label and utilize a more accurate label: egalitarian.</span>ronwisegamgeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09597862399828580358noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-991439287697822136.post-87153491587427542842010-11-22T08:30:00.001-08:002012-02-18T13:37:43.335-08:00The Illusive Perfect Being<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Futura Md","sans-serif"">The Illusive Perfect Being<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="text-align:left"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Futura Md","sans-serif"">Disclaimer</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="text-align:left"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Futura Md","sans-serif""></span></b><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;font-family:"Futura Md","sans-serif""><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span></span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Futura Md","sans-serif"">I am an atheist and I take the philosophical position of physicalism.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>This means that when I speak about philosophical topics such as the one I’m about to talk about, I won’t ascribe to any supernatural, paranormal, occult, or pseudoscientific explanations.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I will only speak in terms that deal with physical reality (to the best of my knowledge), including conceptual, sociological, and psychological phenomenon (because these issues emerge from social animals, which exist in the physical universe).</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="text-align:left"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;font-family:"Futura Md","sans-serif""><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="text-align:left"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Futura Md","sans-serif"">The Fundamental Misunderstanding of the term “Man”<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="text-align:left"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;font-family:"Futura Md","sans-serif""><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>A large portion of the world’s population (I dare even say, the majority) possesses a belief that states that man (human beings) are imperfect, and that’s putting it nicely.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Usually, more descriptive terms have been used, such as “fallen”, “sinner”, “lesser”, or even “retarded”. For the sake of this topic, let’s call these folk “perfection idealists.”<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>When I hear perfection idealists speak of human beings using such sweeping generalizations, my instinctual response is to cringe, and I cringe because such assertions demonstrate not only an abysmal view of the species one belongs to, but of a basic lack of understanding as to the nature of the <u>human animal</u>.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="text-align:left"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;font-family:"Futura Md","sans-serif""><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>I specifically emphasized the words “human animal” to make a point: when it comes down to it, we are social animals, specifically apes.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>To put human beings at the impossibly high standards that the perfection idealists do is absurd.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>As gene machines, we are built to survive and reproduce as human beings; everything else we have done for the vast majority of our existence as a species has been to serve those functions.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Gorillas are built in a specific way so that they can survive and reproduce as gorillas.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Rabbits are built in a specific way so that they can survive and reproduce as rabbits, and so on and so forth.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>And when I say we are “built”, I mean that our genes made us in a particular way to facilitate survival and reproduction in a specific manner.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>(For a more in-depth look at the topic of genes and how we are machines for the genes, read “The Selfish Gene” by Richard Dawkins).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="text-align:left"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;font-family:"Futura Md","sans-serif""><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="text-align:left"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Futura Md","sans-serif"">The Idea of the Perfect Being</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="text-align:left"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;font-family:"Futura Md","sans-serif""><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>When perfection idealists say that we are imperfect beings, I feel compelled to ask myself, “What are the beliefs behind such assertions and what are the origins of these beliefs?”<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>While to some this may seem like an exercise in futility, I have to respectfully disagree.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Finding out the belief systems that influence way people think, speak, and act is of paramount importance to understanding the thoughts and actions of my fellow human beings.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I personally believe that this can be accomplished without worldviews that incorporate extraneous elements outside of physical reality and the constituents thereof (conceptual, sociological, and psychological), and adding extraneous elements will not only unnecessarily complicate such explanations, but will actually cause us to reach erroneous conclusions.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="text-align:left;text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Futura Md","sans-serif"">What is meant when a perfection idealist refers to “perfection” and our inability to achieve this state?<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>When a perfection idealist talks about “perfection”, I think they’re referring to a sort of moral and cognitive perfection, as opposed to a physical perfection.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>In the context of this topic, the dictionary describes the term “perfect” (the state that is perfection) as “excellent or complete beyond practical or theoretical improvement.”<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>So, when a perfection idealist speaks of the imperfection of human beings, I think they are referring to the lack of achieving moral and/or cognitive excellence or completion beyond practical or theoretical improvement.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="text-align:left;text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Futura Md","sans-serif"">As an evolving species, the idea that we are “imperfect” according to such a standard is obvious.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Of course we’re not perfect!<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Evolution doesn’t stop.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>As the environmental conditions of a particular species change, the animal must change and adapt accordingly or risk extinction.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>To imply that we need to be perfect would imply unchanging environmental conditions, which is not and has never been the case in the universe.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>To impose perfection on a particular animal is an absurdity derived from an attachment to artificial, abstract ideas that have no basis on physical reality.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="text-align:left;text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Futura Md","sans-serif"">Not only do physical environmental conditions differ and change throughout the world, social conditions differ and change throughout the world as well.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Human beings are social animals and, as animals, our prime directives are survival and reproduction.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>In order for us to continue as a species, everything we do must serve those two functions, including how we conduct ourselves in a community of human beings.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Social constructs that serve to help a particular group of human beings to get by in the most beneficial manner possible - i.e., culture - are a product of human minds that come about through evolution much in the same way that a bird’s beak will adapt and change into a particular fashion to feed from a particular tree.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>If the culture doesn’t adapt to social and environmental changes of a particular human group (such as a tribe), the chances of extinction increase and continue to increase in proportion to the group’s inability to socially adapt.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="text-align:left"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;font-family:"Futura Md","sans-serif""><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="text-align:left"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Futura Md","sans-serif"">Tribe X – An Example of Social Adaptation<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="text-align:left;text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Futura Md","sans-serif"">As a theoretical example, say we have a tribe called Tribe X.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>As part of Tribe X’s culture, each couple is to have a minimum of one son and one daughter and must continue to procreate until both one son and one daughter are produced.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The tribe’s reasoning behind this is that both males and females are needed to make more human beings.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>As a method of population control, however, the tribe limits who can reproduce and when and provides natural contraceptives to the other members of the tribe, through various herbs and whatnot.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Let’s say that, through this method, Tribe X has been able to retain a consistent population of about 200 members, give or take 10% at any given time, and has been successfully able to feed that population due to their environmental conditions for thousands of years.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="text-align:left;text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Futura Md","sans-serif"">Let’s say that Tribe X encounters a drastic environmental condition that threatens the tribe tremendously: a really harsh winter that has driven out all game for much longer than expected and in a much wider geographical area than ever encountered by the tribe in its history.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Tribe X has to make some tough choices now.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>In order for animals to continue living, they must consume living cells, with no exception.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Pickings are so slim that the tribe will not be able to maintain their population of 200 members, but may be able to maintain a population of roughly 150 members.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Rather than watch his people starve to death, the chief makes a decree and reduces the frequency of impregnation to slowly and safely bring down the population to a more manageable level, as well as cutting back on roughly 20% of the tribe’s caloric intake.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Some members of the tribe (usually the younger, less worldly members) may object to this reduction of food intake (because they had it much better before the harsh winter), but the wiser members know that in order to survive as a tribe, such measures must be taken.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>It’s tough times for Tribe X, but if they don’t make these changes, they could risk extinction as a people.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The better they are at assimilating these changes, the easier time they’ll have of adjusting to the new conditions imposed upon them by the environment.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="text-align:left"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;font-family:"Futura Md","sans-serif""><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="text-align:left"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Futura Md","sans-serif"">Religious Mandate<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="text-align:left"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;font-family:"Futura Md","sans-serif""><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>A major factor in the idea of our moral and cognitive imperfection comes from religious mandate, specifically through religions brought about by revelation.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The subject of revelation is a different one from the current topic at hand, so I won’t say anything more on it for now other than I think that it is pure nonsense and that I regard it either as a case of apophenia, pareidolia, a scam, or as a result of some sort of brain damage.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="text-align:left"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;font-family:"Futura Md","sans-serif""><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>These religions teach, in some form or another, that human beings are born flawed and that we must seek some manner to make up for this fundamental error due to the mistakes of our ancient predecessors.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Engaging in such flaws is referred to as “sinning.”<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The way I interpret the term “sin” is: “to engage in some activity that is considered illegal to one’s own religious law.”<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> To support this interpretation of sin, I point to you 1 John 3:4, which says "Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness." </span>For example, in many religions, it is considered a sin to murder another human being because there is a mandate against murder; for Judaism and Christianity, it is the sixth of the Ten Commandments.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>In Judaism and Islam, it is also a sin to eat pork, and each has their own reasons for the mandate (something about swine being “unclean”).<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Even folk that are not particularly religious or who are irreligious may still carry this belief due to the miasmic effect of a previously held religious belief now rationalized in a non-religious manner or because they’ve been infected by this particular meme from their social environment.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="text-align:left;text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Futura Md","sans-serif"">These mandates are supposed to come from some divine source, such as God, and because God dictates these mandates, going against them is sinful, regardless of how harmful or immoral (or lack thereof) the actual act is.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>To this, I present Euthyphro’s dilemma:<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>“Is it good because God commands it, or does God command it because it’s good?”<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>If it’s the first, then it’s simply a blatant command, and calling the command “good” irrespective of the actual benefit or harm of following the command simply because it comes from God is a moot point.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>If it’s the second, then making the beneficial activity a command from God is redundant.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>This following of religious mandates essentially dictates religious morality, which I feel that, while simpler to do (just do as you’re told), leaves one woefully lacking in psychological development and in understanding humans in a more grounded manner without serious reinterpretation of religious dogma and/or by not assimilating it literally.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="text-align:left"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;font-family:"Futura Md","sans-serif""><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="text-align:left"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Futura Md","sans-serif"">The Highest Form of “Perfection”<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="text-align:left;text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Futura Md","sans-serif"">For perfection idealists who seek to implement moral and/or cognitive perfection religiously, it would go something like this:<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>the less you err from sinning, the closer you are to achieving perfection.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The caveat is as follows:<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>since you are born a flawed sinner, you will never actually achieve perfection, no matter how hard you try.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>This, to me, is a tremendous source of needless guilt and frustration, as well as an insidious excuse to be a self-righteous prick to others.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>This concept of perfection seems more like an adherence to robotic behavior, the perfect little soldier.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>It espouses obedience as the highest virtue one can hope to achieve, and we all know how obedient the Nazis were when Hitler ordered them to commit their heinous atrocities.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>We also know how disobedient and “sinful” the founding fathers of the United States were when they risked their lives to defy the British Empire and claim independence.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I’m not saying “disobey for the sake of disobeying.”<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>What I’m saying is to think about why you obey what you do and why you disobey what you do.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>That, unfortunately, requires something more complex than doing what you’re told; it requires thinking for yourself.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="text-align:left"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;font-family:"Futura Md","sans-serif""><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="text-align:left"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Futura Md","sans-serif"">Conclusion<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="text-align:left"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;font-family:"Futura Md","sans-serif""><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>This idea of being morally and/or cognitively perfect is one that should be discarded.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Striving to be a more helpful member of society is a noble goal indeed, but moral or cognitive perfection is not required, just good intentions coupled with the proper skill set.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Heck, even selfish intentions with the proper skill set work, because you’ll not only help yourself, you’ll help others who benefit from your work as well.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>We didn’t get our morals from religion, religion got their most universal morals from us, with additional baggage imposed by special interest groups (such as the clergy or the priesthood).<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Just because you “sin” doesn’t make you inherently flawed, fallen, lesser, or even retarded; it simply makes you human.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>In the end, we are all accountable to each other.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="text-align:left"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;font-family:"Futura Md","sans-serif""><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>Just the concept of “perfection” is a nebulous concept used by self-righteous folk to serve their own ends.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Rather, I postulate the following:<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Do turtles work as turtles?<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Yes.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Do turtles work as eagles?<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Why should they?!<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Do eagles work as eagles?<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Yes.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Do dogs work as dogs?<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Yes.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Do humans work as humans?<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>A resounding “yes”!<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Do humans work as robots or angels or gods?<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>No.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Why should they, if they are not those things?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="text-align:left"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;font-family:"Futura Md","sans-serif""><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>If you have found yourself to be a perfection idealist, it does no good for anyone, least of all yourself.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Embrace the fact that you’re a human being with this grand intellectual capacity and embrace the fact that you won the lottery of being alive whereas the rest of the sperm you competed against while your father ejaculated inside of your mother was not.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="text-align:left"><span ><br /></span></p>ronwisegamgeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09597862399828580358noreply@blogger.com0