This blog is to memorialize some twitlongers
that I sent to Ruslan Sirota.
Normally I have a different twitter ID that I
use for politics, when that politics does not relate to Josh Groban or pop
music, but here we have a mixed situation, where I was talking to Ruslan, who
is a musician for Josh, and who is so kind as to actually dialog with fans.
This conversation began with a discussion of
sharia law and the use of traditional veils in Muslim countries. We were, as I understood it, discussing first
whether women in Muslim countries really want to wear the veil or not. Then we got into the topic of honor killings,
where men kill female family members who have been raped. Then I got into the general topic of triage, difficulties in making moral decisions about who lives and who dies.
Also, Ruslan sent me this link to a YouTube video,
I want to emphasize here that
I do not believe in forcing women to wear veils, to get married, or in honor
killings. What I was trying to offer was
some food for thought that might help us understand why people behave the way
they do, rather than having a knee jerk negative reaction.
Probably these twitlongers
are too disorganized and will give people wrong impressions of my opinions, but
maybe they will be interesting.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Twitlonger #1
I certainly do not agree with honor
killings. On the other hand, I do believe that we are like goslings.
Goslings, when they hatch from their shells, imprint on the first thing that moves. If that thing is their mother, they are in luck. She will teach them how to take care of themselves and will protect them. If that first thing is something else, they are permanently screwed.
Similarly, I believe we imprint on the first person we have sex with. Afterwards, we lose that ability to imprint. The more people we have sex with, the less our ability to imprint becomes. This has to do with internal hormones in the body, like occitocin.
People think that by having sex with more and more people they will eventually find the "right" person. No. They will become less able to bond with anyone.
In some real sense, a girl who has been raped will never be quite right psychologically. I do not favor murdering her for that reason, but I can see where a culture decides that she will never really be able to function in their culture.
I do think that, ultimately, the public discussion of abuse of women will lessen this abuse. We see women in these countries, increasingly, inspired by public discussion, standing up for themselves and demanding change. I am very inspired by that.
Still, there are reasons for some of this stuff that we fail to understand. And we should not assume that women dress the way they dress only because they are forced to do so.
I believe that the Muslim world is going through a Puritan period. I am half WASP and half Jewish. My mom's ancestry was WASP, so I am conscious of British history. The Puritan period was a fearsome one, back then, and certainly not one that I would want to revisit.
Still we should note that extreme measures to cover the body and become more modest prevailed in Europe during the mini-Ice Age that occurred during the Renaissance and early modern periods. Again, climate caused dress, that was later rationalized as religion.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Goslings, when they hatch from their shells, imprint on the first thing that moves. If that thing is their mother, they are in luck. She will teach them how to take care of themselves and will protect them. If that first thing is something else, they are permanently screwed.
Similarly, I believe we imprint on the first person we have sex with. Afterwards, we lose that ability to imprint. The more people we have sex with, the less our ability to imprint becomes. This has to do with internal hormones in the body, like occitocin.
People think that by having sex with more and more people they will eventually find the "right" person. No. They will become less able to bond with anyone.
In some real sense, a girl who has been raped will never be quite right psychologically. I do not favor murdering her for that reason, but I can see where a culture decides that she will never really be able to function in their culture.
I do think that, ultimately, the public discussion of abuse of women will lessen this abuse. We see women in these countries, increasingly, inspired by public discussion, standing up for themselves and demanding change. I am very inspired by that.
Still, there are reasons for some of this stuff that we fail to understand. And we should not assume that women dress the way they dress only because they are forced to do so.
I believe that the Muslim world is going through a Puritan period. I am half WASP and half Jewish. My mom's ancestry was WASP, so I am conscious of British history. The Puritan period was a fearsome one, back then, and certainly not one that I would want to revisit.
Still we should note that extreme measures to cover the body and become more modest prevailed in Europe during the mini-Ice Age that occurred during the Renaissance and early modern periods. Again, climate caused dress, that was later rationalized as religion.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Twitlonger #2
Still listening to this guy, who apparently does not understand that, in 120 degree Fahrenheit heat, a person is cooler covered head to toe and well insulated than she would be in skimpier clothing. Ignorance.
Also the skin gets damaged by exposure to the sun in the desert, resulting in premature aging, which offends women's' vanity.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Twitlonger #3
Unfortunately, you will see that I have
diarrhea of the keyboard. Once I start writing, I keep thinking of more and
more stuff.
I was reminded after that last post -- which unfortunately went up twice, so I deleted the second one, which I hope was not confusing -- of something I heard about Native American cultures.
There were some where if a woman delivered a child at some time other than between March and June, she would be abandoned by the tribe and left to die with her child. That was due to the extreme conditions under which they lived, that they felt that they could not risk having to deal with the consequences of a younger baby facing fall and winter weather.
Similarly, there were some that would abandon older people to die, as well, at an age that we might consider fairly young, again because they felt that they just did not have the resources to care for the aged, if they could no longer hunt and follow the tribe properly.
These things seem shocking to us, because we have had more resources to care for people who are sick. But then we are not hunter, gatherer, nomads, living in a harsh wilderness.
While I don't like hearing about these historical practices of some Native American tribes, I cannot say that they were evil for doing these things. They did the best they could.
Perhaps, had there been public discussion back then, as there is now, things might have changed.
I was reminded after that last post -- which unfortunately went up twice, so I deleted the second one, which I hope was not confusing -- of something I heard about Native American cultures.
There were some where if a woman delivered a child at some time other than between March and June, she would be abandoned by the tribe and left to die with her child. That was due to the extreme conditions under which they lived, that they felt that they could not risk having to deal with the consequences of a younger baby facing fall and winter weather.
Similarly, there were some that would abandon older people to die, as well, at an age that we might consider fairly young, again because they felt that they just did not have the resources to care for the aged, if they could no longer hunt and follow the tribe properly.
These things seem shocking to us, because we have had more resources to care for people who are sick. But then we are not hunter, gatherer, nomads, living in a harsh wilderness.
While I don't like hearing about these historical practices of some Native American tribes, I cannot say that they were evil for doing these things. They did the best they could.
Perhaps, had there been public discussion back then, as there is now, things might have changed.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Twitlonger #4
Oh, now you've really got me going.
I'm on to another concern I have, regarding health care in this country.
We are making a decision to fund insurance for everyone for unlimited funds to maintain people alive in the face of extreme health conditions.
I have a friend who was treated for leukemia a few years ago. He had health insurance. His insurance paid for his treatment to the tune of well over one million dollars.
How do we really think we can afford this for everyone, when in fact not everyone has enough food? Is this not really a denial of our own mortality? A failure to accept that it is God's will that all people should eventually die?
Sometimes we go to far, I think, in the direction of never making hard decisions in life.
I feel this is related to the examples I gave before about the Native Americans, who left some people out to die, and also the decision in some cultures that a woman whose ability to bond with her husband has been damaged cannot be sustained in the culture.
I'm not saying what is right and wrong here, for sure, just that there are hard decisions that get made.
I'm on to another concern I have, regarding health care in this country.
We are making a decision to fund insurance for everyone for unlimited funds to maintain people alive in the face of extreme health conditions.
I have a friend who was treated for leukemia a few years ago. He had health insurance. His insurance paid for his treatment to the tune of well over one million dollars.
How do we really think we can afford this for everyone, when in fact not everyone has enough food? Is this not really a denial of our own mortality? A failure to accept that it is God's will that all people should eventually die?
Sometimes we go to far, I think, in the direction of never making hard decisions in life.
I feel this is related to the examples I gave before about the Native Americans, who left some people out to die, and also the decision in some cultures that a woman whose ability to bond with her husband has been damaged cannot be sustained in the culture.
I'm not saying what is right and wrong here, for sure, just that there are hard decisions that get made.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Twitlonger #5
Oh. One more example. In my
county, we have too many deer. Occasionally, one will become tame and start
taking food from the hands of people going by. If the county animal control
officer learns that a deer has become tame like this, the county will send
someone out to shoot that deer. This offends me, but I guess they have some
scientific reason why they think it's necessary. Another example of triage.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Twitlonger #6
Also, I do totally believe that this thing
about covering up women in Islamic countries is a head game. If guys believe
that they will lose control sexually at the sight of a woman's body, then
that's exactly what will happen. On the other hand, in our culture, where
we're getting used to seeing less and less clothing on people, then we have to
keep escalating what we look at to get the same effect. Whereas, once we looked
at Marilyn Monroe standing on an air vent, with her skirt blowing up, now we
have to watch Lady Gaga to get the same effect. I wonder whether men in Islamic
countries have less erectile dysfunction, because they're psyched into
believing that it takes so little to drive them mad.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tweets while watching the youtube video (remember tweets are read bottom up)
Some earlier tweets to Ruslan on this topic
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tweets while watching the youtube video (remember tweets are read bottom up)
Some earlier tweets to Ruslan on this topic
No comments:
Post a Comment