Translate

Friday, June 6, 2014

Everything Old is Trying to Be Again

Our current prejudices - sexism, racism, etc. - often get reflected onto other times and people. Yet there is evidence that this is not the case. (Good grief our cultures on this planet in this time are so varied!) So I really enjoyed the article by Reclusive Leftist titled Oldest depiction of female form shows that modern archaeologists are pornsick misogynists.

Yes the title may make you laugh and the article may make you shake your head. It is very good reading. We must be careful how we look at our past as our judgement may be clouded by our own current thinking. We may not be seeing the truth.

To quote the author:

"This has been the central flaw of anthropology for as long there’s been anthropology. And even before: the English invaders of North America thought the Iroquois chiefs had concubines who accompanied them everywhere, because they had no other mental categories to account for well-dressed, important-looking women sitting in a council house. It’s the same fallacy that bedevils archaeologists who dig up male skeletons with fancy beads and conclude that the society was male dominant (because powerful people wear jewelry!), and at another site dig up female skeletons with fancy beads and conclude that this society, too, was male dominant (because women have to dress up as sex objects and trophy wives!). Male dominance is all they can imagine. And so no matter what they dig up, they interpret it to fit their mental model."

Read the whole article here and enjoy. 

Oldest depiction of female form shows that modern archaeologists are pornsick misogynists.

All Hail Mom!

Thursday, June 5, 2014

Stonekettle Station & Negotiating with Hostages

Hello All. A friend sent me a wonderful blog that has gone viral: Stonekettle Station: Negotiating With Terrorists. It is very good and said a lot of things I was thinking, so of course I have linked to it below.

Stonekettle Station: Negotiating With Terrorists

I found this essay wonderful for many reasons. I'll share two: 1.) Author calls people on their fear and hatred of Obama; and 2.) Gives voice to others when thoughtful and polite.

I'll give you an example of 1.).

"Oh, I get it. I understand that frightened people become more and more irrational, especially when they are allowed, encouraged, to feed incestuously on each other’s fear. And I get that they are afraid. I can see it in their faces, I can hear it in their voices. I get that they’re afraid of change. I get that they’re afraid of the future. I get that they’re afraid of the past. And I get that they’re afraid of the present. I get that they’re afraid of losing power and privilege and prestige. I get that they’re afraid of their capricious and childishly vengeful god. I get that they’re afraid of different races and different cultures and different accents and different religions and different sexual orientations and different viewpoints and different politics. I get it, they’ve screamed their small fears over and over and only a dead man could possibly miss it.

I get that they are so consumed with rage and so filled with naked hate and so programmed with their diseased ideology that it poisons their minds like a computer chip submerged in acid. 

I get that they are so utterly terrified of the world that they piss themselves in abject fear at the mere thought of going to the grocery store without a goddamned gun stuck in their pants like an extra oversized prick. 

More than anything, I get that they are afraid of Barack Obama, everything about him, every single thing about the president terrifies them. Obama stalks their feverish nightmares and he is the very symbol of their shameful impotence – so much so that they’ve written him into their precious bible, in a starring role as the devil, the destroyer of worlds. 

I get it. 

And I get that it’s an uncontrollable mindless tic, a raging xenophobia, a political PTSD, and they know that it’s wrong but they can’t seem to do anything about it. 

It’s just how their crippled minds work."

Yes. I for one often think that no matter what Obama does his detractors will scream in hysteria. *sigh* Reminds me how not to behave.

Now for 2.) When a brother Marine wrote to him politely expressing his POV, Stonekettle posted his reply. You can read it here: Negotiating With Terrorists: The Counterpoint.

I think I have found a new blog to follow.