From: sklautky@vaxa.weeg.uiowa.edu (Stephen Klautky)
Subject: Re: Guilty of ... Thoughtcrime!
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Organization: University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1992 06:33:00 GMT

In article <1a9smmINN59v@hpsdde.sdd.hp.com>
regard@hpsdde.sdd.hp.com (Adrienne Regard) writes:

>In article <1992Sep27.222601.548@zooid.guild.org>
> Will Steeves <goid@zooid.guild.org> writes:
>>dking@raul.nas.nasa.gov (Dan King)

>>DK> I will not give Will the benifit of the doubt.  Will Steeves has
>>DK>threatened to kill women that do not show him the proper respect.
>
>>For the third or fourth (or ...) time, I did *not* threaten *anyone*, Dan.  I
>>believe that I have made this point abundantly clear.  Also, I was referring
>>to my *thoughts* about *ONE* woman, NOT "women" in general.  I repeat again,
>>that even though we have all had violent *THOUGHTS* of one sort or another,
>>as a result of highly stressful situations, very few such thoughts result in 
>>actual violence.  Why are you reading the disclosure of my private thoughts
>>as a declaration that I had threatened her?

>I'm sure Dan King will include this disclaimer in his warning to women 
>who might make the mistake of dating you.  What do you think they will
>make of your original statement and this feeble rebuttal?

>MAYBE you shouldn't make such statements, Will.

>MAYBE you shouldn't even think things like that, Will.

>MAYBE you should come to the realization that women are separate individuals
>from you and actually do have thoughts, feelings, and wills of their own. 
>And are not answerable to *you*.

Yes, you could have a point there.
This is an interesting line of reasoning.  If the man never thinks
bad thoughts about women then of course the man will come to the
realization that women are ....  But, if he did think bad thoughts
like killing or hurting women then MAYBE he hasn't come to the
realization that women are ....

So now, I think we should play this out.  We have made an important
transition.  I had taken for granted that my thoughts, whatever
they are, were my own to do with as I pleased.  The attempt to act
out all those thoughts into a physical conscious reality, however,
is not allowed, and rightly so.  At some point I was told that the
best way to deal with anger was to examine and rechannel that 
energy but not repress it.  Feelings should be acknowledged but
not allowed to solely control our actions.  Or so I was told.

Let us say that maybe there are certain things we shouldn't even
*think* about (much less mention or write about).  Well, let's do
something about it.  If sufficiently funded and researched a
portable lie detector could be devised and attached to everyone as
they walked about.  We could get answers to all sorts of pertinent
questions.  While this is not a thought monitor it would allow a
questioner to ask about thoughts - "Did you ever think of killing a
woman?",  "Did you ever think the world would be better off if
Phyllis Schafly were dead?",   "Are you having fun yet?"

It is indirect but it should get at the problem.  So, there is no
need for MAYBE, there is now verifiable, graphable certainty.

We would be happier because all potential delinquents could be
found before they had a chance to do anything bad.  After all,
before they do the act they must think of it first, right?
Catching these people early on would allow us to rehabilitate them
so they can reenter society as productive citizens.

:-)  Happy Days  :-)

-=] Steve [=-    SKLAUTKY@VAXA.WEEG.UIOWA.EDU
Newsgroups: talk.abortion