Newsgroups: alt.pagan
Subject: Re: Overthrow "THE MAN" symbolically, was (Who cares)
Date: Sun, 26 Jul 1992 01:34:00 -0700

In a message dated 25 Jul 92  01:50:01, Janis Maria Cortese wrote:

 JM> When someone is angry, JUST FUCKING LISTEN, OKAY?  Would it kill you?

 JM> compassion.  If, however, he goes off right away and starts screaming
 JM> about how HE'S being blamed and how women are just as bad

Janis, I think if you put the two quotes above together, you'll see what might
be the key.  You're saying "there is a problem" and a lot of people immediately
start looking around for SOMEONE TO BLAME and probably find themselves.  Leaving
you stunned... because you weren't looking for someone to blame, you were
looking for some way to fix the problem.

So people like Jeff are just trying to get their "permanent record" clean while
you're trying to do something about the problems.

Why do people have to find someone to blame?  You never said "You did this to
me, to us", but some people seem to insist on hearing this.  What could it be
other than INSECURITY?

So, I say to them, yes I know you didn't establish a patriarchy or burn down the
rainforests or anything, neither did I.  Now let's stop (pardon the phrase)
looking for a witch to burn, and start working on fixing the problems!

Janis, sorry if I'm just repeating what you're saying.  Maybe if enough people
repeat your ideas in different words, some of them will stick to some more
people.  In any case, writing it out like this helped ME understand it.

------

OK, that being established, what's a person to do?  Here are some ideas, but
they're all pretty lame:

* Fix myself.  Well, I don't think I'm prejudiced.  Sometimes I find myself
guilty of assuming differences between men and women that aren't really there
except that our society PUTS them there, but if I feel myself leaning at all,
it's to think women have the better half.  But how am I SUBCONSCIOUSLY
furthering oppressive behavior and not even knowing it?  How can I ever know all
this stuff?

* Political activity.  What am I going to do, vote for Clinton because Bush is
even more of a jerk?  Or am I going to march on the steps of the Capitol here in
Juneau and demand Uncle Wally (our governor) do something about it?  The
patterns of sex discrimination are far too deep for political solutions, I
think, and just how much effort am I supposed to put in, in an attempt to
struggle against interminable odds, on a system that won't change, doesn't want
to change, isn't ready to change?  Should I vote, demonstrate, write to my
Congressbeing, run for office, shoot the governor?

* Make a dent.  That is, try to convince other people to (1) fix themselves, (2)
be ready for political action when the time is ready, (3) try to make a dent
themselves... in hopes they'll do it to someone else, and so on, like that
shampoo commercial.  The problem: perhaps you can change people, but if so, *I*
can't.  I can come along to a person ready to change and MAYBE help, but I can't
instigate OR direct the change.  So do I find the choir so I can preach to it? 
Or find a few walls to bash my head into?

* Radical action.  Train in martial arts and start escorting women home.  Create
a commune.  Shoot a rapist.  Arrange Hitchcock-style mind-game situations to
forcibly teach men the "truth."  Buy airtime with subliminal advertisting saying
"Respect all your neighbors without regard to race, creed, color, sex, shoe
size, religion, favorite flavor of ice cream, etc."  Et. al.  What's worth the
effort and what isn't?  Ideas?

* Be ready for the chance.  Doesn't seem very useful and is no substitute for
DOING something NOW.

In short: I'm ready, how can I help?

Newsgroups: alt.pagan