Tom wrote:
" The truth is if women had run the country up until now,
there still would be problems."
Someone replied:
Tom, do you have evidence to prove this statement - are you in possession
of a magical seeing eye that we don't know about! How can you support
this statement?
Maybe there would be different kinds of problems - and there would never
be an issue of domination that currently exisits!
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This statement is very easily supported:
women are not better as a group than men, neither
are blacks (v. whites), neither are gays (v. straights), neither are
people living in the Global South (v. us). As very large groups
all these categories encompass large numbers of
corrupt or greedy or ignorant or violent people.
Therefore if any of these groups were "running"
the country, we would have many of the same core problems
as when "white American males" run the show.
A good example are the countries in Africa that
were first colonized by white Europeans (who were
horrible) and then these white dominating elites were substituted by
equally corrupt black dictators, elites, etc.
Blacks or whites, women as well as men are very capable of
domination and exploitation.
Being able to run things properly has nothing to
do with the fact that one is male or female, white
or black, etc etc, but to how you think and behave.
And women and blacks and gays as categories on a large scale
are no better than "men" when it comes to issues
of "running the show." This should not mean
that anyone should be denied participation
in their society based on discrimination,
which is what Tom apparently wants to justify.
But to swing the pendulum in the opposite direction
is equally nonsensical.
Vera Britto
([EMAIL PROTECTED] - http://www.umich.edu/~fiatlux)
.............................................................................
Le Bret: Si tu laissais un peu ton ame mousquetaire, la fortune et la
gloire... Cyrano: Et que faudrait-il faire? Chercher un protecteur
puissant, prendre un patron, et, comme un lierre obscur que circonvient
un tronc et s'en fait un tuteur en lui lechant l'ecorce, grimper par
ruse au lieu de s'elever par force? Non, merci! Non, merci! Non, merci!
Mais... chanter, rever, rire, passer, etre seul, etre libre... oui.
"Cyrano de Bergerac" - Edmond Rostand
