Jim wrote: > It'd be nice if we could find out more facts about this issue. We > don't know the nature or depth of the alleged crime or the guilt or > innocence of the defendant.
One anecdotal fact that may or may not be specifically relevant to the case: The more of these people I meet or observe up and close, the clearer it is to me that they are absolutely full of crap (and, although there are very charming aspects in the European character, I've come around to see the upside in the American forthrightness regarding these matters, not to be confused with uptightness or puritanical prurient shame, which also exists in our culture). These bureaucrats (Europeans or Americans or else) tend to be so arrogant that they feel entitled to treating others (working people) like lesser life. So (and I may have to swallow my words if the evidence of the case falsifies the claims of the accuser) it is not a big leap in imagination to suppose that Strauss-Kahn just thought his position as head of the IMF gave him some sort of inherent lord's First Night over hotel employees. (As a teenager, I worked as a waiter at a fancy hotel in Mexico, and it's not hard to imagine how a powerful guest incapable of keeping his feelings to himself may have assaulted a housekeeper.) See Ferguson's Inside Job documentary for more on the connection between sexual entitlement (and I don't mean here anything derogatory about consensual sexual relations in every form among adults on relatively equal socio-economic footing). I am almost 1,000% sure that Strauss-Kahn and his ilk don't think they need to seduce, but they can just grab what they fancy. Because of the huge asymmetry of power in the interaction, I'll just go ahead and assume that he's *a filthy pig* until proven innocent. And my standard of innocence will be reasonable, since I know that there are also type I errors in these cases. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
