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http://www.GuluFuture.com/future/victimhood.htm 10th March, 2003 Author Barbara Hartwell has rightly debunked Henry Makow's nonsense philosophy that it is "natural" for women to trade power for protection in their marital relationships. Makow's ideal is clearly a parent-child model --in a world striving to build functional relationships on an adult-adult basis. Exactly how much bunk this view represents is clear when you realize that the Dept. of Homeland Security promotes exactly the same message to US citizens: trade power for protection while Government strips you of Constitutional rights. In a backlash against her views, one correspondent pleaded with Barbara to remove her website photos depicting alleged "seductive posturing." Warming to the theme, he claimed to echo the sentiments of religiously motivated readers who: "respect women for who they are and avoid temptation. They wish to keep their intentions pure." Men who want to protect themselves and others from female attractiveness, are simply reacting to the disempowering effect of sexual attraction on the ego. The essence of which is the realization that one can be totally floored by the sight of another human being. Thus the response: to either block out that vision or control it's source -in this case- woman. He should realize that, yes God made women beautiful; yes God gave you
a sex drive, and yes you should be faithful. It's complex. Just deal with
it. Preferably not by hiding women behind a veil. All of which leads neatly to the topic of ghettoization into male and female --to the detriment of our common humanity. The traditionalist complaint in the sixties was that long hair and unisex clothing made it difficult to tell the boys from the girls. And what's so wrong about that? Does everything have to be boxed into categories? That gender role conformity, is Barbara Hartwell's latest theme, as she decries "those who would try to force men and women into rigid gender roles, thus invalidating and denying the uniqueness of each individual human spirit, as created by God." And it's not just in sexual politics that victimhood and ghettoization rule. Both are pervasive in national and international politics too. The real problem is that we vie for moral high ground in a battle for victimhood supremacy, within cultures in which victimhood is as natural as breathing. THE LEAGUE OF VICTIMS In Northern Ireland, the cultural view underpinning the Catholic Provisional
IRA war campaign was founded in the "800 years of British oppression"
victim psyche of Irish history. This victimhood view took firm enough root in the Unionist psyche to legitimize barbaric, tribalist counter-reaction. Both groups are in dubious company. Hitler's hyperbole over German victimization led to a world war. Palestinian victimhood justifies murderous suicide bombers. Israelis may look like oppressors right now, but they hasten to remind themselves and the world that they too come from a Holocaust victim heritage. It's all like some bizarre international league table of victimhood. Let's take a quirky case. Some scientists now believe that AIDS is an erroneous diagnosis and the toxic AIDS medications only shorten life. If proved correct, would the "victims" of AIDS feel cheated of their victimhood? Our culture lauds the nobility of victims and "survivors" of victimhood. Would their psychological health be better or worse if they had nothing to blame for their condition other than bad luck and misdiagnosis? These difficult issues help us to see how important victimhood has become. When South African President Mbeki questioned the legitimacy of the HIV-AIDS hypothesis, there were howls of outrage from "victims" of the virus. As a matter of interest, it only took my Goggle news search a little over a tenth of a second to retrieve over 16,000 news stories about victims. Mostly the word "victim" appeared in the headline. SHADOW DANCING Hand in hand with the victim verbiage comes the demonization of the alleged oppressors. Finally, after a period of open season on the middle-ground view, polarization is achieved. This is the dynamic of division at work; in sexual politics; in international politics. It's a divide and conquer policy. We divide ourselves, and it is we ourselves who are conquered. It is a miracle that the Irish Peace Process has managed to drive this schismatic lunacy off the center stage of Northern Ireland politics. Even Christianity has traditionally missed the whole point of it's own core principles. Catholic churches should feature a rising, glowing, resurrected Christ, but plump instead for a crucified, victimized icon. Jesus would say that if they strike you, then turn the other cheek instead of establishing a Cheek-Struck Liberation Army. This keenly intelligent advice falls mostly on deaf ears. The nominally Christian United States is certainly deaf to it, as it rains down cluster-bombs as revenge for the "victims" of 9/11. Led by a president deluded that God smiles as Bush kills in His name. For every victim there is an oppressor. But the roles are interchangeable. All of us, in our time have played both. In the psyche's shadow of one --lurks the other. Our social and personal psychology is riven by this dysfunction. The only antidote is a relentless confidence and optimism --born of a faith bigger than a mustard seed. One that enables us live for today and move mountains tomorrow --not dig graves in the resentments and memories of yesterday. Let those who fancy ghettos of the mind live therein if they wish. Let the hardcore men's libbers battle the feminazi's, if such is their wish. And let the pseudo-Christian chickenhawks howl for revenge against Islam. The rest of us should give both victimhood and gender roles a decent
burial with indecent haste. Google Victims REFERENCES
http://www.barbarahartwell.com/ http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/forum.cgi?read=29522 http://www.ulster.net/~babs7/articles/babs/conspiracyagainstwomen.htm http://www.rense.com/general21/reign.htm http://www.savethemales.ca
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Fighting
in Northern Uganda, has left a million people in need of food aid. But
the only remaining aid agency, the World Food Program is unable to meet
the requirements of almost 3/4 million of these people..... 