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Busting the "Open-Mindedness" Bubble
OK, I'm in a particularly foul mood today, and something stupid just raised my hackles, so I'm going to spot gibberish in my journal for a little bit.
Society teaches us we're supposed to be open-minded, to respect everyone regardless of race, religion, sex, personal beliefs, personal handicaps, age and any number of other options.
And then turns around and paints everything in broad strokes of Men and Women, Black and White, Catholic and Protestant.
We teach our kids in equality. I swear to god (and I'll fight you tooth and nail on this one, Kristen), I WILL NOT. I will teach my children to see in black and white (possible pun not intended) because that's how the world works.
Deep inside, we know that there's no equality. We know men aren't EQUAL to women. We know that gay people aren't equal to straight people. We know handicapped people are not equal to those of us who aren't.
The argument, the since-man-became-conscious argument that's been going on is: Who is Better.
You hear it all the time:
The bible tells you homosexuality is immoral. So straight people are BETTER than gay people.
You hear off-color jokes about how once you go black, you don't go back. Blacks are BETTER lovers than whites.
And, hell, even the dean of Princeton is trying to tell us (I'm NOT saying he's right) that boys are BETTER than girls at Science and Math.
We can try to see past the common divisions: past religion, politics, race, sex etc. etc... I'm saying try, because most of us can't.. because most people clothe themselves in ONE of these divisions.. as a good liberal or a good christian or as a black worthy of black pride.
We can TRY to see past these people.. and try to see everyone as individuals.. and then discover, for yourself, that there are STILL worse people and better people.
My point.. if there's much of a point here at all is... let's get off the equality talk. There is no equality. Try to accept people as individuals, try not to lump and accept that some of us suck and some of us rock and that there will ALWAYS be divisions between those who suck and those who rock.
Society teaches us we're supposed to be open-minded, to respect everyone regardless of race, religion, sex, personal beliefs, personal handicaps, age and any number of other options.
And then turns around and paints everything in broad strokes of Men and Women, Black and White, Catholic and Protestant.
We teach our kids in equality. I swear to god (and I'll fight you tooth and nail on this one, Kristen), I WILL NOT. I will teach my children to see in black and white (possible pun not intended) because that's how the world works.
Deep inside, we know that there's no equality. We know men aren't EQUAL to women. We know that gay people aren't equal to straight people. We know handicapped people are not equal to those of us who aren't.
The argument, the since-man-became-conscious argument that's been going on is: Who is Better.
You hear it all the time:
The bible tells you homosexuality is immoral. So straight people are BETTER than gay people.
You hear off-color jokes about how once you go black, you don't go back. Blacks are BETTER lovers than whites.
And, hell, even the dean of Princeton is trying to tell us (I'm NOT saying he's right) that boys are BETTER than girls at Science and Math.
We can try to see past the common divisions: past religion, politics, race, sex etc. etc... I'm saying try, because most of us can't.. because most people clothe themselves in ONE of these divisions.. as a good liberal or a good christian or as a black worthy of black pride.
We can TRY to see past these people.. and try to see everyone as individuals.. and then discover, for yourself, that there are STILL worse people and better people.
My point.. if there's much of a point here at all is... let's get off the equality talk. There is no equality. Try to accept people as individuals, try not to lump and accept that some of us suck and some of us rock and that there will ALWAYS be divisions between those who suck and those who rock.
no subject
"Rights", to me has a connotation of something you can get without earning. It's being entitled to something, whether or not you deserve it.
People say that, in America, we have the RIGHT to arm ourselves and carry guns. Most people who own guns have never taken much training on how to use it properly, how to take care of it or how to lock it away. This IS the problem. If people were forced to be trained before actually having the gun, I believe society as a whole, would be better.
Then there's the RIGHT to be married and to procreate.
I have seen more damage done to people because of bad marriages, or people having children who never should have.
And yet we all accept that we have the RIGHT to do it.
I'm not sure if there's any way to solve this issue.. of stopping people from getting into bad or abusive marriages or to stop mothers from kicking out babies just to get more out of the system, but because we have the RIGHT to do these things, the system gets abused.
Perhaps the better way to see this is that, legally, you should have the ability to do these things, but it is first your RESPONSIBILITY to learn what to do with it first.
Admittedly, I'm not sure how to train people properly for things like marriage or child-rearing, but that's how I see it.
no subject
I'm think it's probably safe to say that you have a moral right to get married, and to procreate. But you have a moral duty to your partner to be a good spouse, and a duty to any progeny you raise to be a good parent.
The problems seem to come when people flaunt their duties and just exercise what they see as their rights. When this happens they're infringing on the rights of others. In this, aside from terminology, I think we agree.