tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1204156377297771092.post6566452877248345123..comments2023-07-15T07:10:17.332-04:00Comments on From The Inside: Discussion: Why are people trying to take my right to choose away?Paradoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02347307325793099284noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1204156377297771092.post-42753507512178494012012-03-22T15:15:35.523-04:002012-03-22T15:15:35.523-04:00I might call you a Republican again! Ho ho ho. . ....I might call you a Republican again! Ho ho ho. . . .Dylan Popowiczhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04620170076096636505noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1204156377297771092.post-30426274640799399602012-03-22T13:52:33.733-04:002012-03-22T13:52:33.733-04:00It does indeed - and thanks for your wonderful com...It does indeed - and thanks for your wonderful comments. I think we shall have a lot more to discuss in person in June!Paradoxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02347307325793099284noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1204156377297771092.post-72393602166100854612012-03-22T13:15:39.467-04:002012-03-22T13:15:39.467-04:00Yes, indeed, I wanted to make that point to clarif...Yes, indeed, I wanted to make that point to clarify my position: I am most certainly for the pragmatic approach in cases like this, and so most of my commentary then becomes removed to a more abstract sphere that doesn't qualify for such an approach. But, I always feel it important to say the interesting, thought-provoking thing when I see the word "discussion", instead of simply affirming (this even includes saying the wrong thing, since error is a part of truth). <br /><br />Anyway, the whole talk has moved away from the real important issue right now: the ignorant perspective on "the pill". Funny, just saw a clip in which Limbaugh defended himself against charges of sexism by reminding everyone that he once voted for the Miss America pageant (or was it Universe? I doubt it) . . . because that really means something for women. . . . (!!!!!!)<br /><br />Thank you for the wonderful piece, and I hope that in the future the burden of responsibility is universalised (though this maxim spreads so far and over so many subjects).Dylan Popowiczhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04620170076096636505noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1204156377297771092.post-60057450230455066622012-03-21T13:56:09.704-04:002012-03-21T13:56:09.704-04:00Ha Dylan - I just read your last comment properly ...Ha Dylan - I just read your last comment properly and realised that it does sound like a sci-fi novel! <br /><br />You know... I thought a lot about this last night. A couple of thoughts on a few points you brought up...<br /><br />Granted, there will always be an imbalance between male and female, not on an intellectual or mental level, but on a physical level; and granted, human nature is such that for some reason we love to dominate over one another, oftentimes using religion as a crux to do this. And this will not change (I mean, it hasn't over time, has it?). This doesn't mean that I still consider us all equally human, and all equally have the choice to do what we want with our bodies.<br /><br />So I come to the other point that struck me... You brought up the fact that we don't want state intervention on our choice to abort an unborn child, but we do want it on murder, rape and robbery. If we didn't have state intervention on the latter we would live in a world of horror. But those latter points are crimes, I don't see abortion as a crime (I know many people do though). However, I don't need the state to decide whether or not I should carry the child of my rapist to term and bring it up in a loving environment. Does that make sense?<br />And yes, I do tend to react on emotions rather than clinical, statistical thinking, but I would rather fight for a change than analyse it to the core and wait to see what happens.Paradoxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02347307325793099284noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1204156377297771092.post-23310286650421132262012-03-21T09:37:34.469-04:002012-03-21T09:37:34.469-04:00scary stuff.
something i also don't get is t...scary stuff. <br /><br />something i also don't get is the different laws for different states... <br /><br />I'm in England and I am afraid of what will happen if these... people... get in..Charliehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14851109324034711324noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1204156377297771092.post-69129121362577563122012-03-20T17:00:23.467-04:002012-03-20T17:00:23.467-04:00I followed your link and then followed a link and ...I followed your link and then followed a link and then . . . <br /><br />Ahem. I liked this:<br /><br /> Gloria Steinem: "The first problem for all of us, men and women, is not to learn, but to unlearn."Dylan Popowiczhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04620170076096636505noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1204156377297771092.post-11952502182018831252012-03-20T16:44:52.109-04:002012-03-20T16:44:52.109-04:00I hate to sugar-coat too much, but I really don...I hate to sugar-coat too much, but I really don't want to be misread: I understand that a woman is born into an unbalanced world, in which she is physically burdened with a greater responsibility--pregnancy. We only attempt to balance this natural difference by making sure that a father has to pay for child support <i>etc.</i>, but I don't think <i>any</i>thing can ever alter that imbalance. Do we really want to simply balance it out though? I think respect for the difference is the more worthy goal, as so few cultures have ever elevated the woman's "power" in this respect to the appropriate level (Simone de Beauvoir starts off her "Second Sex" critiquing the myth that masculinity is even more aggressive, powerful, <i>active</i> as a sperm versus the "passive" feminine egg, and thus through all forms of life--she rightly exposes this bullshit; the difference deserves respect, which it still doesn't, even in the most "liberal" of cultures. And whilst we're talking existentialism--what is more wondrous, which more life-affirming and creative: the <i>chosen</i> act of bring a life into the world, or the <i>passive</i> obedience of an alienating law, one that hover in a distant and untouchable place, that speaks: one <i>ought</i> to. . . ).<br /><br />I honestly think that a way for the future is a society of vasectomied (not a word?) males, their sperm safely stored in a bank for the moment that life is chosen (this negates some of the romance of "conception" <i>per se</i> but I don't think it's really that romantic if you're actively pursuing it anyway). I've been considering this option myself for the last year or so. But to ever make this acceptable on a social level, one would have to negate thousands of years of male "potent" mythology (I'm reading an anthropology book of kinship at the moment, which really underlines this mythological status: picture, for example, boys in-initiation being secluded from mother and family in a "men only" hut, in which they ritually drink the older men's semen to be vitalised by their life force. . . ). Plus there's the scary idea of someone wiping out every bank in the world (sic-fi novel?).Dylan Popowiczhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04620170076096636505noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1204156377297771092.post-3218168074791384952012-03-20T16:40:28.314-04:002012-03-20T16:40:28.314-04:00[Too long, two parts:]
[Before we continue, to be...[Too long, two parts:]<br /><br />[Before we continue, to be clear: I'm for (responsible) abortion, so don't bite me 'ead off!]<br /><br />He would be laughed at indeed, though that's because only 30-odd percent of British consider themselves religious. And even so, what difference does it make: we can turn the tables and imagine a world where only Ireland allows for abortions--does this in anyway alter the validity of an argument for or against it? For the most part, religion is key (though I have met at least a couple of people who a-religiously disagree with abortion, and have to this date have been the only two who seem to have reasonable objections to it, whilst also refusing to impose their views on the people that are most affected: women (since their men)). <br /><br />I know I'm going to be the "bad guy" here, but remember that I am on "your side". I just think the dichotomy of "her choice" versus "pro-life" divides more than anything. Women who vote on the other side of the fence also consider it a choice (that they then aggressively impose on the rest, which, see below, is the real issue). Yes, we don't want state intervention on our personal choices, yet we do when it comes to murder, robbery, rape <i>etc.</i>. I think it's one of those cases where we find ourselves stuck between Hobbes on one end and Locke on the other (just as Republicans, often blindly, do when they want laissez-faire capitalism on one hand, but a woman's foetus under complete control on the other). It's an important issue that, in my eyes, gets turned into a political slogan. <br /><br />Your final comment is the crucial one though, and a <i>very</i> important definition: pro-choice means to give a woman a choice for or against abortion, contraception <i>etc.</i>, not to force a certain position. The reason I think that we need to focus more on an open dialogue, and education <i>per se</i> is that most pro-lifers actually believe such acts are "murderous", and to use the word choice in their minds would be akin to saying that anyone can kill because they choose to (though of course I find it preposterous when they take this logic to the realm of contraception, as if a person's choice in stopping fertilisation in the first place <i>really</i> could hinder and alter the plan's of an all-loving, omniscient father (there's some misplaced religious hubris for you, and sacrilege masked with a religious face and garb, that is almost laughable)). If you can deconstruct the prevailing pro-lifer belief, all the better.Dylan Popowiczhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04620170076096636505noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1204156377297771092.post-64878336663718816602012-03-20T14:58:17.548-04:002012-03-20T14:58:17.548-04:00It's actually a lot more simpler than that to ...It's actually a lot more simpler than that to be honest, and it works in most other democratic countries (except for Northern Ireland where abortion is still illegal): the choice of what a woman can do with her reproductive organs is HER OWN and not decided by whoever happens to be in power. If Perry were a Tory candidate he would be laughed at in parliament. So how come it's such an important, and vote-worthy cause in the US? What makes a woman's body so important in getting a vote? <br />In any case, being pro-choice does not mean being for or against abortion or subsidised birth control. It's about having the choice to decide.Paradoxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02347307325793099284noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1204156377297771092.post-84020554132064087732012-03-20T14:50:56.909-04:002012-03-20T14:50:56.909-04:00Originally, the word tyranny, tyrant etc. (τυραννυ...Originally, the word tyranny, tyrant etc. (τυραννυς), referred to a democratically-elected leader and was seen as a reason to deny democracy, and to keep the aristocracy as a "buffer" against such a possibility (Hitler as the extreme exemplum) . . . so, so much for positive change (ho ho). I think though, the discussion is much more complicated than anyone ever makes it. Politicians are only using the words "abortion", "murder", "whore", "choice" for the sake of election, i.e.: we're not winning the race on purely politico-economical agendas, therefore, we'll reach for the emotional heart. This is the Marxist superstructure puppeteered by the sub. But, how does one go about getting the whole population to realise this at the same time. . . .<br /><br />So, there's the political conversation, that is desperate because everything, every "right" (for both sides), seems desperately contingent. But, there's also a deeper philosophical question, and, even though I'm a MAN and will be chastised for saying this, I don't think there's an easy answer to the abortion question (though I don't see why there would be any major issue <i>apropos</i> the pill per se, just as there wouldn't be for vasectomies at this level). <br /><br />But, clearly, the issue here is not the "deeper" one. It's the political subject. A messy one. Unfortunately, and I think the situation here is a good example of this, I don't think personal "choice" and democracy actually meaningfully coincide. The "General Will", something that no one, though they say they do, has any access to, stumbles on. The question, then, is whether or not this is an underlying problem for democracy or if it is one within our conception of freedom. I'm actually inclined to say it is the latter. We can march, picket, spread awareness of a cause through a social network <i>etc.</i>, but when do the collective, subjects on all sides, come to an <i>understanding</i> of the situation? I think this is a more worthy goal, which is one that cannot be pursued by any mode of partisanship. This does, however, mean that we should support a wider array of sexual education, help all people to understand what a pill does <i>per se</i>, and all that. It also, means, however, that when people like Rush Limbaugh expose themselves as biggots, we don't focus our outrage on them--it is so much easier to do that, than to actually attempt a reasonable argument with a group of "pro-lifers", or whatever (even I'm displeased writing about this prospect. . .).<br /><br />Limbaugh: his wife has to fake it beneath his sweaty, slobbering fat. Perry: would be first over the border to get an abortion. Romney: just wants a vote, and doesn't really care, though he probably would want pharmaceutical and insurance companies to make more money. As for Santorum: he means it, and I doubt he has any good reasoning as to why he means it, aside from: "'Cause the good book said so!".Dylan Popowiczhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04620170076096636505noreply@blogger.com