The debate over abortion rights and birth control stems from our most basic instincts, filtered through our language and thought processes.
The hardest hard core opposes all abortion and birth control. You copulate, you live with the consequences. That is a very naturalistic viewpoint, albeit frequently espoused by people who claim that dominion over all of nature was granted to us by a deity. We can selectively breed any species but our own. Our own species must proliferate without restraint, to be selectively killed in arguments over esoteric points of philosophy, or conflict over possession of natural resources.
A debatable theory that the use of cesarean section births has already shaped physical evolution points out that pregnancy and childbirth would be fatal to some women. In the naturalistic view, these deaths are necessary to purge those defective genes. If God had meant those women to survive, He would have given them wider pelvises.
From a practical standpoint, if we develop a significant population that can only give birth surgically, we have created a dependent group that will die out if they are cut off from medical facilities at the wrong time. This can happen in a number of ways, not least of which is by cutting health care in a developed nation, or by the collapse of civilization in general as a result of an overblown argument about esoteric points of philosophy, or conflict over possession of natural resources.
Fertility is destiny in a world without birth control. Conceive and be replicated, or conceive and be eliminated. The so-called sexual revolution granted control over fertility to those most affected by it. Horny people, mostly men, hoped that this would lead to lots of recreational copulation. Control-freak prudes seize on that aspect alone to excoriate it as the foulest sin. In all the smoke and chaos of that debate, the fact that fertility control gives women the freedom to live productive non-sexual lives is submerged in the swinging melee of religious symbols and insults.
The control freaks say that a woman who wants to live a non-sexual life can simply refuse to participate in sex. No other mitigation is necessary. Reality constantly refutes this.
Everything that affects birth and death shapes evolution. Because humans react to ideas, not just to the passage of genetic material and the survival of better or worse hunters and gatherers, social and political choices shape whether the species of tomorrow goes upward and outward on intellectual advancement or devolves into superstitious hunters and gatherers again.
Our instincts constantly speak to our intellect in ancient, wordless ways we often do not recognize as the primitive promptings that they are. We call this the subconscious. Sometimes the subconscious draws on intellectual concepts running subroutines, but more often you can find the biological prompting that predates the invention of words. The ancient world called. It wants its species back.
Tuesday, January 31, 2017
Sunday, January 29, 2017
Collected thoughts
Just a few snippets from social media posts
If corporations are people, what gender are they? And should that affect their right to merge?
In case anyone still thinks that term limits would fix anything, look at what Trump has done in the first 10 days of his first term in the only elective office for which he has ever run.
Authoritarian conservatism is a system of selectively breeding for obedience. It's remarkable how they bait the trap by saying they're protecting liberty.
I vastly prefer people who remind me to be peaceful over those who try to solicit my aggression.
There are two kinds of people in this world: the ones who realize that we're all in this together and the ones who are wrong.
With all the heartwarming support for climate change awareness and opposition to pipelines and fracking, how much are you doing as a consumer to reduce fossil fuel use? No corporate behemoth will waste money on a product that is not selling. For all that we need to stand up for regulation and oversight, those will never win as long as we keep supporting the social model that made the problems in the first place. By the way, I realize this is hopeless.
Just the fact that health care is referred to as an industry tells you everything you need to know about America's attitude toward human suffering. The health care industry is highly rated as an investment these days. That means lots of return for shareholders.
Getting people to use "health insurance" and "health care" as interchangeable terms has been one of the biggest propaganda victories of the last couple of decades.
When the result is millions of people turned into cannon fodder on both sides, you have to wonder whether titanic clashes of good and evil serve either side very well.
Who knew that the some of the people you can fool all of the time would turn out to be such a significant voting bloc?
I'm sure we can all agree that there is no issue on which we can all agree.
A country that threatens other countries with its nuclear arsenal is a hostage-taking suicide bomber.
Human race informed that they will not get their security deposit back as they depart from Earth to find a new planet.
In 2017, millions of people in the developed world followed through on their resolution to get rid of the clutter and excess possessions in their homes. Suddenly, everyone was living in airy spaciousness and marvelous simplicity! It was also the first year in which you could walk across the Pacific Ocean on the mat of trash and discarded possessions.
If you try to challenge and refute every ignorant assertion with well-reasoned, fact-based arguments, you will spend your time doing only that, until you die of exhaustion. On the other hand, unchallenged ignorant assertions often become accepted as truths because they sound snappy and no one has publicly blown them up.
I got in touch with my emotions. They seemed pissed off that I had found their hideout.
If corporations are people, what gender are they? And should that affect their right to merge?
In case anyone still thinks that term limits would fix anything, look at what Trump has done in the first 10 days of his first term in the only elective office for which he has ever run.
Authoritarian conservatism is a system of selectively breeding for obedience. It's remarkable how they bait the trap by saying they're protecting liberty.
I vastly prefer people who remind me to be peaceful over those who try to solicit my aggression.
There are two kinds of people in this world: the ones who realize that we're all in this together and the ones who are wrong.
With all the heartwarming support for climate change awareness and opposition to pipelines and fracking, how much are you doing as a consumer to reduce fossil fuel use? No corporate behemoth will waste money on a product that is not selling. For all that we need to stand up for regulation and oversight, those will never win as long as we keep supporting the social model that made the problems in the first place. By the way, I realize this is hopeless.
Just the fact that health care is referred to as an industry tells you everything you need to know about America's attitude toward human suffering. The health care industry is highly rated as an investment these days. That means lots of return for shareholders.
Getting people to use "health insurance" and "health care" as interchangeable terms has been one of the biggest propaganda victories of the last couple of decades.
When the result is millions of people turned into cannon fodder on both sides, you have to wonder whether titanic clashes of good and evil serve either side very well.
Who knew that the some of the people you can fool all of the time would turn out to be such a significant voting bloc?
I'm sure we can all agree that there is no issue on which we can all agree.
A country that threatens other countries with its nuclear arsenal is a hostage-taking suicide bomber.
Human race informed that they will not get their security deposit back as they depart from Earth to find a new planet.
In 2017, millions of people in the developed world followed through on their resolution to get rid of the clutter and excess possessions in their homes. Suddenly, everyone was living in airy spaciousness and marvelous simplicity! It was also the first year in which you could walk across the Pacific Ocean on the mat of trash and discarded possessions.
If you try to challenge and refute every ignorant assertion with well-reasoned, fact-based arguments, you will spend your time doing only that, until you die of exhaustion. On the other hand, unchallenged ignorant assertions often become accepted as truths because they sound snappy and no one has publicly blown them up.
I got in touch with my emotions. They seemed pissed off that I had found their hideout.
Saturday, January 21, 2017
What would you do? Way beyond Quinones
As we enter what could be a period of violent upheaval in this country, you might want to think about how you would react in various scenarios.
The ABC show "What Would You Do?" plays with light versions of social issues, but the legitimization of white nationalism, sexism, LGBTQ-phobia and strong-arm tactics in general coming out of the recent presidential campaign has already spawned incidents of violence.
The wonderful Women's Marches all over the country and in the world in general made a commendable display of peaceful protest. However, the climate in authoritarian circles, and in the right wing, is not at all receptive to protest demonstrations.
What would you do if law enforcement covering a demonstration opened fire with automatic weapons? Would you back down immediately, take cover, and run? Or would you march forward to be mowed down, as a rebuke to the vestiges of conscience left in the world? If you fled on the first day, would you come back for a second day? If you fled on the first day, would you begin to organize for civil war?
What would you do if you saw a group of white people beating up a brown person? A non-heterosexual person? A Jewish person? What would you do? How would you intervene, if at all?
What would you do if Jewish businesses were vandalized and ransacked in your town? What about Muslim businesses?
What would you do if lynching began again, law enforcement did not investigate, and district attorneys did not prosecute? What would you do if perpetrators who did face token trials always went free?
The current administration drew heavily on the influence of paranoia and hatred to build momentum for their campaign. They used voters disenfranchised by corporate influence, economically burdened by overpopulation and by technological advancement, feeding the popular myths about poor people, dark people, unfamiliar religions, and government conspiracies to advance the real conspiracy, which is corporate dominance of political, social, and economic life.
What would you do if oligarchy took over your country and you still had to look the word up every time you heard it, or just ignore it and hope it goes away?
It will start so slowly that you can easily tell yourself it's going nowhere. And it may really simmer down. But if it doesn't, you should have some idea what you would do.
The ABC show "What Would You Do?" plays with light versions of social issues, but the legitimization of white nationalism, sexism, LGBTQ-phobia and strong-arm tactics in general coming out of the recent presidential campaign has already spawned incidents of violence.
The wonderful Women's Marches all over the country and in the world in general made a commendable display of peaceful protest. However, the climate in authoritarian circles, and in the right wing, is not at all receptive to protest demonstrations.
What would you do if law enforcement covering a demonstration opened fire with automatic weapons? Would you back down immediately, take cover, and run? Or would you march forward to be mowed down, as a rebuke to the vestiges of conscience left in the world? If you fled on the first day, would you come back for a second day? If you fled on the first day, would you begin to organize for civil war?
What would you do if you saw a group of white people beating up a brown person? A non-heterosexual person? A Jewish person? What would you do? How would you intervene, if at all?
What would you do if Jewish businesses were vandalized and ransacked in your town? What about Muslim businesses?
What would you do if lynching began again, law enforcement did not investigate, and district attorneys did not prosecute? What would you do if perpetrators who did face token trials always went free?
The current administration drew heavily on the influence of paranoia and hatred to build momentum for their campaign. They used voters disenfranchised by corporate influence, economically burdened by overpopulation and by technological advancement, feeding the popular myths about poor people, dark people, unfamiliar religions, and government conspiracies to advance the real conspiracy, which is corporate dominance of political, social, and economic life.
What would you do if oligarchy took over your country and you still had to look the word up every time you heard it, or just ignore it and hope it goes away?
It will start so slowly that you can easily tell yourself it's going nowhere. And it may really simmer down. But if it doesn't, you should have some idea what you would do.
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