In this blog I seldom wander off into politics or religion, not much there. But several days ago I found myself weighing in on the abortion fiasco. I don’t have to be told that my compass is not calibrated like everybody else’s. Not that I’m a nut case but a few points off of magnetic north makes a difference. Being out of sync with the rest of my culture is not empowering, not enlightening, doesn’t fix anything. It just leaves me out of the loop, on the fringe. I am open enough to question my own judgment. Am I doing something wrong? I run the numbers several times and realize, no, I’m good. Kermit the frog was right, it isn’t easy being green. I’m doing what I can with what I’ve got.
The Pro Life vs Pro Choice debacle is not what it seems to be. When I run the numbers it has nothing to do with babies. Unborn babies are like tennis balls. You need them or you can’t play the game and it’s the game that counts. You don’t remember the balls that fo over the fence, only if you won or lost. I am much more sympathetic to women with a dangerous or unwanted pregnancy than with a culture that has god-like technology but is stuck both socially and emotionally in the middle ages.
If you can, imagine back fifteen thousand years. Imagination plus language equals Story. Primitive humans needed Stories, especially when they lived in small, family clans. They took complicated, mysterious experiences, changed the context to create a simple, understandable story with the same moral message. We would call that a (myth). That was a challenging task when life was short, there were no books, no internet or microscopes, no civilized way to acquire new knowledge. Technology was fire, a pointed stick and sharp edged rocks. From that dangerous and fearful beginning, stories that featured god-like supernatural beings unfolded as religion. Sacrifice a virgin and pray for rain. Then civilization took root, agriculture and cities put lots of people in close proximity. That crowded house needed rules for the sake of order and to please the warrior-king. So together, joined at the hip, religion and government were born of the same purpose. Obviously I do not pitch my tent with the agents of omniscient, omnipotent, invisible, supernatural characters who can override nature’s rules. I have my own sacred Trinity that features Gravity, Photosynthesis and the Speed of Light. That covers it.
Before civilization required rules, hunter-gather culture was more or less egalitarian. Men did the heavy lifting and women tended children but otherwise they cooperated of necessity and not by demand. They couldn’t ignore how interdependent they were. A family clan had to cooperate to meet their collective need. Anything that diminished one’s importance threatened the whole family. Leapfrog ahead and note that civilized culture tends to layer people into a vertical, class hierarchy, warrior-king at the top and peasants at the bottom. Equal treatment lost its way as skills and pedigrees made those well positioned people more important (powerful). Women came out on the short end of that action. Mothers were subordinated to nurturing man’s offspring and servitude.
Connecting the dots I come up with butterflies while most of my male counterparts get guns. I suppose that is me being green again, running the numbers. Even though civilization can evolve noticeably in a human lifetime, humans themselves do not. It takes a really long time for the brain to come up with new circuits and we still need myths to appreciate what we don’t understand.
I think it safe to say over history’s long Story, women universally have been subordinated to satisfy the whims and convenience of men and we are still honoring that primitive tradition. Back when men seized on new authority, the magic of making babies was woman’s magic, something men couldn’t do. But it was something they wanted to control; seems they still do. Abortion is robbing men of their authority; that is the grave injustice in the Roe vs. Wade decision fifty years ago. I think that is the kernel of truth in this whole issue. Abortion is robbing men of their authority. You don’t need imagination or a myth to balance those numbers. When they say, “Oh come on, that ain’t so.” oh yes, it is so. We’re still making up stories that feel righteous but with due diligence, they won’t float. Do the numbers. Things change, even soften a bit but misogyny simply will not die and stay dead. That would make God the misogynist. The issue has never been about saving babies.
In general, men don’t need to think about it. It just is. Women either accept being subordinated and concede their fate or they push back. Many women turn the other cheek and do as their culture demands. They could be either addicted to a righteous, Man created, God centered religion or have been either coerced or seduced by a testosterone paradigm where authority/control takes precedent over reciprocity and fairness. I know men personally, some in my family who would read this and stare wide eyed in disbelief; “WTF is wrong with you?” They haven’t yet but I read body language very well and I know the look. If they did I could say something like, “I don’t know what’s wrong with me, maybe something, maybe nothing at all but I’m still doing the numbers and I’ll let you know if something changes.”
The Pro Life vs Pro Choice debacle is not what it seems to be. When I run the numbers it has nothing to do with babies. Unborn babies are like tennis balls. You need them or you can’t play the game and it’s the game that counts. You don’t remember the balls that fo over the fence, only if you won or lost. I am much more sympathetic to women with a dangerous or unwanted pregnancy than with a culture that has god-like technology but is stuck both socially and emotionally in the middle ages.
If you can, imagine back fifteen thousand years. Imagination plus language equals Story. Primitive humans needed Stories, especially when they lived in small, family clans. They took complicated, mysterious experiences, changed the context to create a simple, understandable story with the same moral message. We would call that a (myth). That was a challenging task when life was short, there were no books, no internet or microscopes, no civilized way to acquire new knowledge. Technology was fire, a pointed stick and sharp edged rocks. From that dangerous and fearful beginning, stories that featured god-like supernatural beings unfolded as religion. Sacrifice a virgin and pray for rain. Then civilization took root, agriculture and cities put lots of people in close proximity. That crowded house needed rules for the sake of order and to please the warrior-king. So together, joined at the hip, religion and government were born of the same purpose. Obviously I do not pitch my tent with the agents of omniscient, omnipotent, invisible, supernatural characters who can override nature’s rules. I have my own sacred Trinity that features Gravity, Photosynthesis and the Speed of Light. That covers it.
Before civilization required rules, hunter-gather culture was more or less egalitarian. Men did the heavy lifting and women tended children but otherwise they cooperated of necessity and not by demand. They couldn’t ignore how interdependent they were. A family clan had to cooperate to meet their collective need. Anything that diminished one’s importance threatened the whole family. Leapfrog ahead and note that civilized culture tends to layer people into a vertical, class hierarchy, warrior-king at the top and peasants at the bottom. Equal treatment lost its way as skills and pedigrees made those well positioned people more important (powerful). Women came out on the short end of that action. Mothers were subordinated to nurturing man’s offspring and servitude.
Connecting the dots I come up with butterflies while most of my male counterparts get guns. I suppose that is me being green again, running the numbers. Even though civilization can evolve noticeably in a human lifetime, humans themselves do not. It takes a really long time for the brain to come up with new circuits and we still need myths to appreciate what we don’t understand.
I think it safe to say over history’s long Story, women universally have been subordinated to satisfy the whims and convenience of men and we are still honoring that primitive tradition. Back when men seized on new authority, the magic of making babies was woman’s magic, something men couldn’t do. But it was something they wanted to control; seems they still do. Abortion is robbing men of their authority; that is the grave injustice in the Roe vs. Wade decision fifty years ago. I think that is the kernel of truth in this whole issue. Abortion is robbing men of their authority. You don’t need imagination or a myth to balance those numbers. When they say, “Oh come on, that ain’t so.” oh yes, it is so. We’re still making up stories that feel righteous but with due diligence, they won’t float. Do the numbers. Things change, even soften a bit but misogyny simply will not die and stay dead. That would make God the misogynist. The issue has never been about saving babies.
In general, men don’t need to think about it. It just is. Women either accept being subordinated and concede their fate or they push back. Many women turn the other cheek and do as their culture demands. They could be either addicted to a righteous, Man created, God centered religion or have been either coerced or seduced by a testosterone paradigm where authority/control takes precedent over reciprocity and fairness. I know men personally, some in my family who would read this and stare wide eyed in disbelief; “WTF is wrong with you?” They haven’t yet but I read body language very well and I know the look. If they did I could say something like, “I don’t know what’s wrong with me, maybe something, maybe nothing at all but I’m still doing the numbers and I’ll let you know if something changes.”
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