Posted on 03/03/2009 5:05:09 AM PST by Kaslin
I knew some girls who cut (and burned) themselves in the 80’s, and my daughter knows more now. I was anorexic, instead. It’s not just broken or abusive families (mine wasn’t) or a lack of religion (we were regular churchgoers), but the environment of institutional schooling. Eating disorders and self-mutilation are a way for the inmates to exercise control: They can force me into this institution, but they can’t make me eat. I can hurt myself more than they can hurt me. “The trick is not minding that it hurts.”
And lest I seem to be ignoring the problems of boys, I’m not. They just act out the same types of response in different ways.
Both words start with the letter C.
The trick is not minding that it hurts.”
Gratuitous Lawrence of Arabia quote...
The one perfect movie ever made. Maybe I’ll watch it later: I need to sew badges on the girls’ Scout uniforms.
lol
and illegal immigration, right?
Try the book — Seven Pillars of Wisdom — though be warned, Lawrence was very open about his homosexuality. Less so about his S&M tendencies.
Boys do dangerous things like drinking and driving, hill jumping, speeding.
Heck, there was barely a time when, on back roads, that my motorcycle was traveling at less than 80 mph.
And you’re right, it’s the institutional (secular humanist) schooling system, and it’s gotten worse.
I read “Seven Pillars” years ago. Pretty heavy, overboard on the adjectives ;-). My college library had a collection of architectural drawings of the Middle East that Lawrence produced, with descriptions; that was more interesting.
Reading the piece might help.
It has been there a while, but the increase is very disturbing, considering what psychological indicators there are for cutting behavior.
The association between cutting and BPD is VERY strong.
He was one of those strange guys the British Empire used to produce on a regular basis, i.e. Richard Burton (not the actor).
Lawrence also did a very good translation of Homer’s Odyssey under the name T.E. Shaw. It’s worth a read just for the violent scenes.
Burton was something else. I have a biography. I’ve heard of the “Shaw” translation of Homer, but never seen one.
Not that it’s a good thing by any means, but it’s not new. Kids did this over twenty years ago when I was in jr. high and high school.
Most do, however, most of our social ills stem from this. Accepting artificial contraception was the starting point in the mass devaluing of life. When a woman was using birth control and got pregnant, the child was then considered unwanted. While this seems a subtle change, a shift in mentality for mothers went from looking at an unintended pregnancy as Gods will to failed contraceptives fault. This allows a subtle shift in the attitude toward that child as a burden instead of an unasked for blessing.
With that sublte shift, the abortion became the solution to that burden, but that created a new set of problems for the mother. What if she didn’t accept abortion as ok? She then had even less recourse. Contraception didn’t work, yet abortion may not be an acceptable alternative. Talk about having negative feelings toward a child. She then tries her best not to blame the child for her feelings, but, its there. The child grows up feeling unloved, hence, the numbness they speak about. Seeing as many of these children come from broken homes, one can only imagine how many of them were unintended pregnancies.
Contraception has allowed women to have sex without fear of pregnancy. It has allowed men to have sex without responsibility. Abortion has solved the failed contraception problem for these people. Is it any wonder why children who survive the gauntlet they run at conception to feel the way they do? How can anyone understand how it feels to grow up in a world that has done everything in its power to prevent or remove them from existence? I am 41 years old. I was born before abortion on demand was legal, and during the contraception revolution in the Catholic Church ( I am Catholic). My children were conceived, and born in a world that considered them a burden to be dealt with or disposed of if inconvenient. I cannot imagine what that must be like. I think our children are crying out to us in so many ways to try and tell us. It is very telling that this is so prevelant among girls. Are they trying to express the anguish they feel subconsiously over the thought that sex is expected, even encouraged in their teenage years? That this is expressed by the unrelenting pressure from boys to do it, educators teaching how to put condoms on bananas, and if all else fails, the school nurse will help them get an abortion without even telling their folks? That it is being broadcast every second of the day how disposable life is and how ok unfettered sex is? Could it be, that the culture of death is finally causing the exact reaction that it should? The incredible pressures on teens today to fit into an agenda that is against everything written on their hearts and consciences?
There are many victims of contraception. The unborn are the most obvious, teenagers are the walking wounded in this abomination.
Contraception is the single biggest factor behind the sharp rise in divorce rates that hit between 1965 and 1975 and has stayed (with fluctuations) since then. Contraception also created casual, extra-marital sex, which by definition is unstable. Bring children into that situation and it’s disaster. Contraception separated sex from procreation and marriage.
And women foolishly bought into this. They, out of insecurity (fear of never finding a man), give themselves to men who have not and will not commit. They think they are having “protected sex” because they use contraception to “protect” themselves against procreation. Sooner or later this was bound to lead to the idea that unmarried women or unmarried couples (by definition an unstable situation) having babies is okay—if the babies are “wanted.” Even when these couples who have had extramarital, relatively casual sex (sex outside of real commitment, outside of indissoluble marriage IS casual, compared to sex within an promise of indissoluble marriage.
Once the sexual revolution took place and people married after having casual sex, their marriages fell apart more often and pressure for no-fault divorce arose. Those legal changes permitted one partner by himself to end the marriage. So divorce increased.
Divorce is the basic factor behind fatherless children. Fatherless boys don’t grow up, accept responsibility, commit life-long to women. Without lifelong commitment, divorce happens. It affects everyone—children are born into unstable relationships and even those whose parents stay together have friends and live in an environment of instability.
Separating sex from indissoluble marriage and procreation lies at the root of all our social pathologies today. Every damn one of them. As long as contraception involved condomns and was associated mostly with men who frequented prostitutes and had a stigma, most people avoided it. When it was mainstreamed via the invisible pill and became the “women’s responsibility,” men were freed to use women more than ever.
And women stupidly agreed to their own abuse.
I think one reason it’s getting worse is that the conditions of schooling go on much longer in life than they once did. The prospect of “getting away” is much further off. And, of course, the increase in broken (or never formed) families is relevant, too; it’s just not universal.
Logically, it seems to follow that most do not share that view.
The best bio of Burton is called Devil Drives. Burton was a nutty guy, but spoke like 6,000 languages.
I always thought there was a connection between these weird and weirdly intellectual types and Jefferson, Franklin et al. but could never find the common thread.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.