You mean ones like this?
Posted on 01/10/2003 11:21:38 AM PST by MikalM
Publication date: 01/09/2003 They are way too aggressive. My proof: 200 million people were murdered in the 20th century because of war and genocide. Since most decision-makers are men, and most soldiers are men, we need to reflect a little on this problem. I know, you want to yell out Indira Gandhi! Margaret Thatcher! Golda Meir! (Everyone gets so excited that they can name three women who fall into this war-mongering category. Can anyone name a fourth woman who belongs here?) If there is a global skirmish, men should learn to say "Let's talk," or "We're sorry," but no one ever says those things. They could also try saying "Let's compromise," but that doesn't happen, either. I feel bad for most men. Their communications skills are so low, they cannot seem to handle discussing things. Our system teaches males to be competitive and aggressive. Boys who don't like football are called sissies. Hierarchical qualities are instilled in all of us, but in men in particular. These feelings serve to keep us separate, rather than interconnected. Separateness fosters violence and brutality. Men in war report a kind of homo-erotic experience, a time men can bond with other men without looking like sissies. Some report that they get erections when killing. There seems to be a strong link between aggressiveness and sexuality that I don't pretend to understand. Perhaps war is exciting and dynamic. War is a global experience, an easy way to travel. It's exciting. And even if you lose and die, you are guaranteed an honorable death. There will be flags and medals for you. All of that pomp and circumstance is a way of feeling. It's just like football. It's something big and it's outside your family and, for many, the feeling for the unit is even more intense than for the family. I wish we could figure out how to stop men and countries and their aggressive tendencies. What can we do to help men? What can men do to help themselves? Men need to bring out their nurturing and compassionate sides, rather than their frightened side. After all, the purpose of life is to understand life and learn its glorious lessons. All life is precious. All opinions and ideas, precious. We need to understand our divine nature. We need to practice being less greedy. Americans have a demanding sense of consumerism; we're taught to step on, and now kill, the "little people." We've become masters at race wars; we're imbued with a fervor to kill people if they get in our way. Women give and give and give, and it's never enough. And men take and take and take, and it's never enough. We all need to help men move along. We need to create awareness, understanding and outlets for men. They need to develop more feelings for humanity. Men need to see themselves as humans. And women need to speak up. We need to stop propping up our men. Instead of saying "it's my turn to control the remote control," we put dinner on the table faster and try to explain away our husband's temper to our shaken children. If you have a penis, perhaps you should be required to take a course in aggression and compassion. And perhaps women need to take courses on co-dependence. We can bear our sadness by educating our public about hate and prejudice and we definitely should be analyzing the ways that we can help the world instead of destroying it. I am personally in a state of despair. I've been a political activist for 34 years, and it all seems to mean nothing these days. We have these nitwits in charge of our country and we are going off (again) to kill more people. We haven't learned anything. Comment: letters@examiner.com Lani Silver is a women's studies teacher and an oral historian.
Why do men like war so much?BY LANI SILVER
Special to The Examiner MEN SEEM TO BE out of control. They like war way too much.
Or we could teach the world to sing, in three part harmony...
Or whisper to each other, "Racism Hurts!"...
Or hold hands...
Of course, the REAL solution to racism is to locate another race of alien space beings to heap our scorn on.
We could bring some of them back to earth and set them up in little alien shanty-towns across the tracks.
That way human kids, Black and White and Red and Yellow and whatever the Hell that color Arabs are could stand together as brothers, get a little drunk on 3.2% beer and say, "Hey! I've got an idea! Lets go to Zorg-town and kick a little Tau-Cetian ass!"
"Cool! Let's burn a parallelogram on their lawn too!"
"Yee Haw!"
Either you missed.... or I did not correctly make my point.
I was addressing that the 2nd American Revolution (yes, I like that)... was a war of "mega death"... perhaps, thanks to Mr. Lincoln, the first war which was conducted under the new rules which allowed attacks on unarmed civilian populations....
And it took place before women had the vote...
It was the "mega death" aspect of the statement with which I was taking issue.
Empress Wu was the only female sovereign in the long history of China. She murdered three of her children as well as most of her husband's relatives and elevated members of her own family to acquire and secure the throne. She had herself declared a reincarnation of Buddha and she scandalized the court with her affair with an ex-wrestler whom she named abbot of a Buddhist temple. Disgusted by her shameless behavior she was eventually overthrown by her own ministers. She was 80 at the time.
It's character, not gender that matters in a leader you dangerous fool.
Because it allows them to vent the frustration they feel for having to put up with women and at the same time eliminate some of the competition.
This is ONE picture I wouldn't have carried in my helmet to remind me what or who I was fighting for. On the other hand, if she's so dam*nd good at avoiding conflict, maybe she should take point on the next mission!
I should add that there are a number of outstanding females who are great workers and wonderful persons in my workplace. But the notion that all women are possessed of outstanding qualities of reason and logic simply because they are women is laughable.
'Cause chicks love guys in uniforms?
When North Korean men want to sit down and talk, we'll talk with them. If they want to fight, we'll fight. It's up to them, really. The same goes for Saddam, and even Osama.
You mean ones like this?
Instead of calling it War we can give a PC name, such as
"Post-Natal Abortion"
It's all about choice!
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.