Why Do Men Love War So Much? (Feminazi MEGA-BARF Alert!)

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.

Apparently Lani is a self-hating pro-Palestinian Jew that blames Israel before the Arabs, as well as a man hating feminazi.

Here's some more drivel from her:

http://www.examiner.com/examiner_qa/default.jsp?story=n.QA.0412w

Collecting voices for tolerance
Though the horrors are still fresh, people may one day forget the terror of the Holocaust. As founder and director of the Bay Area Holocaust Oral History Project from 1981 to 1997, Lani Silver helped guard against that by interviewing 1,400 local survivors, ensuring their experiences would not be lost. Silver talks about the importance of oral histories, the problems in the Middle East and her current fight against racism.

Dan Evans: You started doing Holocaust interviews in 1981?

Lani Silver: Correct.

Q: Why?

A: I was hired to teach at San Francisco State in 1974, and was teaching political science and women's studies. In 1981, I was in Jerusalem and went to the first Holocaust survivors conference. For four or five days, I sat at a table and interviewed 50 survivors. It changed my life, in part because none of them had their stories recorded before. I wrote to 200 magazines and asked them if they wanted a story about this. After I got my 200th rejection, I started the project.

Q: Why are oral histories important?

A: To memorialize the people who perished, for one. Also, I feel that survivors look 10 years younger after they tell their stories. Historians need what we can provide. We give portraits of lost villages, names of SS members, information that is not available anymore. We're historians. We are capturing this for the future.

Q: How reliable are your subjects' memories?

A: I think they are incredibly reliable.

Q: Why do you think so?

A: When you've seen a baby thrown in the air and bayoneted, you just don't forget.

Q: You worked with Steven Spielberg on his oral history project. How did that come about?

A: The phone rang. I was having a hard time raising money, and payroll was due in three days. I was very sad that night. The phone call was from Steven Spielberg's office, who told me they were starting a project like mine. They asked me to be their first consultant.

It was the most important phone call of my life. Within one minute, I knew my life's work was complete. We were successful in getting the oral histories from people living in San Francisco and in a couple of other places, but nowhere else.

Q: That happened in 1995?

A: Yes, it was about seven years ago. Now, Spielberg has completed 53,000 oral histories. The Holocaust is hard to face. Holocaust work is hard work. When Spielberg came along it was a miracle, because every survivor that wanted to could tell his or her story.

Q: What have you been doing since 1995?

A: Three years ago, I heard of the death of James Byrd Jr. , who was dragged through Jasper, Texas. Last year, I was asked by the Byrd family to help run the oral history project. We've done 100 interviews with San Francisco eighth-graders and San Francisco State students. We're asking people to tell about the impact of racism on their lives.

Q: You're asking the same thing of both middle schoolers and college students?

A: Yes.

Q: Are you finding similar responses?

A: Yes. Most people tell similar stories. Name calling, the ways people are raised, things of that sort. Racism is the biggest problem in the world. If everyone did one hour a week, or a month, to end racism, we could bring peace to the Middle East.

Q: How does creating an oral history combat racism?

A: It provides information to scholars who study it. We're starting to show the mechanism of racism, how it works. When people talk about their lives, it shows what they're going through and how they react. If people think more about it, they'll be more inspired to do something.

For example, I'll say to my students at the end of a class: How can we end racism? At first, people say there is nothing we can do. So, I respond, for five minutes, pretend you're the president. Time and time again, people get excited, and they list so many good ideas. This last set of students suggested a workshop on racism, offering extra credit for going. We could have people apologize to people they've offended, they say, we could think before we act. We could make signs that say "No to Racism," we could make better laws, or write more letters to the editor.

Q: Will that really work?

A: We have to try. We have to end racism and genocide. If it can happen, it can happen here. Nothing makes me happier than being a native San Franciscan.

Q: But there's still a problem here. What do you make of that?

A: There are still problems with racism, but San Francisco is the leading city in the world for combating it.

Q: What is San Francisco doing that other cities aren't?

A: We always vote more. We vote against the machine. We're a courageous group. We don't want to be told how to vote. We're liberal and open-minded.

Q: If you're conservative, does that makes you a racist?

A: That's a great question. It's more likely, yes. There is a difference between liberals and conservatives. Conservatives probably aren't working as hard as others to end racism. You need to be working harder. This is a hard-working city.

Q: That sounds like a pretty harsh, and maybe unfair, statement to me.

A: I'm not tying conservatism to racism. But if you're conservative you're less likely to be fighting for social justice. San Franciscans are the most politically active people in the world. We stand up for human rights here. If anyone is going to do anything about the genocide in Borneo, for instance, it would be San Franciscans.

Q: What do you think of the anti-Israeli protesters at Berkeley equating the actions against Palestinians to the Holocaust?

A: I hate that. I hate the equation of Israel to Hitler. I think that both sides are out of control. I love Israel and I have always been for Palestinian rights, and for a Palestinian state. I think that Ariel Sharon's settlement policies are monstrous. On the other side, I would like the Arab leaders to say that terrorists will not be met by 70 virgins.

Q: Are the policies of Yasser Arafat monstrous as well?

A: Oh yes. He is speaking about peace on one hand, and we're finding his invoices for bomb-making equipment on the other. I'm very depressed. Israel needs to give up the settlements in the West Bank, or there will never be peace.

Q: Is anti-Semitism increasing?

A: Yes. It's a hard time for Jewish community activists now. It's hard when I wake up every morning and see a newspaper basically saying, "F*** Jews." The protests, the suicide bombings, everything. Every Jew I know except Sharon is wonderful. Something like 73 percent of the Jews in Israel said they want to give up the settlements. They need to find a leader that will do what they want. Right-wing leaders do not listen to their constituents.

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