Aweh fellow Ruminants & Groupies in day 437 of Re-Modified Lock Down Currently Level 1.
Period as a semi-retired pensioner: 57 days
Generally Ruminant Pink Friday™ ruminations seek to be irreverent, eccentric, and whimsical. Every now and then I need to throw in a polemic and today is that day. This may be to do with a general decline in the standards of hygiene and cleanliness at the Saxonwold shebeen (house specialty, Johnny Walker Blue & Fanta Grape) leading to a rodent infestation. War has been declared. I am ready to do battle.
What are you logically responsible for? To start this discussion, I will start with the following quote from the holocaust survivor and Nobel prize winner Elie Wiesel:
“No human race is superior; no religious faith is inferior. All collective judgments are wrong. Only racists make them”
All collective judgements about people are wrong. Elie Wiesel only mentions race and religion, but this can be extended to gender, nationality, sexual orientation, and a myriad of other characteristics which describe the vast diversity of humanity. Collective value judgements about men or women are sexist.
Let’s pick the topical and emotionally charged issue of gender-based violence. We can start with the factual statement that men are violent and that they are more violent than women. This is an empirically true statement and there is an evolutionary and biochemical scientific rationale for this. This then leads to gender-based violence and the shameful fact that men perpetrate physical violence against women far more than the reverse. This problem is particularly bad in South Africa.
So, it follows that men are responsible for violence against women. Not so fast. Which men are we talking about? All 3.9 billion of them? Are Canadian men responsible for the violence against South African women perpetrated by South African men? Perhaps not? Does collective responsibility end at the border post?
How do men treat other men when it comes to violence? Not so well it turns out. Men kill more men than women. In South Africa 85% of murder victims are men. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homicide_statistics_by_gender. However, men mainly kill each other in crime and gang related violence but when it comes to killing women there are a disproportionate number of intimate partners involved. For a man to kill his female partner is a terrible crime. Murder statistics are then often further broken down by race or other characteristics to say that a particular race is more violent than another while often ignoring other factors such as income and poverty.
The only way to judge people is individually
Men who commit violence are responsible for their violence. Men who are peaceful and non-violent are not responsible for the violence of violent men. Neither is a violent man responsible for the violence of other violent men. He is responsible for his own violence. Why are non-violent men lumped with violent men?
You are not responsible for your gender. You are responsible for yourself and it is a pitiful excuse to blame your gender, race or other characteristics for your failings. Only after taking responsibility for yourself can, you start taking some responsibility for helping family and friends. Your children need help to become responsible adults but as they grow up, they too are responsible for themselves.
Certainly, non-violent men (and women) should do what they can to deal with violent men in every respect from education to rehabilitation and ultimately punishment.
Thank you for all the helpful suggestions and comments. Please keep them up.
Regards
Bruce
Ruminant Pink Friday 