Ahhh Rustico!!! Thank you – you keep me sane! I’m sorry I’ve been off in the woods for a few days, been a little out of sorts with my new found intellectual/financial freedom (deciding the course of my next 10 years business-wise) and wanted to chime in before I leave for vacation (will be gone tomorrow – alas – but will bring my computer with me).
Rustico – at the risk of ass kissing and being branded a wild-eyed liberal – Bill Mahr, John Stewart, and Rustico are keeping me sane.
I don’t have time for serious blogging study – just checking in – so…..
4Runner. Because society has grown up with religion (and it’s waning now, at least in our more educated, privileged society), doesn’t mean that it is the reason I am not going out on a raping rampage. I agree that many religions are the same in their views toward society – but I prefer my rules and laws straight, without them being watered down by a self-serving priest class.
Neighbors build strong fences to remain good neighbors, the wealthier a person is, the more say they have in protecting their property and creating their laws. There are lots of pressures on society to not go wild, there is the legal system and the police enforcement. Religion is a mixed bag, there are rational people who are religious and some loonies. There of course, is the undercurrent of people basing their violence and evil on religion – this is one of the reasons that I find religion distasteful (see George Bush and his group of savages).
As to jg and his “monogamy, religion, nuclear family” — is the tried and true method, while the antithesis — free love and communal raising of children (aka, the public school ideal) — has consistently failed.” I would say this:
Our nuclear family culture is somewhat weak and twisted compared to history and the rest of the world. We send our old folks off to homes, keep boundaries with our brothers and sisters families, most of history and other cultures have extended families, grandparents staying with the grandchildren, large extended families supporting each other – nope not for the US and it’s 50’s mentality of the Levitt house and separate lives. So sorry jg – it’s not a supportive loving situation compared with how it should be.
Some cultures have multiple wives, lots of societies (most?) have mistresses for successful men as a matter of course. I’m not legislating for it – but divorce goes down DRAMATICALLY when the women you marry keeps her social position in society and the kids are always provided for while releasing pressure for men to do what men do (sorry it interferes with your dogma – but I’m talking biology, not crowd control and religious imposed rules). Perhaps if, for example, priests could have sex, they would bring it out in the open instead of secret gay liaisons and pedophilia. Plus of course the leaders of the religion wouldn’t have to cover it up (for the good of their congregation of course!!!) By the way – I am not talking about the majority of priests, just a statistically significant amount of gay priests, as well as a sick group of church-protected rapists. Anyway – these cultures have much less divorce and it works for them – so too bad your view of what is ‘correct’ is what your prejudice’s have been fed.
There are many, many parts of the planet (probably the majority during history) where kids are raised by the village. Where kids are much more autonomous and stay together as a group. What about the Israeli creche system? Kibbutz’s? The kibbutz is probably the most supportive child raising system – it doesn’t rely on a man going out to work and never seeing his kids, while the woman stays home and watches them (and goes crazy). I would suggest that your Ozzie and Harriet mentality is actually not only not the way to go, but is a major contributing factor in our culture. Final note – we have become a country of dual income earners. We do this because of the pressures of society and consumerism. Think it’s a healthy environment where the kids are latch-keys?
Anyway – it’s the system I’m used to – I just don’t drop to my knees and believe every bit of crap I hear from authority figures (priests, George Bush, Rush Limbaugh, etc.)
Why not open your eyes up to history, the world around you and a new vision of where our culture can improve – without singing ‘that old time religion!’.
Whew! Was it worth it, not sure. I agree Rustico – that you can’t change anyones viewpoint over 30.
