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Enneagram Type 4 Board Archive Re: Question for DerfPosted by Derf on August 03, 1999 at 23:33:14: In Reply to: Question for Derf posted by Everett on August 03, 1999 at 22:25:30: It's a tangled mess of... pseudo-science found in tabloids (For instance, our friend Summer made a sweeping declaration of universal law from experience of one single case.) and, of course, bigotry. Bigotry is dangerous. Pseudo-science, manufactured and manipulated to affirm cultural dogma, is dangerous. Recall my post about the old scientific study that PROVED the fact of the black man's brain being smaller than the white man's. This must have clicked comfortably with the complacent cruel-mindedness of American culture back then, and increased the strength of their willful insistance that the black man - socially and economically disadvantaged, as well as under-educated - was constitutionally less intelligent and inferior to the white cultural backbone. Such theroies as those pertaining to women's "nurturing instinct" and "genius for finery" (Nietzsche) possess, in the form of their invisible shadow, the conviction that women are less academically and practically intelligent than men. Read Nietzsche: "Has woman ever imparted truth to woman? ... Look at the way she behaves with children!" "Woman would not have her genius for finery if she were not meant to play a subservient role." I know my above arguments leave holes and loose ends; I am none too educated on the subject, and as astute an observer of differences in biology between genders as anyone (gasp!). So, I don't reject the idea of "different brains." Yet, if the male brain really is significantly different from the female brain, then we're moving way to quickly in dumping our defunct 19th-century delusions on this indefinite base - in order, it seems, to defend our bigotry. Yes, Joe Six Pack does exist in real life (that is, outside TV commercials and punishably idiotic pop-psychology books). But there are others. Not every single man on the face of the Earth would fit the little box defined in your "flowers or car?" theory. I find it appalling that such an intelligent, sensitive individual as you could make this generalization. Would you rather take the rose or the car? If you're wondering what the nature of this madness in me is, I can try to identify it... I hate mindsets and belief systems that accept limitations, especially those based upon so-called "natural conditions" such as gender. Nothing disgusts me more than resignation, especially when it seems blind and unchecked - accepted from dubious authorities. This weakens us, it turns us soft, it makes us less human and more lamentable. It enrages me. I'm reminded of the proverbial elephant who, having been tied down all his life, refuses to attempt to release himself even when the constraints are removed. Poor sot. I can't decide whether to pity it or to hate it. It might seem like something of small consequence in this case, but it still turns the wheels of my psyche in that uncomfortable way. I think it's the 3 in me. Thanks for asking, btw, Ev Seeya later, Derf
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