The White-Male Psyche, American fear and other things....
EEE
location: Landscape Challenged Illinois
listening to: 16 Horsepower, black music from the 70's & and still going broke from Paste Magazine
registered: 2002.08.26
posts: 3227
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One thing I have noticed in American life is that Americans are so terrible at seeing through the eyes of others. Our ability to attempt this is so dismal - we are just too "me, me, me." With that, I am fortunate to have a wide variety of people that have been able to offer areas of insight to things beyond my own white eyes. For example, a dear feminist friend over the years has educated me about the plight of women in this country and I just don't mean the most hard-line feminists, but the types of women that believe things like "some times a woman just has to deal with certain things to work in a man's world." On top of this, she has also ranted enough about how white-males too often see themselves as "victims" and feel their rights are being infringed upon and that they are the true minority in this country. Hell, think of it as the pseudo-war on Christians that these Christians go on about, but on steroids. Next, there is such an unfounded and deep American fear of being attacked in this country. It is like a neurosis. This is not to lessen the occurrence of 9-11, but there seems to be a fear in America of being truly invaded (which geographically is impossible if you think of it). What, Canada???And guns...Jesus...talk about a pseudo-phallic replacement syndrome. I think what we will never understand as a country is this country's love affair with the gun (though, I bet it goes back to the mythical concept of manifest destiny). Fucking guns in this country have been sexualized to the male. Which goes right along with the mental attributes of a bully. Lastly, I have also noticed there is this huge phenomenon among people that deals with the projection of one's self upon others. What I mean is, there is this bizarre phenomenon where so many people project what they think of others and the behavior of others as to what others actually do and will do and without any sort of rational basis for believing so. Now, the bad things about all these things is that we have very few leaders that are courageous to really get in there and do something. All they seem to do is offer impotent bromides and snake oil salves that do nothing but appease their base.
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EEE
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One thing I have noticed in American life is that Americans are so terrible at seeing through the eyes of others. Our ability to attempt this is so dismal - we are just too "me, me, me." With that, I am fortunate to have a wide variety of people that have been able to offer areas of insight to things beyond my own white eyes. For example, a dear feminist friend over the years has educated me about the plight of women in this country and I just don't mean the most hard-line feminists, but the types of women that believe things like "some times a woman just has to deal with certain things to work in a man's world." On top of this, she has also ranted enough about how white-males too often see themselves as "victims" and feel their rights are being infringed upon and that they are the true minority in this country. Hell, think of it as the pseudo-war on Christians that these Christians go on about, but on steroids. Next, there is such an unfounded and deep American fear of being attacked in this country. It is like a neurosis. This is not to lessen the occurrence of 9-11, but there seems to be a fear in America of being truly invaded (which geographically is impossible if you think of it). What, Canada???And guns...Jesus...talk about a pseudo-phallic replacement syndrome. I think what we will never understand as a country is this country's love affair with the gun (though, I bet it goes back to the mythical concept of manifest destiny). Fucking guns in this country have been sexualized to the male. Which goes right along with the mental attributes of a bully. Lastly, I have also noticed there is this huge phenomenon among people that deals with the projection of one's self upon others. What I mean is, there is this bizarre phenomenon where so many people project what they think of others and the behavior of others as to what others actually do and will do and without any sort of rational basis for believing so. Now, the bad things about all these things is that we have very few leaders that are courageous to really get in there and do something. All they seem to do is offer impotent bromides and snake oil salves that do nothing but appease their base.
