Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.PCS 1/10/84; site ahuta.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxn!mhuxj!houxm!ahuta!dls From: dls@ahuta.UUCP (d.skran) Newsgroups: net.women Subject: Re: Men/Hate, Women/Love. Message-ID: <247@ahuta.UUCP> Date: Wed, 19-Dec-84 22:48:20 EST Article-I.D.: ahuta.247 Posted: Wed Dec 19 22:48:20 1984 Date-Received: Thu, 20-Dec-84 23:41:20 EST References: <1038@hcrvx1.UUCP> Organization: AT&T Information Systems Labs, Holmdel NJ Lines: 47 CC: skran, ecl REFERENCES: <1038@hcrvx1.UUCP> I have been generally impressed by Tracy's contribution's, and am so here as well, but would like to continue in this direction further. Lately(last 20 years) it has become intellectually fashionable, especially among environmentalists, to advocate "Eastern" or "feminine" values over "Western" or "masculine" values. Feminists, and indeed many people on this net, seem to associate violence and aggression mainly with men, and feel that mankind's best hope lies in curbing aggressive behavior. Underlying all this is a thread that suggests we should strive to "cooperate" with nature, and the aggression is generally contraproductive. I suggest this this attitude is overly simple-minded. Human beings, men an women alike, have within themselves a tremendous range of possibilities, ranging from the affectionate care of a small child to ruthless genocidal violence. Over millions of years of changing conditions, we have survived, not by always "cooperating" or by always "dominating" but by doing each AS APPROPRIATE. Flexibility has been our hallmark. True liberation is more than men learning to be supportive and nurturing(as appropriate), it is women learning to be aggressive and violent(as appropriate). I strongly suspect that, as has been pointed out by others on the net, that when women do ascend to positions of "real power" and hold the world in their hands, their behavior will be remarkably like that of men in similar positions. They will discover that a policy of "cooperation" with all enemies is as foolish as men have discovered that "constant attack" is suicidal. In the end, men and women are far more alike that we may want to admit. We have the same potential for love. The same potential for awesome, ruthless, fiendishly clever violence. And we live in the same world, with the same problems. Over-population. Crazy people with bombs. Periodic ice ages. Possibly asteroid impacts. Pollution. We will need to be aggressive and cooperative to survive. There is no single ultimate paradigm for approaching the universe. Once more: aggression is not just a male invention. It is a strategy for survival that WORKS. So is cooperation. We can't afford to leave either one behind. Dale ahuta!dls