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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
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Organization: AT&T Information Systems Labs, Holmdel NJ
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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