Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/5/84; site randvax.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!bellcore!decvax!tektronix!hplabs!sdcrdcf!randvax!edhall From: edhall@randvax.UUCP (Ed Hall) Newsgroups: net.women,net.singles Subject: Re: Re: recent (beastly) articles Message-ID: <2244@randvax.UUCP> Date: Thu, 10-Jan-85 19:43:02 EST Article-I.D.: randvax.2244 Posted: Thu Jan 10 19:43:02 1985 Date-Received: Mon, 14-Jan-85 03:30:14 EST References: <282@sftri.UUCP> <1894@sun.uucp> <2215@randvax.UUCP> <784@gloria.UUCP> Organization: Rand Corp., Santa Monica Lines: 28 Xref: watmath net.women:4072 net.singles:5347 > > I suspect there is a problem here (a friend calls it ``the `wimpification' > > of the American male''), but I don't think it is just a male problem. I > > think it is the result of the increasingly self-concious nature of the > > American psyche: our intense obsession with ``self-image'', and with such > > self-centered emotions as guilt, greed, and vengence. > > Guilt, greed, and vengeance are not emotions but learned attitudes. A child > learns very quickly that he "should be ashamed of himself," or should love > to get things, or must not let the other fellow "get away with it." The > child who does not learn these things will be better off as an adult. > I fully agree with you; I suspect our differences are semantic. My point was that these conditioned emotional reactions (i.e. ``attitudes'') are nothing but manifestations of culturally-fostered self-obssession: guilt (reaction to a self-damaged self-image), greed (accumulation of objects-- and they can be people considered as objects--to inflate self-worth) or vengence (reaction to other-damaged self-image). They are learned responses, usually as a reaction to arbitrary parental domination and neglect. I'm sure you can add other, similar ones (e.g. jealousy, pleasure at deception, and so forth). > . . . . > -- > Col. G. L. Sicherman -Ed Hall decvax!randvax!edhall