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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
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Posted: Thu Jan 10 19:43:02 1985
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> > 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