Tuesday 30 July 2013

Post-feminism

Not That Girl | Clarissa's Blog

I can't understand the need for this kind of satire anymore, but okay.  I think that what is crazy is the way that right wingers commonly interact with women,  but if you are gazing at the world through a gauze of metaphysics, this can be hard to see.  Once you start to see, however, the other party can feel disturbed by the revelation that certain types of thinking were contrived rather than natural.  You really do need to hone your perceptual skills to see what it going on, though, like honing your skills to observe a feint in boxing.  Sometimes metaphysics can seem like common sense, even though it distorts reality substantially.  The most deceptive kind of metaphysics is that which appears to be cajoling you into accepting a more real form of reality,whilst actually undermining you.   It can be quite subtle and may not even be intentionally manipulative.  For example, For instance, someone recently addressed me with language that suggested we ought to adjust ourselves to accept the limits of "real people in the real world".  My response was:  "Well maybe you think I am asking you to give me some tips about these real people who exist in the real world?"   Is it possible that I am 45 and have not yet come upon these people?

Had I been a different person -- all moral and earnest and willing to be guided -- I might have been swindled out of self-reliance to the point of allowing another person to see for me.   A kind of genteel good will of that sort can lead one astray.

There are other tricks a master magician can use like the demand that one not focus excessively on oneself.   On the surface, that seems like a reasonable injunction, but it's not what is on the surface that matters.   It's just the beginning of the undermining, where one learns not to take oneself or one's needs seriously.  One has to take seriously only the needs of those nebulous "real people in the real world".   As for oneself, one has slipped and lost one's foothold in reality.  One is no longer one of those "real people" and one no longer trusts oneself to know what "the real world" is.

A boxer should keep grounded -- never be led in by a feint.

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Cultural barriers to objectivity