repost

An alien aspect of Western consciousness is the notion that so long as a person is a woman, she is not entitled to our respect.  She can make claims on our affection, on our sense of responsibility (if lucky), but respect is not ever something she might hope to gain.

I can reconcile myself to that principle only on the basis that I do not find merit in receiving respect from those undeserving of mine.  I acknowledge the throwing of the gauntlet from the "other" side and I can do nothing but treat it seriously.   Consequently, I don't work to gain applause; I don't expect to receive any.

I'm cool with that.  For deep personal satisfaction I seek neither an identity nor acknowledgement.  I have both in abundance -- basically through a stroke of luck:  my early childhood years were very happy.

Respect me or don't, but I'm satisfied I have a corner on a few things that are true.

The truth is nothing more than nourishing waste.  Indeed, I am a sort of plant; a kind of vegetation.

I have discovered that so long as one has nourishing experiences, life goes along just fine.  There is no mystery to this.   It's the accumulative result of having overthrown a mystery:  I go on.

I can't speak to biology since the direction of my eyes has always been to a point higher than this.  There's a middle-brow identity that concerns itself with reproduction and attraction.  This has to do with the mammalian function and both men and women are susceptible to using reason in harness to their reproductive urges.This was my conclusion on returning from the gloomy realm of YouTube.

Everything stated in respect to women (honor killings) is met with "what about the men who also have died at various times in history!"

That's the sound of the mammalian brain, that thinks little in terms of righteousness or real honor, but is profoundly take up with issue of pro-generation and receiving enough social and material nourishment to fulfill this biological task.  Biology is everything--  as if there could not be an intellectual realm beyond it.

I know the demand for women to perform this biological role is pressing.  It is at the source of the proclamation that women do not deserve respect.  That's because "respect" is high-minded and women who evaluate themselves too highly will not be brought down low to perform a function that is restrictively biological.   Biological pragmatism therefore insists that women ought not to demand societal respect.

I'm cool with that, really.   I don't demand it, nor expect it.

Had I lived in a society where hierarchy was predicated on something other than biology, I would expect it.  But biology has its own mode of operation -- and, indeed, its own logic.   The human species must reproduce.  That is its sole imperative.

Consequently, I don't expect your respect.

There's a level of living where you transcend the need for respect and just learn to be the respecter -- of life on its own terms.

The middle-brow perspective will always be hostile to my position, most of all because it cannot understand it.   I'm always expecting that biology is not the most determining factor in human relations.  This, to the mammalian mind, is incomprehensible.  Thus, I do not gain any respect, nor should I hope to gain any.

I'm cool with that.

I am a plant; some kind of vegetation -- as such, I need my own lights to survive the ordeal of middle class and middle brow conceptions.

I don't expect much.

I expect very little.

If you were to give me a little less than little, I would still expect it, more than likely.

Nothing at all would really suit me. 

I don't require a lot.

I'm not partisan and will even concede that killing female teenagers for having lust in the eye and men having to go to war are both events that lead to death.

We ought to handle the consequences of historical misfortune as best we can.   Let's get rid of all human authorities, if necessary. 

I do not mind.