Society: January 2008 Archives

I received a chain letter saying that we should support our troops. The idea is that they put their lives on the line in order that the rest of us continue to enjoy the freedoms that we have. We should respect that, I think, but what if all the fighting and dying they do does NOT ensure our freedoms, or anything else that actually has to do with Canadian freedom (or American, or whatever)? What if the things we have and will have are the results of diplomacy, secret business dealings or other things that the average Canadian does not or more likely, cannot get involved in? What if the fighting and killing is just a diversion while the real stuff happens behind closed doors?

What if our troops risk their lives for nothing? What if their sacrifice does nothing?

This is why I have never fully been able to get behind the military. I despair that they and the rest of us are being lied to. Do we know for sure that the peacekeeping efforts are actually having positive results for Canadians or whoever they are supposed to protect? It's not that I don't trust the military, necessarily. Most of the people there believe (I assume) in an ideal. In what they are supposed to be fighting for, the good fight. But their leaders? The politicians? Who knows what their motivations are? I certainly do not.

I am going to send this entry to the one that sent me that chain letter and see how they react.

What the hell does "X is better than Y" mean when X and Y are people and there are no other quantifiers? Because as far as I know, it means nothing.

Sometimes is feels as though either I don't live in the real world, or this "real world" isn't real at all. For example, it seems as though it's accepted that most women fake orgasms sometimes for various reasons (I admit, I don't care about the reasons since I hate the idea of this kind of deceit, and perhaps I may be wrong for this view), or that it's all up to the man to bring the woman to orgasm (I've never felt responsible for a woman's orgasm, actually. When it's happened, I always thought that she did a good job.). But yet whenever I ask a woman if she's ever faked, I always get the same answer. "No, NEVER! Because that's bullshit!". Are most of these women that I know lying? It's possible. Just because you are friendly with someone (or sleeping with them, apparently) doesn't mean that they won't lie to you. People are probably more likely to lie to you if you are sleeping with them, in fact. You can debate that one in the comments.

There are other examples of this, of many groups of people saying things about a particular group that most other groups seems to just know, yet when I ask a member of said group to admit that they exhibit those characteristics, or that behaviour, no one will admit it. And the behaviour isn't necessarily shameful, especially since it is talked about so freely. I wish I could think of more examples where I ask members of the discussed group if they do the things they are accused of and they all deny it, but I can't. I've forgotten. (I'm at work right now, and I get distracted.) I suppose that I could use the example of black people committing crimes, or being surprisingly articulate, but those are topics that are highly charged, maybe even loaded (if someone could give me a good definition of what a "loaded" topic or question is, that would be appreciated. Like so many things, you think you might know what something is, but you are slightly or way off.). I'm talking about something more vanilla, not hot topics that make people emotional and irate, but little things.

Perhaps that's where you can come in. I can't think of any more of these little things at the moment, but maybe you can. And if you are a woman, do you every fake it?