I was asked by someone to check out a Twitter and WordPress site as that person thought I might ‘have some interesting opinions’ on it.
Ahem!
Soap box set up.
I recently took part in Opinionated Man’s Project O . It gave people from all over the world the opportunity to share opinions and life and cultural experiences. A template of questions was given to allow all participants the opportunity to operate from the same framework while, at the same time, allowing scope for diversity in responses.
One of the questions:-
Question 6: If you could share an opinion on a single international incident or topic that you either feel strongly about or that might not be known to the rest of the world what would it be? You have our attention.
“I get so pissed that power corrupts and that people seek power for self-seeking ends. I get pissed that politics and religion are used to perpetuate injustice the world over. I despise adults who hurt children in any way, shape or form. I could probably throttle those who are so stupid that they actually believe their own hype about what matters. Love matters. And I don’t mean sexual love (although, mmmm). As much as eros love is grand, the love I speak of does dare to say its name. It encompasses all who hold it dear. Or not. It forgives and shows mercy. It respects even while it does not understand. That might be more than one, do you think? Or might they all be rolled up into one? You think.”
The above was my own response. And I stand by it.
But the responses by others evoked such admiration from me for the many issues that people care about the world over. A beautiful young mind from Pakistan deeply concerned at the rape culture in her country.
Others were concerned about peace, about intervention in other nations, about children and young people who suffer abuse at the hands of others. Others again spoke of gender diversity and discrimination and horrific violence, of media and propaganda, of food and world greed and hunger. The topics covered were huge. As huge as this planet of ours still is, despite seemingly becoming smaller in terms of news and communication.
The one thing that almost all participants had (and I haven’t even finished reading them all yet) was a compassion and understanding and a great desire to do right by the people of their nation and the world at large. I was overcome with the huge outpouring of love, not to mention intelligence, at the responses given from many adults. And, notably, many young people whose minds, their ability to articulate, their vision, their sense of responsibility and their awesome humanity filled me with great hope for our future world.
A real eye opener. A beautiful and hopeful eye opener. To know that the future of our world lies in the hands of so many who care, so many young and beautiful minds and souls.
Awesome.
And then. Oh dear. I was directed to, I am ashamed to say, the Twitter and WordPress account of a fellow Scot. And that is the end of all connection I would lay claim to. Even that one is embarrassing to me.
While mature and young global citizens voiced opinions on genuine concerns with maturity and compassionate understanding, I have today read something that causes me great regret at the distorted upbringing of someone who can only be described as a childish 20 year old whose voice and experience of life and trials obviously match so well. None to speak of.
It is his right to an opinion. A big part of what Project O was all about. To raise awareness, where possible, to the vast differences in freedoms enjoyed in many different nations. It enlightened the reader, in a way no press coverage could, to real people and real opinion.
I did not agree with all of them. That’s the way things are and should be. We agree to differ if we cannot see the reasoning behind another’s words.
What I am so sad about concerning this other young man is his complete apparent inability to invest any human or Christian mercy or compassion in his opinions and judgements. And his opinions are judgemental. Very judgemental and completely lacking in any real knowledge of the world or people.
To live in such an isolated balloon of misunderstanding does indeed speak poorly for our education system. And also, sadly, the type of upbringing that he seems to have experienced.
His own words.
“The 21st Century Feminist is typically a privileged University student with political views somewhere to the left of Stalin. She is young, usually early 20s, with virtually no life experience at all but will talk to you in such a way that suggests she was marching alongside the suffragettes. She is usually studying something ‘arty’, like Women’s Studies or Literature, and as I said before, she does not bother thinking about actual women’s issues. Because she has so much time on her hands – too much of it, you might say – she instead imagines sexism that isn’t there and sees misogynistic men who do not exist. It is a paranormal delusion so disturbing to witness that it makes the boy from The Sixth Sense look mentally stable.”
“Our culture is sexualised by both men and women; it’s the true essence of equality. There are half naked women dancing in theBlurred Lines video. There would be no Page Three if there were no topless women to photograph. Girls go on nights out dressed in progressively less clothes with each passing year. If men like Robin Thicke are actually promoting a misogynistic rape culture then they have millions of women happily endorsing it. Perhaps, if the 21st Century Feminist took a moment between lectures and Facebook rants to calm down and stop being so damn irritating, then she would realise this. Instead, she blames men for everything hence why most women tuned out long ago and unsubscribed from her Facebook page without telling her. The 21st Century Feminist is the boring friend who tags along to the party, cradles a glass of water and refuses to dance. She is faced with two choices. She could tell her scantily-clad friends to cover themselves up and stop making women look so bad. Or alternatively, she could try and stop being such a prude, let her hair down and have fun. After all, Blurred Lines just came on.”
Unless I am very much mistaken, rape is a crime committed mainly by men against women and men. It is a violent, aggressive act that is perpetrated against people who do not ‘ask for it’, no matter what they are wearing.
I celebrate sexuality and sensuality. It is part of the human condition and is as much a part of our minds as our bodies. Men and women celebrate these elements of our nature. It is evident in the world around us. It may be evoked by many things that stimulate our senses.
BUT, anything which seeks to trivialise or diminish the raising of awareness of rape – this affrontal to privacy and decency; this violation of another’s innermost being – should be answered at all times.
About the song, ‘Blurred Lines’. I listened to it. Quite a good beat. Lyrics essentially celebrate desire and sexuality. But there are some one or two lines of concern. Not the worst I’ve ever heard from male or female artist.
Where the young man in question comments on the fact that a song doesn’t make a person rape no more than a movie motivates to kill, he’s quite right. Someone who has a mind to has a mind to.
But it should never be trivialised. Neither by feminists nor men or women of any age.
Neither should the issues of teen mothers, or bullies or overeaters or anything else he chooses to wrap his tongue around.
So, young man, no young, foolish, foolish boy. Go and think again please at what passes as some of your ‘opinions’ and how they came to be formed.
If the world is to be left in the hands of the young I would just as soon it were to be in the hands of the likes of those from Project O as opposed to this person who believes he is, ‘on the right track’.
It is his right to express opinion but truly a classic case of misinformed opinion. In my opinion.
And, sadly, a Scot. Woe is me.
scottishmomus 