cynthiamarie
Posts: 205
Joined: 3/11/2005 From: Bluefield, WV, USA Status: offline
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Good points. I never spent time in the service, though my sister did...and went through Hell for being female. Society pays for the ones who do these things and "gets away with it"...I've known many people whose PTSD and panic attacks are so bad that they can't work, and live on SSI. quote:
The priesthood who takes boys right as they enter puberty and tell them they can't have sex but never tell them how to handle their normal urges and a sexless life. THEN when they do sin, they cast them out of the church, excuse me, isn't sin their business. Good point about priests...but if the "normal" sexual urges they couldn't handle concerned unmentionables, then I could understand having them removed from the priesthood. Let's hope that someday they will decide to add this to their training. quote:
Other examples of created situations, big business and production jobs that create repetive injuries, yet will tell you if you can't do they job find another one. I fractured my back at my job over 20 years ago, and was told by work comp doctors that it was merely "extensive tendon and ligament damage". I lost everything. The boxes of syrups for soft drinks were at least 40 lbs each, stacked on top of each other 6 or 8 high, and at least 4 rows wide, and the cardboard would bend. There were no supporting racks, ones had to be pulled out when empty wherever they were in this stackup, and replaced. The top curved forward one day and was going to fall on me, and I lunged to support it to protect myself, and fractured my upper back. *This showed up on x-rays done in a hospital, years later, that were stronger than ones done in a doctor's office.* Why should they bother to care? They're not responsible for taking care of the problems they know their employment creates. Reminds me of how many people treated indentured servants...used them up completely in the 7 years they were owned...because the temporary owner/employer didn't have to live with the results of his handiwork. Okay, back on topic...yes, I see the parallel between how my sister *and other relatives I have who are in different branches of the armed forces* felt about being in the Army...her uniform, her country, and the flag...and how some feel about their collar and service and devotion to their Master or Mistress. I haven't felt that way about my country, until I started reading the books of Gor. Amazing that our schools are supposed to teach us to be citizens, and we pledge our allegience to our flag daily in elementary school...but it took sci-fi books to make me FEEL the significance of what I had spent so many years merely...moving my lips as was expected of me, but not understanding. quote:
I'm taking quotes from book two, Outlaw of Gor, by John Norman: For the Gorean, though he seldom speaks of these things, a city is more than brick and marble, cylinders and bridges. It is not simply a place, a geographical location in which men have seen fit to build their dwellings, a collection of structures where they may most conveniently conduct their affairs. The Gorean senses, or believes, that a city cannot be simply identified with its natural elements, which undergo their transformations even as do the cells of a human body. For them a city is almost a living thing, or more than a living thing. It is an entity with a history, as stones and rivers do not have a history; it is an entity with a tradition, a heritage, customs, practices, character, intentions, hopes. When a Gorean says, for example, that he is of Ar, or Ko-ro-ba, he is doing a great deal more than informing you of his place of residence. The Goreans generally, though there are exceptions, particularly the Caste of Initiates, do not believe in immortality. Accordingly, to be of a city is, in a sense, to have been a part of something less perishable than oneself, something divine in the sense of undying, Of course, as every Gorean knows, cities too are mortal, for cities can be destroyed as well as men. And this perhaps makes them love their cities the more, for they know that their city, like themselves, is subject to mortal termination. quote:
And his main character, who had been taken to Gor and then returned to Earth for a time...was drunk and said this about Manhattan: "This is a great city," said Cabot, "and yet it is not loved. "How many are there here who would die for this city? How many who would defend to the death its perimeters? How many who would submit to torture on its behalf?" "This city is not loved," he said. "Or it would not be used as it is, kept as it is." Each city state was in effect a country, and my sister feels this way about ours. She would fight and die for our country even though she has been out of the Army for years. (I would feel this way too...but I have a dependent child and am not a warrior. ) For the last part, I can feel that this is what's wrong with my city...no pride, loyalty, love for it, no careful tending. Back to the comparison between a collar *what it represents to some*, and what others feel for their "home stone"...the pride, loyalty, commitment, love, and careful tending can be the same.
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