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Leonidas -> RE: Gorean, novel for teens, or lifestyle???? (3/1/2005 3:15:28 AM)
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Hello
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Last year, there was a case here in Australia where a woman had been kept in the garage for 3 years. No bathing facilities other than the laundry tub, and her bed consisted of 2 sheets of cardboard on the concrete floor. The whole thing came out when he tried to register her for unemployment benefits and the guy at Centrelink got suspicious and brought in the police. He was charged with a range of charges and is currently spending 6 to 8 in prison.
It's extremely tough to draw many conclusions about a case like this based on a paragraph, Overlord. Especially in Australia where, if I'm not mistaken, running a website like Collarme would be a crime. But, lets say for the sake of argument that the woman was in fact being treated inhumanely by any reasonable standard. In that case, all you've pointed out is that human abuse is a crime in most places. So is animal abuse.
Some people shouldn't own a human. Some people shouldn't own a puppy. Why someone would own a puppy, just as an example, and leave it chained in the yard, feed it seldom, let it sleep in its own shit, then beat it if it barks or cries is beyond me. I personally cannot fathom what satisfaction they'd derive from owning the puppy and keeping it like that, unless it is in the puppy's suffering itself, and their power to inflict it. It does go on all the time, however.
So, we have laws against things like that. If you're too sick a puppy to own a puppy yourself, you'd better not, sayeth the collective voice of society. If the woman in question gave her life over to a man whose principal reason for taking her was to see her suffer, because he enjoys inflicting suffering and the feeling of power that gives him then the way that she was treated shouldn't be a big suprise to anyone. He owned a human when he probably shouldn't even own a puppy.
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The news services didn't mention it, but the word was he was Gorean.
No, strike that... He lived the Gorean lifestyle.
Well, lets put aside for a moment that this is rumor by definition and that you are happily spreading it here. It begs the question whose Gorean lifestyle? I could keep a woman locked in the garage and call that the Pakastani lifestyle I suppose, and by my own personal definition of "Pakistani lifestyle" I suppose it would be. Pakistanis would probably have something to say about my personal definition it should it come to light, however. There is actually a pretty good sized Gorean contingent in Australia. I would be very suprised if a significant number of their slaves are sleeping unwashed on cardboard in the garage tonight.
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What I'm trying to say is that Gor is at best radical and open to abuse of the very negative kind. I hasten to add that to me this a statement of fact, rather than a criticism.
Our way is more or less incompatible with sadism, is what you've actually pointed out. We knew that. In fact we often catch heat for saying so in mixed company like this. Don't get me wrong, there are responsible sadists. Our girls, however, do not have the benefit of contracts, stated limits, safewords, or any of the other safeguards that responsible sadists put in place to keep their proclivity for inflicting suffering in check. The vast majority of men who gravitate to the Gorean side of the dance hall aren't sadistic. We own female slaves for reasons other than the thrill of inflicting pain and suffering, by in large. In the odd instance that a sadist also decides he's a Gorean, it can turn dangerous (and illegal) quickly. No news there.
In a Gorean community setting we have an eye out for sadists, and we are generally quick to show a man the door if he proves that that is his bent. It's not that we are passing judgment on his "kink" (well, OK, maybe some of us are), but we do feel that sadism needs to be practiced in a different ethical framework than ours.
Thanks for the lesson. Hope you enjoyed one in return.
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