On Fri, Apr 11, 2014 at 2:01 PM, Steve Smith <sasm...@swcp.com> wrote:
> Roger - > > Are our only options extremes such as all rushing headlong to become >> the new "robber barons" ourselves, based on your (possible) ability/agility >> to manipulate said "new social manifold" (great term by the way, unless it >> is just another way avoiding saying "landscape";) or taking the oppressive >> route as told in Vonnegut's tale of imposed social equality through >> handicapping everyone down to a least common denominator. >> >> Wow. > > The complaints that I hear are that women and people of color are > routinely subjected to verbal abuse, harassment, threats of violence, and > violence; african american males spend their lives in prison while > privileged white males get slapped on the wrist for the same infractions. > So society currently imposes drastic, life threatening handicaps on the > disadvantaged. > > The only fear that this engenders in you is that someone might impose > handicaps on you, too? That would be an oppressive route? > > No, what you read is my morbid fascination running off to an extrema, at > the nudging of Vonnegut when I was very young. And it was not and is not > restricted to SWMs by any means. I'm worried about knee jerk reactions in > *any* and all directions, not just toward SWMs. > > Steve -- I was mostly startled by how lame the "Harrison Bergeron" story becomes when presented as an argument against remedying structural discrimination. Even if the story attempted to be an equal opportunity handicapper, its point was how unfair such a regime would be to the genius, 7 foot tall, straight white male character who gets shot down by a foaming at the mouth woman bureaucrat when he rebels against the system. Makes Vonnegut sound a bit of a misogynist troll when you run it together like that. There's been a war going on among science fiction writers very much on this point -- google "sfwa controversy" for background -- which has come to accusations of censorship and abridgement of free speech because non-SWM complaints are being acted on. I wouldn't worry about knee jerk reactions on this subject, you'll probably need replacement knee joints before anything changes. -- rec --
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