People starting to trust each-other instead of blindly following the rule of the land was what transformed feudalism into ‘capitalism’/free market/democracy.
That came to be when populations happening to inhabit a certain area morphed into nations = people developed enough understanding about their fellow countryman as to trust them.
Nowadays capital no longer signifies trust but a mere pile of money and democracy has devolved into a mere ritual.
This is why nationalism has degenerated from ‘I know/trust you so let’s do business together’ into ‘I’m afraid of everybody else so I need you to guard my back’.

It seems that people have finally started to understand what rape really means and to care about the victims.

But why rape in the first place?

When considering this subject we need to clearly define the concepts if we really what to understand what all it’s about.
Sometimes people get carried away. Maybe under some ‘influence’, she (half) willingly agrees at first and gets cold feet at some point but he doesn’t stop. That is indeed rape and should be punished as such but that is not the kind of rape I’m concerned about now.
What I had in mind when starting this is the ‘predatory’ rape. That kind of rape that is planned before hand by the perpetrator and cannot, under any circumstances, be treated with any degree of understanding. For instance gang or serial rape.

At this moment I feel the need to draw your attention to some less obvious kinds of predatory rape. For example the kind of ‘big game hunting’ that is going on now in Africa. Regardless of who does it. Law abiding citizens who pay for their permits and then bend the rules or poachers who act in a completely callous manner.

Another kind of predatory rape that is less discussed about is prostitution. Some of you will tell me that whatever takes place between consenting adults (two or even more) is nobody’s business. True enough but have you considered the role played by the pimp? You know, that guy who under the pretext of taking care of the ‘sexual worker’ exploits her savagely? Have you noticed that most of the prostitutes come from someplace else and have usually been lured under some false pretexts? That so many of them are very young and not so bright?
I can’t stop wondering what kind of satisfaction can be had during or after such an encounter… Specially today when there are so many single’s bars and internet dating services… But there one has to pass a certain exam, the partner has to agree, has to find you at least acceptable. There is a certain risk that you might be found wanting. While when hiring a prostitute there is no such risk. She has no say about her ‘clients’. And that’s why this IS rape.

So could it be that rape, predatory rape, is an action through which the rapist proves to himself that he is in ‘total control’?
And in the case of gang rapes – which are usually initiated and led by one of the gang members, very seldom this kind of things happen ‘spontaneously’ – the initiator does it to prove not only to himself but also to the rest of the gang who is the ‘top dog’.

To be continued.

dolce-gabbana-gang-bang

Some 30 years ago I stumbled upon a book by Desmond Morris.

The Naked Ape.

I read it overnight because next day it had to be returned to its owner. Books published in their original languages were hard to come by in communist Romania…
Little did I know at that time that my interests will slowly shift from Mechanical Engineering to Sociology and then on to decision making… Anyway…
In that book Morris tries to convince us that women have so many periods because in this way they are a lot readier to receive their mates, thus ensuring a tighter bond inside the couple. In turn this is beneficial in an evolutionary sense because a tightly knit couple is better suited for raising the kind of slow growing children that is characteristic for the human species.
In short Morris proposes that monogamy was a step forward in human evolution.
I tend to agree with him and I even have a further argument. Imagine what would happen if a small number of alpha males would ‘corral’ – one way or another – most of the available nubile women, as it’s the case with the chimps or the gorillas. Do you think the rest of the males would be able to cooperate in any way towards the survival of the community they belong to or they’d be constantly obsessing about how to get laid?

Which brings me to my subject.

Emile Durkheim used suicide as a pretext to introduce us to his theory about social solidarity and the social function played by what we consider to be a crime.
Durkheim’s research had led him to see suicide as an individual decision but one which is heavily influenced by the cultural medium to which the decision maker belongs. More over, the same line of thinking produced his conclusion that a society must keep a fine balance between ‘solidarity/intolerance’ and ‘laisez-faire’. One that is too intolerant drastically reduces its own ability to adapt to changes that occur in its ‘environment’ while those that do not care about the fate of their members will eventually auto-dissolve.

What if incidence of rape was to be studied in the same light?

Bill Cosby – a man who, let’s face it, could have had legions of willing women – is accused  to have drugged and raped some 40 women in more than 30 years before anything came to public notice.
Jimmy Savile, a British “larger-than-life character”, used “his celebrity status and fund-raising activity to gain uncontrolled access to vulnerable people across six decades” and to unabashedly rape them.
Rape not only occurs randomly in war time but has also been used as a weapon:
Sexual violence is also used to destabilize communities and sow terror”.
Meanwhile France – Durkheim’s own Motherland – has become the stage for some 7000 ‘tournantes’ every year. The English term for ‘tournant’ being gang rape.

As Durkheim said more than a hundred years ago suicide is indeed an individual act/decision but it’s incidence is heavily influenced by what happens around that person.
Same thing is valid for rape. A rape appears at the intersection between the history/experience/upbringing of the rapist, the social/cultural milieu in which he lives and his ‘on the spot’ decision.

Sex sells.
“It’s been said that as human beings, we have a lizard or reptilian brain that responds to certain primal urges. Food is one. Sex and reproduction is definitely another. This underlying, pre-programmed disposition to respond to sexual imagery is so strong, it has been used for over 100 years in advertising. And the industry, while abusing it more and more, would be foolish to ignore the draw of sexual and erotic messaging.”

How far are we willing to go in order to make a sale? As far as Dolce and Gabbana went when they published the picture above?

Morris said that our first step towards humanity was to change our very physiology in order to promote (at least an apparent) monogamy. It seems that we are now altering our culture in order to sell more…

Gang Rape taken to the next level… Manipulation went wild…

There are a lot of definitions available for these concepts. I’ve found out that Google offers the blandest ones so I’ll use those. You’ll understand why.

a. “An experience involving the apparent perception of something not present
b. “An extraordinary and welcome event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws and is therefore attributed to a divine agency.”
c. “An optical illusion caused by atmospheric conditions, especially the appearance of a sheet of water in a desert or on a hot road caused by the refraction of light from the sky by heated air.

If we follow the ‘dispassionate’ line used by Google we’ll notice that the ‘real’ problem is us, not a. b. or c.

We are the ones who are not able to figure out the source of the perception in a, the explanation for what happens in b and to reconcile what we know with what we see in c.

More than 35 years ago, while in college, I had to study ‘Marxism’. It was considered a science by the communists and all students had to take that class.
Marxism is a reaction against the idealist thesis that reality consists entirely of minds or spirits and of their experiences or ideas. The materialist conception of history, Marx and Engels contend, postulates the existence of an objective, concrete reality that is independent of human consciousness and is also its determinant“.

For a future engineer, and one that wasn’t particularly concerned with religion, the concept seemed appealing.
Something was nagging me though. In time I understood that Marx was making a huge mistake when conflating ‘objective’ with ‘real’ and individual consciousness with the collective one.
Also what he termed ‘reality’ is not that independent from consciousness as he would liked it to be.

I’ll start with the second idea.

We coined the term/concept of reality.
How’s that for ‘real’ independence?

Is there anything outside my individual knowledge/consciousness?
A lot.
Do I care?
Sometimes yes but most of it is both absolutely inconsequential for me and way out of my grasp. So my accepting its very existence depends decisively on ‘hearsay’ and faith…

Is there anything outside our collective knowledge/consciousness?
Probably yes. Hard to believe that we already know everything, right? Particularly since we discover something new each moment…
‘We discover’?!?
So it’s us who are ‘conquering’ more and more ‘reality’?!?
Wasn’t it supposed to be independent from us?

OK, you probably got it, I won’t bother you anymore with this.

Let me go back to ‘objective’ versus ‘real’.

Not influenced by personal feelings or opinions.
Actually existing as a thing or occurring in fact; not imagined or supposed.”

If we gather five children who haven’t yet seen a tarmac road scorched by the July Sun and take them to Arizona they’ll tell us, excitedly but objectively, that the road is boiling out there near the horizon.
We, the grown ups, know that’s a mirage. For them, it’s a miracle.
For a single child – one that knows the concept, of course – it might seem a hallucination, specially if he doesn’t have another person to speak to about what he sees.

Some independence… But wait, there’s more.

You are reading this on a computer. (If you call it a smartphone you are deluding yourself. It’s a computer that you can also use as a phone). Is it ‘really’ real?
According to Marx, I mean.
If your consciousness hasn’t yet digested effectively its ‘user manual’ that computer is little more than an useless  piece of junk… Not to mention the fact that its processor would still be a little pile of sand if not for an entire string of consciousnesses – from INTEL’s CEO to the driver who delivered it to the assembly plant and they are only a few of those involved in the process.

The fact is that we change the reality around us. We build cities, roads to connect them and power plants so we can cool our homes in summer.

And then we pretend reality is independent from us.
Who’s delusional now?

“i wish i could talk to someone. i wish i could talk to my parents about all the things ive seen. theres so much i dont understand and so much that hurts to have seen. its like my eyes are directly related to my heart and my heart has been the heart of an old man for a long time.”

tenyearoldkevin's avatartenyearoldkevin

kevins keyboardmy name is kevin. im 10 today. i had to lie, of course, when i went to get my email address and when i went to start this blog, and when i went to open my first facebook account. i had to pretend i was 20.  why? so i could be a ‘person’.

you see, 10 year olds aren’t real people yet. we can’t write what we want. we cant say what we want. we can’t have facebook. we can’t do fuck all. and yet, believe me, ive SEEN it all when my parents were out of the room. and when my teachers were out of the room.

parent, teachers, all of them are so so sadly messed up. they say they want to ‘protect’ us from things by blocking websites at school and by our parents putting computers in the kitchen so they can peek over our shoulders when…

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Ilie Badescu, unul dintre stalpii sociologiei contemporane romanesti, ne atrage atentia ca “…marile revolutii se dezmiarda in mediul cel mai reactionar cu putinta. Marile reactii, procesele reactionare, sunt tot atat de necesare, ba poate ca acestea sunt, pana la urma, cele care confera sens, atat cat poate fi acesta, oricaror revolutii”. (Enciclopedia Sociologiei, 2005, Vol 1, pg 6)

Spunerea poate parea banala.
Pana la urma despre acelasi concept vorbeste ‘Legea a treia’ a lui Newton: “atunci când un corp acționează asupra altui corp cu o forță (numită forță de acțiune), cel de-al doilea corp acționează și el asupra primului cu o forță (numită forță de reacțiune) de aceeași mărime și de aceeași direcție, dar de sens contrar.”, legea inductiei electromagnetice: “Eu, curentul cel indus, / Totdeauna m-am opus / Cauzei ce m-a produs.“, teoria evolutiei a lui Darwin: ‘speciile supravietuiesc doar in masura in care reactioneaza adecvat la schimbarile din mediul in care traiesc‘ precum si “Construirea sociala a realitatii” de Berger si Luckmann.

Evident ca sunt deosebiri calitative. Daca in primele trei cazuri reactiile sunt de tip ‘automat’ – ‘specificate’ de legile valabile in cazul fiecarui domeniu – in  cea de a patra situatie ‘reactiile’ sunt modelate de liberul arbitru al persoanelor implicate in interactiune.

Ei bine, modul in care Ilie Badescu prezinta acest concept – ‘inainte’ si ‘dupa’ – este extrem de important in intelegerea a ceea ce este ‘schimbarea sociala’. Revolutiile apar in mijlocul si din cauza unor medii reactionare iar in urma fiecare dintre ele ‘supravietuitorii’ reactioneza la ceea ce s-a intamplat si isi recladesc societatea. Cu alte cuvinte daca ‘reactiunea’ initiala ar fi fost mai putin intensa lucrurile ar fi putut fi schimbate treptat, fara sa fie nevoie de o ‘revolutie’ in adevaratul sens al cuvantului. la fel, pentru ca o revolutie sa nu se iroseasca este nevoie ca ‘reactiunea’ sa fie adecvata la motivele care au produs acea rasturnare de situatie.

Genul asta de analiza poate fi facut si pe evenimente mai marunte iar concluziile desprinse s-ar putea sa fie surprinzatoare.

In urma cu aproape un an o fata a fost ‘condusa’ pe un camp unde a intretinut relatii sexuale cu 6 tineri dupa care a fost condusa pe un alt camp unde celor 6 li s-a alaturat un al 7 iar fata a mai indurat inca un calvar. Dupa ce a ajuns acasa tanara i-a acuzat pe cei 7 de viol iar trei dintre ei au recunoscut faptele. Acum toti sunt acasa, sub control judiciar, si isi asteapta procesul.

Fapta mi se pare barbara dar nu despre asta am de gand sa vorbesc acum ci despre modul in care reactiile noastre releva amanunte interesante despre societatea in care traim.

Consatenii agresorilor sar in apararea acestora, „Şapte băieţi de oameni gospodari” si o desfiinteaza pe victima: „Aşa-i trebuie, dacă s-a urcat în maşină cu şapte. Dacă era fată cuminte nu păţea nimic”. Trecand peste ‘amanuntul’ ca fata s-a urcat in masina cu doar doi dintre agresori – unul dintre ei fiind ‘prieten’ cu prietenul victimei – nu pot sa nu ma intreb ce s-o fi intamplat cu mentalul colectiv al oamenilor din satul acela? Pana nu demult actele sexuale in grup erau considerate aberatii… acum oamenii organizeaza campanii de sustinere pe Facebook si cer ‘să nu fie pedepsiţi cei şapte „pentru câteva minute de plăcere””
Ce s-a intamplat cu solidaritatea tipica micilor comunitati?

E adevarat ca mersul istoriei a fost dur cu comunitatile de la ses. Mai intai aparitia arendasilor – ciocoi a produs o intensificare a ‘luptei de clasa’. Acestora nu le pasa de nimic in afara de castigul imediat – vechii boieri, proprietarii pamanturilor, mai aveau o oarecare legatura cu locurile, ciocoii luau in arenda mosia, stateau cativa ani si plecau in alta parte dupa ce il inselau si pe boier. Nici o mirare ca taranii au dezvoltat ‘strategii de supravietuire’ care presupuneau ‘disparitia misterioasa’ a unei parti din recolta.
Dupa colectivizare fenomenul s-a accentuat iar oamenii furau, pentru a supravietui, roadele propriului pamant.

Numai ca genul asta de ambiguitate morala nu putea sa ramana fara consecinte. Chiar si pentru un observator neantrenat exista diferente enorme intre satele cooperativizate si cele ocolite de acest flagel. Nu este vorba aici despre dimensiunea caselor ci despre modul in care sunt gospodarite aceste sate, despre cum unii matura si altii nu in fata curtilor. Despre modul in care oamenii se ajuta, sau nu, unii pe ceilalti. Despre ce parere au unii si altii despre furt. Sau despre viol.

Initial nici restul societatii nu a reactionat mult mai bine. Trec peste faptul ca cei 7 se plimba pe strada si pot da nas in nas in orice moment cu victima lor. Pana la urma acest aspect se va rezolva. Sau cel putin asa sper.
Unii s-au indignat atat de tare incat au propus pedeapsa cu inchisoare pe viata pentru cei 7 – si au folosit pentru a-i descrie termenul de ‘limbrici’.
Apoi si-au facut aparitia comentatori care pun pe acelasi plan exagerarile din ambele tabere. Ca si cum indignarea deplasata ar fi acelasi lucru cu ‘favorizarea infractorului’. Nici una nu este buna dar nu sunt in nici un caz comparabile.
Altii prefera sa nu bage in seama ce se intampla. Dupa principiul ca ce nu stiu nu poate sa-mi faca rau. Ba da, numai ca nici macar nu vei sti ce ti se intampla.

Toate astea nu sunt altceva decat simptomul atomizarii societatii. In loc de o mare comunitate – natiunea – am inceput sa dezvoltam tot felul de loialitati meschine de tipul ‘noi impotriva celorlalti’ – care de cele mai multe ori sunt descrisi ca fiind mult inferiori. Femeile sunt menite sa-i distreze pe barbati, Toata Romania stie ca moldovenii/ moldovencele sunt o buba a societatii noatre

Din fericire incepe sa se faca auzita si ‘majoritatea de obicei tacuta’. Curg mesajele de sustinere a victimei si incep sa iasa la iveala alte si alte cazuri de viol a caror anchetare a batut pana acum pasul pe loc.

Exact asa cum spunea Ilie Badescu, dormim asa cum ne asternem. Avem datoria, fata de noi insine, sa rezolvam problemele inainte sa se instaureze starea de exasperare. Trebuie sa trecem odata peste efectele trecutului pentru ca nu are cine o faca in locul nostru. Altfel ne vom strecura printre degetele istoriei si vom deveni o simpla umbra pe una dintre paginile ei.

I remember that we did study this subject here in Romania. Not as intensively as the French Revolution but still…
Well, that was some 40 years ago, I’ll have to ask my son about the present situation.

E de notorietate disputa care se poarta acum in jurul Codului Fiscal.

Interventia de aseara a lui Bogdan Glavan la Digi 24 mi-a atras atentia asupra unui aspect mai putin mentionat.
‘Nici un guvern nu actioneaza cu adevarat in maniera liberala daca nu este fortat de alegatori.’
‘Nu ma intereseaza din ce motiv a promovat Ponta acest Cod Fiscal, probabil pentru ca pur si simplu vrea sa se mentina la putere, dar prilejul este prea bun pentru a fi ratat’
(Am redat din memorie, am sa caut linkul cand voi putea)

Asa ma gandeam si eu.
Ar fi pacat ca din ratiuni politicianiste liberalii sa isi ia votul inapoi chiar pe un subiect atat de drag oricarui liberal autentic.

Inteleg presiunile externe.
Daca in timp ce grecilor li se baga austeritate pe gat cu polonicul cel mare noi ne apucam sa scadem taxele, si ‘ne iese’, atunci ‘austeritatea de dragul austeritatii’ va primi o lovitura de maciuca chiar in moalele capului.

Ce nu inteleg eu, nedumerire impartasita probabil si de cei care l-au rugat pe Iohannis sa promulge Codul Fiscal, este de ce se joaca unii cu chibriturile daca nu stiu cum se face focul in siguranta.

In ceea ce priveste ‘iesitul’, chestia asta depinde aproape exclusiv de noi.
Principalul este sa lasam deoparte ambitiile meschine si sa ne apucam o data serios de treaba.

Dupa cum spunea Deng Xiaoping, nu conteaza culoarea pisicii atata timp cat prinde soareci.
Oamenii nu sunt atat de destepti pe cat se cred ei dar nici atat de prosti pe cat ii cred unii.
La un moment dat incep sa se prinda ca pisica doar se face ca alearga dupa soareci.

Faptele initiale, violul in sine, este ‘doar’ sordid. Mizerie cu care nu te poti obisnui niciodata, indiferent de cat de des te lovesti de ea.

Unele dintre reactii insa, expresia modului in care o parte din societatea ‘civila’ priveste ceea ce s-a intamplat, depasesc orice limita a incredibilului.

Consatenii victimei ii iau, firesc, apararea.

Consatenii violatorilor – stim ca a fost viol pentru ca trei dintre ei au recunoscut faptele – iau apararea acestora. Chiar si acest gest este, cel putin la prima vedere, oarecum firesc. ‘Opinia publica’ are o oarecare intelegere pentru ‘pradatori’, ‘hotul neprins, negustor cinstit’, ‘cainele nu poate face nimic pana cand cateaua nu ridica coada’…

Mie unuia mi s-a rupt filmul constatand ca cei mai multi dintre cei care cauta circumstante atenuante violatorilor au in comun doua idei. ‘De ce s-a dus cu 7, nu si-a dat seama ca e ceva necurat la mijloc?’ si ‘fetele/femeile trebuie sa se pazeasca’.

Primul argument folosit demonstreaza ca cei care isi dau cu parerea nici macar nu stiu ce s-a intamplat (victima a fost luata cu masina, sub pretextul ca va fi condusa acasa, de catre unul dintre violatori – pe care il cunostea de mult, iar in masina se mai afla un singur individ. Abia dupa ce au ajuns ‘la locul faptei’ initiatorul si-a chemat restul de ‘prieteni’ iar victima nu mai avea in acel moment nici o posibilitate de reactie. Dar ce ne costa sa dam din gura….
Al doilea argument spune foarte multe despre chiar cei care il folosesc. De fapt este un fel de recunoastere tacita a faptului ca, pusi in circumstante ‘favorabile’, acei indivizi ar ‘trece la fapte’ fara nici un fel de ezitare. ‘Treaba ei, daca nu s-a pazit…’

Chiar in halul asta sa fi ajuns?

Nu va vine a crede?

Haideti sa o luam altfel.
“Ochii vad, inima cere.” Nu pot accepta asa ceva dar pot intelege cum cineva mai ‘primordial’ nu-si poate stapani instinctele animalice si se repede asupra unei victime fara aparare.
Pot intelege, cu mare efort, si cum un ‘pradator alfa’ poate inchipui, in imaginatia sa sociopata, un plan diabolic care sa provoace o astfel de tragedie.
Pot sa-mi inchipui, de data asta cu revulsie, ‘bucuria’ cu care ‘prietenii’ sai – ‘masculi feroci’, de altfel – au primit mesajul: ‘haide-ti ma si voi, am luat-o pe una cu japca si v-o dau si voua’.

Dar nu pot, nici in ruptul capului, sa inteleg ce a fost in capul persoanei care a cerut “public să nu fie pedepsiţi cei şapte „pentru câteva minute de plăcere”” si care a inlocuit notiunea de viol cu cea de “sex-surpriza”.
7?!? Dintr-o data? Nici cainii nu fac asa ceva, oricat de ‘in calduri’ ar fi cateaua… Se bat intre ei pentru ‘locul de onoare’, nu se cheama unul pe celalalt ‘la pomana’…

O singura data am mai vazut asa ceva. In 13-15 Iunie 1990 prin Bucuresti erau si foarte multe ‘babe’ care ii aplaudau pe mineri de cate ori acestia mai bateau cate un nefericit cu aspect de ‘intelectual’ iar la final s-a gasit si cineva, sus pus, sa le multumeasca ‘ortacilor’ pentru ‘spiritul lor civic’.

Oare cand ne vom da seama ca, pur si simplu, ne-o facem cu mana noastra?