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Conspiracy Nation Vol. 09 Num. 46
Conspiracy Nation -- Vol. 9 Num. 46
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("Quid coniuratio est?")
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GLORIA IN EXCELSIS
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[CN transcript of remarks by west coast researcher Dave Emory.]
[...continued...]
That concludes the prepared portion of the broadcast for this
evening.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Good evening. Welcome once again to "One Step Beyond."
It's time now to formally begin the prepared portion of tonight's
broadcast. And we're going to begin by taking a look at a column
that appeared... (By the way, today is Sunday, July 14th, of
1991.) We're gonna begin by taking a look at a column that
appeared in the San Jose Mercury News this past Wednesday -- this
past Wednesday was July 10th of 1991. This is a column by Diane
Mason, a correspondent for the St. Petersburg Times. The San
Jose Mercury News entitled this particular column, "Like
'Thelma,' NOW's Ready To Kick Some." (And you know what 'some'
is.) This particular column reads, in part,
There's a scene in the movie "Thelma and Louise" where
Louise (Susan Sarandon) tells Thelma (Gina Davis) that she
has really changed. "You used to be so sedate," Louise
says. "No more," answers the now armed and dangerous
Thelma. "I've had it up to my (expletive deleted) with
'sedate.'"
At the annual convention of the National Organization for
Women [NOW] held in New York this past weekend, "Thelma and
Louise" kept popping up -- not in person, nor as an
official theme, but from the heart. It's not that NOW has
ever been all that sedate, but this convention unharnessed
more "we've had it up to here; let's kick butt" spirit than
I've seen in a long time, maybe ever.
Hot items on sale are buttons that say, "Thelma and Louise
Live," and t-shirts that read "Graduate of the Thelma and
Louise Finishing School." Keynote speakers Gloria Steinem
and activist lawyer Flo Kennedy talked about their travels
and speeches together in the early days of the modern
women's movement, calling themselves "the Thelma and Louise
of the 1970s."
"Raising Hell and kicking (expletive deleted) is such fun,"
said Kennedy, 75. In a wheelchair, Kennedy jokes that what
she does "besides being on my deathbed" is to be
outrageous. She is the person who coined the oft-quoted
proverb, "If men could get pregnant, abortion would be a
sacrament." Claiming all the privileges of growing older
and unashamed to be outspoken, Kennedy said that "Women
have been reasonable too long."
(Skipping down......)
Steinem, with her matchless zing and clarity, nearly
brought down the house when she speculated on why the
military doesn't want women in combat. "Can you imagine
what would happen if every welfare mother, every underpaid
waitress, every sexually harassed secretary, had two years
of military training?" she asked.
Well it would be, indeed, interesting to speculate about what
might happen, under the circumstances. However I think there are
other things to ruminate about in connection with this particular
development of this attitude on the part of elements of the
women's movement.
Always a firm believer in women's rights myself, I am at the same
time very critical of many of the directions that the women's
movement has taken. And it is my belief and fear that
considerable elements of the women's movement are allowing
themselves to be manipulated by elements of the "far right," and
specifically, are allowing themselves to be manipulated in the
direction of one of the oldest techniques for subduing a given
enemy population, namely, "divide and conquer."
There would be no more profound division that one could effect in
American society or in any other society than to divide up men
and women. You split up the male and female halves of the
species, and you have effected as fundamental a division as you
can possibly effect. For one thing, that will have a profound
effect on the family unit, the basic element of socialization.
And the more you weaken the family, the more you strengthen
fascism. Because once the family itself is weakened, the main
element of socialization is gonna be the television set. And
children who have basically had their ideas concerning conflict
resolution shaped by Saturday morning cartoon shows, Nintendo
games, and Arnold Schwarzenegger movies, well that is a society
which when faced with a bind is going to resort to violence in
order to resolve the conflict.
I do not think that dividing men and women is a good idea at all.
Certainly no one should have to sacrifice basic human liberties
for the sake of fitting any particular stereotype concerning
sexual activity or sex-typing. However, it should be noted in
this context that most people's feelings concerning the opposite
sex are among the most conflicted emotional feelings and
emotional complexes that they have. People's feelings concerning
the parent of the opposite sex, siblings of the opposite sex,
lovers and/or spouses of the opposite sex -- these are things
which often have a very profound effect on people's
personalities. And many people carry the scars and wounds of
some of the things they have suffered during the socialization
process forward, into life.
It is my fear that an over-emphasis by anyone -- be it the
women's movement or some of the forces ranged in reaction to the
women's movement -- an over-emphasis on male/female conflicts and
differences is very likely to wind up exacerbating the
differences and divisions between men and women. Also, [it is]
likely to further mobilize some of the deep psychological
conflicts many people of *both* sexes feel towards members of the
opposite sex. And my fear, once again, is that not only elements
ranged opposite the women's movement, but also elements of the
women's movement itself, have, knowingly or otherwise, allowed
themselves to be manipulated in such a direction that they are
actively promoting an unnecessary and counterproductive division
between the sexes.
Ultimately (obviously), men and women are dependent upon one
another for the continued survival of the species. And as I've
said before, there could be no more effective way of dividing and
conquering than splitting up men and women.
So at a psycho-social level, I think the extent of identification
of elements of the women's movement with what looks to me to be a
contemporary feminist adaptation of the old Rambo, shoot-'em-up
and crack their skull theme -- namely, this movie "Thelma and
Louise" -- this does not look to me to be a particularly
constructive attitude for elements of the women's movement to
take. And I'm afraid it is likely to sow unnecessary division
and further weaken progressive forces as we head into 1992, a
very important election year.
I would also note that there is a searing irony here, to have
Gloria Steinem ruminating as she has here:
Steinem, with her matchless zing and clarity, nearly
brought down the house when she speculated on why the
military doesn't want women in combat. "Can you imagine
what would happen if every welfare mother, every underpaid
waitress, every sexually harassed secretary, had two years
of military training?" she asked.
Well I would ask in connection with that, Can you imagine what
would happen if the most visible and (at least so far) effective
feminist spokesperson in the United States, namely Gloria Steinem
(regarded by many as the doyen of American feminism), can you
imagine what would happen if she had a background in the Central
Intelligence Agency?
Well you don't have to imagine what would happen. Because, in
fact, Gloria Steinem has an extensive background in the
intelligence agencies -- namely, the CIA -- and a number of the
people in her mileau have very obvious intersections with the
National Security establishment, going up to the present time.
Who knows? Perhaps Gloria Steinem's CIA past is not *quite* as
far behind her as she might like to have some of us think.
[...to be continued...]
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Aperi os tuum, decerne quod justum est, et judica inopem et
pauperem. -- Liber Proverbiorum XXXI: 8-9
