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This may be the juiciest piece I've seen. Maybe the breakthrough to higher consciousness will involve the ascendancy of the female. "SOME OF THE MALES OF OUR SPECIES HAVE FINALLY GONE TOTALLY NUTS!...our men, world-wide, are not ready to give up this testosterone-poisoned rat-race of theirs...if we women don't get very busy, very organized, and very strong – -very fast – -it will probably be correct to say, just a little while from now, that the men of our species finally killed us all off...Arrggghhh...."
-Suzanne-
October 3, 2001

More Shock and Horror
E. van Loon


I got about nine tenths through yet another essay explaining why America deserved 9-11 or at least should understand why 9-11 happened when nausea hit me. I had a strong sense of barfing up the wrong tree, you might say.

"I feel shock and horror" upon reading this screed of atrocities and realizing that it CONSISTS ENTIRELY OF STORIES ABOUT WHAT MEN HAVE DONE!

"I feel shock and horror" when I realize I am once again tempted to accept this kind of writing as if it applied to the entire species – -when any alien observer's first remark on reading this polemic would surely be that SOME OF THE MALES OF OUR SPECIES HAVE FINALLY GONE TOTALLY NUTS!

"I feel shock and horror" when I realize that the supposed political-science, history and statistics arguments I am reading are really unproven facts abused by an adversarial, power-driven mentality aimed at making me see things the way these obsolete men do.

Get a grip, guys: do you think for one moment that the Taliban Club would flinch from killing 8,000,000 humans of almost any description but their own, preferably tortuously?

"Insight" into why one group of men is madder or more justified in exerting force than another group of men IS NO HELP AT ALL!

The biggest "shock and horror" comes when I realize that, instead of fitting ourselves to save our children by sacrificing our lives to the beneficent take-over of the majority of positions of power in this too complex world, WE WOMEN HAVE ALLOWED THIS TO HAPPEN!

What were we thinking these last decades? That we had all the time in the world to become "equal"? That things would not get worse? That the Middle East guys would finally figure out how to cool it? That our men would suddenly realize that life is really about growing and knowing and loving? That they would mysteriously return to their senses at the last moment? Give up nuclear weapons and other techno-insanities? Stop waving viruses and bacteria over our unprotected heads? Hell, no!

Well, ladies, this is the penultimate moment, and misleading screeds like this one I'm replying to, a supposed "analysis" of why America deserves what it got, are just one more chunk of proof that our men, world-wide, are not ready to give up this testosterone-poisoned rat-race of theirs. The total contents of even our best male politico-military minds seem to amount to no more than "power and glory and territory".

It won't ever be "correct" to say that Muslim fanatics murdered us all. It won't ever be "correct" to say that Americans murdered 8 million people all over the world, either. But if we women don't get very busy, very organized, and very strong – -very fast – -it will probably be correct to say, just a little while from now, that the men of our species finally killed us all off.

That's shock and horror, ladies and gentlemen. That's true shock and horror.

Henceforth, the place for such politicized analysis is the round file. Adversariality and holier-than-thou-ism is what will kill our sons and daughters. If you can't stop thinking in adversarial terms, THEN DO THE WORLD A FAVOR AND SHUT UP!

Go home, clean the house, make love, plant a tree, fix the faucet, write a song, invent something useful, watch the game, say a prayer with your kids, and vote for women. If all that can't make you happy, there's something seriously wrong with you guys.

Maybe we should make it a duty for women past childbearing years to serve as military commanders, CEOs and politicos. Just for five or ten years. Try closing your eyes and imagining the world with eighty-five per cent women heads of state and corporate presidents – -different, huh?

After all, it could hardly be worse.

Reproductive science being what it is nowadays, women don't really need men any more, anyway, you know. Many of us women like many of you men far more than is probably good for us. But, if you keep on spouting this counterproductive bs and dangerous technology, is there much point to keeping you around?

Arrggghhh....


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