Great bit from a Lileks bleat
Feb. 6th, 2003 04:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
celticdragonflyOk, as long as I'm risking seriously pissing some people off with my last post anyway, I'm going to go ahead and post a great bit from a recent Lilek's bleat.
I recommend his column in general. I don't always agree with him. When he goes off on architecture I can get bored - when he goes off on old movies I always skip it. But some of it is great. This bit is long so I'll put it in a cut.
One of the speakers quoted in the article said we'd insulted Arab cultures: “Long after the Gulf War was over, we had arms depots outside of mosques, American servicewomen dressed inappropriately for where they were.” So women shouldn't be in the military? No, of course they should serve. So they shouldn't be posted to the Middle East? No, they should have the same opportunities as men. So they should wear the veil while they’re on the base? No, but we have to understand that their presence upsets the local culture. So you support overturning the governments that impose strict miserable sexist regulations on females? No, we just have to realize how they see us. And then we do what? I don't understand the question. Once we realize that they see us as a Godforsaken culture that lets women drive cars AND planes AND wear shorts and thongs, AND dance with someone they just met five minutes ago AND have a day job operating machine guns, then what? Well, we enter into a cross-cultural dialogue that enables a syncretic process aimed at facilitating strategies of coexistence. Yes, but what if they want to kill us because we actually think that their concepts of female servitude are negotiable? Well, I don't accept your definitions; I think we have to change the terms of the debate so violence is never an option. It's an option for them. It's Job One, as the Ford ads used to say - oh, look, it's a fellow with a bomb-belt, running towards us. Should I shoot him? Violence never solves anything. It's about to solve you, ma’am. It's about to solve you for good.
http://www.lileks.com/bleats/archive/03/0103/012703.html
Thanks to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
patgund for showing me how to do the cut thing.
Lileks in general - http://www.lileks.com/bleats/
I recommend his column in general. I don't always agree with him. When he goes off on architecture I can get bored - when he goes off on old movies I always skip it. But some of it is great. This bit is long so I'll put it in a cut.
One of the speakers quoted in the article said we'd insulted Arab cultures: “Long after the Gulf War was over, we had arms depots outside of mosques, American servicewomen dressed inappropriately for where they were.” So women shouldn't be in the military? No, of course they should serve. So they shouldn't be posted to the Middle East? No, they should have the same opportunities as men. So they should wear the veil while they’re on the base? No, but we have to understand that their presence upsets the local culture. So you support overturning the governments that impose strict miserable sexist regulations on females? No, we just have to realize how they see us. And then we do what? I don't understand the question. Once we realize that they see us as a Godforsaken culture that lets women drive cars AND planes AND wear shorts and thongs, AND dance with someone they just met five minutes ago AND have a day job operating machine guns, then what? Well, we enter into a cross-cultural dialogue that enables a syncretic process aimed at facilitating strategies of coexistence. Yes, but what if they want to kill us because we actually think that their concepts of female servitude are negotiable? Well, I don't accept your definitions; I think we have to change the terms of the debate so violence is never an option. It's an option for them. It's Job One, as the Ford ads used to say - oh, look, it's a fellow with a bomb-belt, running towards us. Should I shoot him? Violence never solves anything. It's about to solve you, ma’am. It's about to solve you for good.
http://www.lileks.com/bleats/archive/03/0103/012703.html
Thanks to
patgund for showing me how to do the cut thing. Lileks in general - http://www.lileks.com/bleats/