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As I read it, "human males that are marrying 10 year old females" is not a homogenous group.  Some cultures may (I don't know--and who is an expert on all cultures?) marry their children at 10, but the children won't live together (maybe in a separate hut) until after the puberty rites have finished.  And then they're free to divorce, maybe, but they then become brother and sister--

--and who lives in a single culture?  There is my culture, my personal habits and beliefs, which interacts with the various cultures of the people I have regular contact with, out to the people I will never meet but maybe read about, and on out, to the edges of nature, to the edge of the atmosphere, up into the electrical regions...maybe one of the leading researchers in quantum mechanics has grandparents who were married at ten, lived happily, and so she has no in-built prejudice against the institution...

...so which institutions are evil?

Religion (Rumi; Lao Tse; Krishnamurti)--are they humans or gods?  And what do their gods say about humans?  And can we understand what they say; can we imagine (or fantasise) the structure of the culture, the lives--how were they lived?

Well, how are they lived right now?  Whose culture is malign?  Whose individual culture is destructive of the wider cultures; who seeks to limit human experience through words.  Some gods don't go away just because people stop believing in them.  Imagine a sun worshipper from maybe 400BC--pick a country--and then wake them up exactly where they died, first thing in the morning, just as the sun breaks the horizon.

The sun!  The god rises!

Two weeks later they have enrolled in a course--because she is intelligent.  Now, is worshipping the sun a religion?

The way I'm understanding these conversations is...that we need to find out who's in charge, coz things are fucked up, guv.  And the BIG BIG fuck ups (killing)...or maybe killing isn't a big fuck up?  War...Dying means the sun goes out--for you.  No more sun god.  Or maybe when you die you expand--whoosh!--up and out, finally!, but no....there's gravity pulling you back for another swing round--okay, people believe crazy things, but they act within various boundaries--and each culture needs a means of dealing with sadists--those who turn against the tribe; (I'm in your tribe: I would like to have a U.N. passport--I would only be allowed to travel in countries recognised by and recognising the U.N.  I would swear allegiance to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

On December 10, 1948 the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights the full text of which appears in the following pages. Following this historic act the Assembly called upon all Member countries to publicize the text of the Declaration and "to cause it to be disseminated, displayed, read and expounded principally in schools and other educational institutions, without distinction based on the political status of countries or territories."
PREAMBLE

    Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,

    Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people,

    Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law,

    Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations,

    Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,

    Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in co-operation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms,

    Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge,

Now, Therefore THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY proclaims THIS UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.

Article 1.

    All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.



Don't fight forces, use them R. Buckminster Fuller.
by rg (leopold dot lepster at google mail dot com) on Tue Jan 22nd, 2008 at 05:46:23 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Big Brother

"apparently benevolent but repressive authority" first recorded 1949, from George Orwell's novel "1984."

Online Etymology Dictionary

brother
O.E. broþor, from P.Gmc. *brothar, from PIE base *bhrater (cf. Gk. phratér, L. frater, O.Ir. brathir, Skt. bhrátár-, O.Pers. brata, Goth. bróþar, O.Prus. brati, O.C.S. bratru "brother"). As a familiar term of address from one man to another, it is attested from 1912 in U.S. slang; the specific use among blacks is recorded from 1973. Alternate pl. brethren was predominant c.1200-1600s, but survived only in religious usage. Colloquial shortening bro is attested from 1666. Brotherhood is M.E. broiþerhede (c.1300). In Arabic, Urdu, Swahili, etc., brother-in-law, when addressed to a male who is not a brother-in-law, is an extreme insult, with implications of "I slept with your sister."

Online Etymology Dictionary

fraternity
c.1330, "body of men associated by common interest," from O.Fr. fraternité, from L. fraternitatem (nom. fraternitas), from fraternus "brotherly," from frater "brother," from PIE *bhrater (see brother). College Greek-letter organization sense is from 1777, first in reference to Phi Beta Kappa; shortened form frat first recorded 1895. Fraternize is attested from 1611, "to sympathize as brothers;" sense of "cultivate friendship with enemy troops" is from 1897; used oddly by World War II armed forces to mean "have sex with women from enemy countries." Fraternal is 1421, from M.L. fraternalis, from L. fraternus.

Online Etymology Dictionary

bully (n.)
1538, originally "sweetheart," applied to either sex, from Du. boel "lover, brother," probably dim. of M.H.G. buole "brother," of uncertain origin (cf. Ger. buhle "lover"). Meaning deteriorated 17c. through "fine fellow," "blusterer," to "harasser of the weak" (1653). Perhaps this was by infl. of bull, but a connecting sense between "lover" and "ruffian" may be in "protector of a prostitute," which was one sense of bully (though not specifically attested until 1706). The verb is first attested 1710. The expression meaning "worthy, jolly, admirable" (esp. in 1864 U.S. slang bully for you!) is first attested 1681, and preserves an earlier, positive sense of the word.

Online Etymology Dictionary

Brother Jonathan
sobriquet for "United States," 1816, is often derived from Jonathan Trumbull (1740-1809) of Connecticut, who was often called Brother Jonathan by George Washington, who often sought his advice, somehow in ref. to 2 Sam i.26.

Seems brothers....there are sisters.

Online Etymology Dictionary

sister
O.E. sweostor, swuster, or a Scand. cognate (cf. O.N. systir, Swed. sister, Dan. søster), in either case from P.Gmc. *swestr- (cf. O.S. swestar, O.Fris. swester, M.Du. suster, Du. zuster, O.H.G. swester, Ger. Schwester, Goth. swistar), from PIE *swesor, one of the most persistent and unchanging PIE root words, recognizable in almost every modern I.E. language (cf. Skt. svasar-, Avestan shanhar-, L. soror, O.C.S., Rus. sestra, Lith. sesuo, O.Ir. siur, Welsh chwaer, Gk. eor). Probably from PIE roots *swe- "one's own" + *ser- "woman." For vowel evolution, see bury. Used of nuns in O.E.; of a woman in general from 1906; of a black woman from 1926; and in the sense of "fellow feminist" from 1912.

Online Etymology Dictionary

sorority
1532, "body of women united for some purpose," from M.L. sororitas "sisterhood, of or pertaining to sisters," from L. soror "sister" (see sister). OED 2nd ed. lists first reference for sense of "women's society in a college or university" as c.1900, but they existed at least 20 years before this.

Online Etymology Dictionary

Cleopatra
common name of sister-queens in Egypt under the Ptolemaic Dynasty. The name is Gk., probably meaning "key to the fatherland," from khleis "key" + patris. The famous queen was the seventh of that name.

Online Etymology Dictionary

Mary
fem. proper name, O.E. Maria, Marie, "mother of Jesus," from L. Maria, from Gk. Mariam, Maria, from Aram. Maryam, from Heb. Miryam, sister of Moses (Ex. xv.), of unknown origin, said to mean lit. "rebellion." Nursery rhyme "Mary had a Little Lamb" written early 1830 by Sarah Josepha Hale of Boston; published Sept. 1830 in "Juvenile Miscellany," a popular magazine for children. Mary Jane is 1921 as the proprietary name of a kind of low-heeled shoe worn chiefly by young girls, 1928 as slang for marijuana.

Online Etymology Dictionary

cousin
1160, from O.Fr. cosin, from L. consobrinus "mother's sister's child," from com- "together" + sobrinus (earlier *sosrinos) "cousin on mother's side," from soror (gen. sororis) "sister." Used familiarly as a term of address since 1430, especially in Cornwall. Your first cousin (also cousin-german) is the son or daughter of an uncle or aunt; your children and your first cousin's are second cousins to one another; to you, your first cousin's children are first cousin once removed. Phrase kissing cousin is Southern U.S. expression, 1940s, denoting "those close enough to be kissed in salutation;" Kentish cousin (1796) is an old British term for "distant relative."


Don't fight forces, use them R. Buckminster Fuller.
by rg (leopold dot lepster at google mail dot com) on Tue Jan 22nd, 2008 at 05:58:33 PM EST
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