I'd like to express my... Is "umbrage" the word I want to use here? ("you'll never understand")

[wolven7]

Mindless Self Indulgence - [Faggot]--- Do you know what I truly and completely despise? People who get off on making themselves feel speical, via the exclusion of others. (Interpol - [Evil]). This can come in any number of ways, really, and all of them bother the living shit out me. "You can't join our club, because you're not..." "You can't be my friend, if you won't..." "You'll never understand, because you don't..." Fuck you. Fuck. You. And your specialised, elitist, significanatly downtrodden Bullshit.

It bothers the hell out of me that we have Black History Month. Women's History Month. Native American History Month. It pisses me off that people feel the need to be so oppressed, so downtrodeen, so special, as to want to exclude other people from knowing them as actual human beings, and acatually go so far as to make that exclusion a part of whatever group to which they happen to belong. (Deadsy - [Winners]). You are different. No shit, asshole. We're all different. You're no different than anyone else, then, are you? And that's the key.

Everyone has something special and awesome about them, that sets them apart. Everyone. That's the best part, though. There will always be groups of people who cluster together, to hide from the frightening sea of interchangable difference and diversity. Whatever. It's not necessary. You don't need to huddle up, around people who are enough like you, but are different enough to make it bearable, but by God, don't you just want them to shut up, so that you can tell them howthey'll never understand Your special and unique brand of Hell on Earth? You don't need them.

KMFDM - [These Boots Are Made For Walkin' (Nancy Sinatra Cover)]--- Everyone needs friends. Everyone needs people with whom they can connect, and people with whom they can talk about their problems. But telling anyone who's not like you, at first glance, that they'll never understand you, that they'll never get what you get, isn't helping your stated cause. Unless, of course, you're only in it to be exclusionary. And if that's you, then you're not here to learn, at all, and you can go right to Hell.

Danger Doom - [Basket Case]--- I hate the specialised months, because it shows that we haven't learned a damned thing. We're still segfregating, still making things separate and different. How weak is that?

"Specialization is for insects." - Robert A. Heinlein, "Time Enough for Love"

Alan Moore - [March of the Sinister Ducks]--- On a completely unrelated not, I ran into fushi, downtown, today. She seemed to be doing well.

Last night, at electroncat's birthday party, momentai gave mech_angel and I our holiday presents, due to our not-being-in-town-ness, this weekend. They were awesome. A report of them, after the holidays.

Time to go read comments on papers.

Comments

[theapplethief.livejournal.com]

And here I was thinking no one else would understand that - heh.

I don't think people will ever stop segregating themselves, because at that point they'll have no reason to look down on the rest of society, they'll have no reason to bitch.

I wholeheartedly agree on your statement and I understand where you're coming from. Unfortunately, most others need their elite oppression so that they can prove to the world they've overcome struggles far beyond our comprehension. They'll never let this go simply because it makes them feel important.

Maybe one day, humans as a whole will come to terms with the fact the universe doesn't revolve around us- and that everyone and everything has problems and obstacles in our path.

[wolven.livejournal.com]

No one is special, because everyone is special. Everyone has unique troubles and reactions thereto. Everyone.

We are all different, and therfore all the same.

[lizzibear.livejournal.com]

brava. I agree. Stupid mother fuckers.

[wolven.livejournal.com]

It just gets so annoying hearing people claim that no one can understand what they've been through. Of course not. 1) They're not trying to explain and 2) no one is anyone else. No one's reactions are the same, no one feels exactly the same, about the same thing.

Even within a group, we will all experience things differently.

[lizzibear.livejournal.com]

It pisses me off that people don't figure that out. I don't know why--especially when some of them are relatively intelligent. Sigh. What a odd world we live in-you can be intelligent and not see that the reason that no one understands is because they don't try to explain...and when they do they don't figure out that people are all different. You would figure that if they are as intelligent as they seem they would see it. But they don't.

[wolven.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately not.

[lizzibear.livejournal.com]

AHHH!!! I LOVE MSI (Mindless self indulgence) LOVE LOVE LOVE them. Especially when Im pissed. Did you go to the mascarade (sp?) when they played there not that long ago.....it kicked ass.

[wolven.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Missed them. Sadly. Hopefully next time.

[ellenore.livejournal.com]

I love women's history month. Why? Because that's the one time a year people actually learn something about women in history. Billions of women have lived on the planet and most schools only teach about Betsy Ross and maybe mention the suffragettes. Women's History Month isn't exclusionary, it's an oppurtunity to make education more inclusive. Not wanting to study these groups is exclusionary- why should we only learn the history of (largely wealthy, land-owning) white men?

[wolven.livejournal.com]

That's exactly my point. Why SHOULD we only learn about one group? We shouldn't. We should learn about everyone, always. Making it a separate thing, while important to the understanding of the plight of women, through history, does nothing to Erase that divide. To make it better.

THAT is why I hate those months.

[ellenore.livejournal.com]

Making a seperate month calls attention to the fact that american history (as it is normally taught) IS about wealthy white men. Otherwise, someone who wasn't paying attention would think that ONLY white men have impacted history. In an ideal world, we wouldn't need women's history month, women's studies, etc. or any of these other specialty groups. However, since these groups are still excluded from normal academia, these specialties are necessary.

Additionally, I've found that women's history (and most of these other groups) focuses not just on the plight of women but on the accomplishments of women. Just because we're only taught briefly about suffrage/the plight of women pre-women's movement in schools doesn't mean that's the only thing that women have accomplished. Women have been essential to practically every social movement in US history including the labor movement and abolition.

[wolven.livejournal.com]

Again, my point. They shouldn't need to be "separate" to be special. It's just further segregation of the truth, to put it to one side, and only focus on it part of the year. Focus on it All Of The Time.

ALWAYS.

EVERYONE and EVERY THING is Special. Always.

[ellenore.livejournal.com]

There shouldn't have to be a women's history month for women's history to be recognized. However, since academia doesn't currently recognize women's history, it is still, unfortunately, necessary. Women's history month is a way of petitioning to make sure women's histoy isn't completely ignored. Again, I think all the other history months work on the same principal.


I think we agree on an the end goal, just not how to get there- History as a school subject should be much more inclusive than it actually is. I just don't know another way to get there besides specailized months demanding attention.

[jessicarabbitt.livejournal.com]

Everyone's a little bit racist(sexist, religionist, etc), sometimes.
Doesn't mean we go around commiting hate crimes.
Look around and you will find, noone's really color blind.
Maybe it's a fact we all should face.
Everyone makes judgements based on race (sex, religion, etc)

[ellenore.livejournal.com]

Agreed.

[wolven.livejournal.com]

Always.