matt@brl-tgr.ARPA (Matthew Rosenblatt ) (09/27/85)
Pro-lifers have frequently been referred to as a bunch of Rightists.
We are supposed to be part of a plot to suppress individual rights
in the name of the State, or Religion, or Big Business. And yet
countries governed by Leftists are not known for their concern for
the rights of the individual -- "Individualism" is a pejorative word
in these countries. So why was the Left so solicitous for individual
rights -- not those of the fetus, of course -- in the case of abortion
on demand? Ever wonder about that?
Good old Andrea Dworkin has an answer for everything, and in this case,
her answer holds water (meaning, I agree with it). So let's sit back
and read it (if we can stand her sewer language):
* . . . A woman and her child -- poor and relatively outcast -- wandering
*within the counterculture changed the quality of the hedonism in the
*communities in which they intruded: the mother-and-child pair embodied
*a different strain of reality, not a welcome one for the most part.
*There were lone women struggling to raise children "freely" and they
*got in the way of the males who saw freedom as the fuck -- and the fuck
*ended for the males when the fuck ended. These women with children
*made the other women a little somber, a little concerned, a little
*careful. Pregnancy, the fact of it, made it harder for the flower boys
*to fuck the flower girls, who did not want to have to claw out their
*own insides or pay someone else to do it; they also did not want to die.
*
* It was the brake that pregnancy put on fucking that made abortion a
*high-priority political issue for men in the 1960s -- not only for
*young men, but also for the older leftist men who were skimming sex
*off the top of the counterculture and even for more traditional men
*who dipped into the pool of hippie girls now and then. The decriminal-
*ization of abortion -- for that was the political goal -- was seen
*as the final fillip: it would make women absolutely accessible,
*absolutely "free." The sexual revolution, in order to work, required
*that abortion be available to women on demand. If it were not, fucking
*would not be available to men on demand. Getting laid was at stake.
*Not just getting laid, but getting laid the way great numbers of boys
*and men had always wanted -- lots of girls who wanted it all the time
*outside marriage, free, giving it away. The male-dominated Left
*agitated for and fought for and argued for and even organized for and
*even provided political and economic resources for abortion rights
*for women. The Left was militant on the issue. ("Right-wing Women,"
New York, Perigee, 1983, p. 94f)
-- Matt Rosenblattjho@ihu1m.UUCP (Yosi Hoshen) (10/01/85)
> Pro-lifers have frequently been referred to as a bunch of Rightists. > We are supposed to be part of a plot to suppress individual rights > in the name of the State, or Religion, or Big Business. And yet > countries governed by Leftists are not known for their concern for > the rights of the individual -- "Individualism" is a pejorative word > in these countries. So why was the Left so solicitous for individual > rights -- not those of the fetus, of course -- in the case of abortion > on demand? Ever wonder about that? I don't think there is substantial difference between the extreme religious right and the extreme communist left. Both extremists want to limit the freedom of the individual. The religionist side uses the bible to support its actions, whereas the communist side invokes Marx to justifies its repressive actions. The religionist right and religionist (Marxist) left share many common traits. Their goal is to impose their dogma on the rest of society. I propose that we are dealing in both cases with the same totlitarian mentality. -- Yosi Hoshen, AT&T Bell Laboratories Naperville, Illinois, Mail: ihnp4!ihu1m!jho
matt@brl-tgr.ARPA (Matthew Rosenblatt ) (10/09/85)
YOSI HOSHEN writes: > I don't think there is substantial difference between the extreme > religious right and the extreme communist left. Both extremists > want to limit the freedom of the individual. The religionist side > uses the bible to support its actions, whereas the communist side > invokes Marx to justifies its repressive actions. The religionist > right and religionist (Marxist) left share many common traits. Their > goal is to impose their dogma on the rest of society. I propose that > we are dealing in both cases with the same totlitarian mentality. I agree. On the issue of banning abortion on demand, however, I do not equate the pro-life side with the religious right. -- Matt Rosenblatt