Posted by Ritmo on November 03, 2000 at 17:53:43:
In Reply to: Re: posted by Nomar on November 02, 2000 at 05:17:05:
|
Good Brother Nomar, I see what you mean, my brother, and I don't mean to say their opinions about their lives don't matter--absomuthafuckinlutely, they matter! And yep you're also right that we seldom know even the half of the facts of any girl's life. I think I just misread your earlier post as saying that our efforts to evaluate, independent of how they think of their lives in the trade, their conditions were hopeless, or at least doomed to missing the point. But I think in fact we can often say that someone is in a situation which OBJECTIVELY sucks, even if that person has such a crushed sense of what's possible that s/he isn't really all that unhappy in it because s/he doesn't believe there's any possibility of anything else or better. That is, the person can be misinformed about what the possibilities are and therefore accept w/resignation a situation which is completely avoidable or at least which could realistically be better, if only marginally. This is dangerous ground, I know, 'cause I'm sayin' it is possible for someone else, with more information, to know more about Person A's life-situation than Person A himorherself. Doesn't negate Person A's perspective, by any means, but I think it's important not to simply accept only what Person A believes is possible as the true--otherwise, we can wind up defining someone who's locked away in a 6 x 6 cell w/no bed and a bucket to shit in as 'free' because he has gotten used to the idea and besides at least he's not hanging upside down by his toes with leeches applied to his penis, or something like that. Anyways, we're arguing on the same side here, I think. Both just tryin' to be complexificationists on this moral issue and to try, however feebly, to get guys to see how complicated our hobby is. And I hear ya loud an' clear on how many guys will just shut down into hardline 'I have no responsibility for anything' when this topic comes up. In a way, I think that reaction is an implicit indication that the person instinctively realizes how high the stakes are, how serious the moral issues are, and just wants out of the dangerous game. Hell, I'd like to be able to pry myself away from my own sense of responsibility for partipating in some of the ickier parts of TJ life. And yet, I will keep on going.
|
|
|