Open Thread - Thurs 24 Mar 2022 - What?

Because I still consider myself an anthropologist/archaeologist, despite not doing any work in anthropology for a few years, I'm a member of the American Anthropology Association.

A few weeks back I got an email from the Association for 'Women's History Month' with this title: 'Weekend Reads. Is Overthrowing Capitalism the Best Path to More Consensual Sex?'*

I gotta admit, my jaw dropped in shocked confusion. What the heck does that even mean? What does capitalism, or socialism, or whatever, have to do with consensual sex? I would think the status of men and women in any society, and the care that society gives, or doesn't give, to children and old people and the poor, the sick, whatever, has more to do with 'consensual sex' than anything. Now, I'm all for overthrowing or modifying capitalism (I like the Scandinavian/Finnish model of that), but, I never thought about it in the context of consensual sex. I'm more about leveling out the differences between rich and poor, creating a huge middle class, making sure everyone has a safe place to live and food to eat, health care for all, respect for those who aren't considered 'real' contributors to society because they are too sick/mentally ill/etc to work at a 'real' job, respect for all jobs, not just those that make tons of money - for example, recognition that the person who picks up our trash bins is as important to society as those that make Wall Street decisions... well, you get the drift.

I must be too old. I would think overthrowing patriarchy or other uneven social power structures, would have more to do with enabling consensual sex than overthrowing capitalism by itself. In fact, patriarchy has been around through all kinds of financial systems: socialism, communism, serfdom, oligarchy... without there always being a whole lot of 'consensual sex'. Not sure you can blame the lack of that on the financial system. This does tell me that aspects of theoretical anthropology are as loony now as they were when I was starting my studies 35 or so years ago.

*The email discusses a lot of things for Women's History Month, and never actually talks about the substance of its title. It does eventually link to a podcast with the same title in a list called 'Our Anthropology PlayList'.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yywGI1H_oyM]
Here's some music I've been listening to lately. Dunno why I like this so much, but I do. Classic cowboy story stuff, with a dark, goth twist!

So, thanks for reading and here's the open thread - and remember, everything is interesting if you dive deep enough!

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Sima's picture

Hope it's a great day for us all, with little bad news (yea yea, Ukraine, economy... lots of bad news Sad ).

Here on the farm we've got some of the early stuff planted in the garden. I'm working on pruning more plants... the pussy willow trees are covered with... errr, catkins. Yea, that's the ticket. The cherry and plum trees are going nuts with flowers. Spring is here! We hit 60 for a high a few days ago, and then dropped to the lower 40s, now back to the mid 50s. When Spring sproings, the high temp can vary by almost 20 degrees from day to day. The pacific tree frogs are going NUTS in the wet fields, the cacophony at night is glorious to hear. The robins returned a bit late a few weeks ago, but they did return. All the birds are starting to pair up, including the local bald eagles. The soil is thriving, and many small birds stalk the garden beds, looking for bugs and worms. Go them! Eat the cabbage worms!

Looking forward to reading your comments, about whatever, in this Open Thread. I'll be here in the afternoon/evening, as normal.

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If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

ggersh's picture

@lotlizard It's the owners of Pit Bulls that are piss poor humans and enable this behavior. Pit Bulls are a very loving protective breed who get along with other dogs as a norm. We take my pittie Luna to the dog park every weekend without a problem and she's nearly 7 years old.

If you've got a bad dog, it's generally considered that you have a bad owner.

Hopefully the Cat is ok and has 9 more lifes to live.

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I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

@ggersh

Don’t beat the dog until you know it’s master.

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Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work for the benefit of all."
- John Maynard Keynes

ggersh's picture

@ovals49

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I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

Sima's picture

@ggersh
Pit Bulls, remember when Rotwielers and German Shepherds got the rap? I'm so sorry for the cat, and so angry at the Pit Bulls' owners.

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If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

Lookout's picture

Went back to the pocket this morning to stroll the wildflower trail. The blue bells were at peak bloom and celandine poppies were coming on strong too. Large white trillium were just starting, and so much more. What a spot along the creek in a back holler. Photo page here, and even found a 8 min clip below...
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIhRDnajNKA]

A mid-March walk on this trail, also called the Pocket, yielded a dazzling array of beautiful and varied Georgia wildflowers. Robert Hjelmstad graciously allowed his music to accompany the movie.

Hope you're all having a good day. Touching up the road this pm, but was lucky to have very little wash despite a 2.5" rain the other night.

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Sima's picture

@Lookout
and nice trail. I had to spend too much time inside today. I was not always happy with that, but the outcome is good. I got a new cell phone. My old one was over 10 years old!

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If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

out by the late Mr. Graeber and a collaborator (name escapes me at the moment), The Dawn of Everything. Do you know of this book and, if so, what is your opinion about it? How is it being received by professional archeologists, and anthropologists? I am about a third of the way through, and so far am partly interested and partly frustrated. I am, in general, a fan of the genres of popular science and popular history, in which writers explain new research for the educated reading public, but I can't decide what to make of Dawn...

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Mary Bennett

Sima's picture

@Nastarana
yet. It's kinda not to my taste, in a way. I get tired of postulating with scant evidence, although I think some of the hypotheses are really exciting. And I get tired of the unsupported postulation being so radical that it gets a ton of publicity, and then anthropologists and archaeologists have to draw all those so excited by the ideas down to reality. I also got tired, I have to admit, of the 'sequence' of human evolution as being set in stone, uni-directional, and with foreseen outcomes. So the book does go against that, and give other ideas that have been popular in anth and arch for a while (from a quick reading of some summaries of the book).

I think this all says I was never much of a theory person! Smile

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If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

CB's picture

in support of the Democrats current platform - Ukraine, vaccinations, Klaus Schwab, The Great Reset AND "You will own nothing and be happy!". In closing he takes 'the knee' for George Floyd.

I think the committee was being punked. ROFL

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Sima's picture

@CB
I too think the committee was being punked. Good grief!

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2 users have voted.

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

enhydra lutris's picture

Just thought that I'd note that today, "capitalism" has no meaning, or too many of them, and hence the article has no referent and is devoid of content. HOWEVER, today it denotes a powewrful religion and the dominant paradigm is a male dominated, semi-hereditary oligarchy, practicing and espousing neo-liberal predatory rentierism with a heavy social darwinist foundation. It is relatively inseparable from an ad hoc class system within which females (and, to a lesser extent, males) of the lower echelons are seen as the legitimate spoils of those persons in any higher echelon, which places assorted constraints and restraints upon the very concept and actual practice of consensual sex.

be well and have a good one

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Sima's picture

@enhydra lutris
I just also think that, say the feudalism of the early middle ages, for example, had many of the same aspects with respect to patriarchal power, poor versus rich, and so on. So I'm not gonna blame the absence of consensual sex on capitalism... alone :).

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3 users have voted.

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

enhydra lutris's picture

@Sima

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

the Ukraine.

Also this could be a factor. (2nd tweet)

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lotlizard's picture

has only good things to say about the sainted Madeleine Albright, in their own staff-written obituary (having run a boilerplate one from German wire service DPA earlier in the day):

https://taz.de/Zum-Tod-von-Madeleine-Albright/%215840388/

(Edited to fix the link)

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Sima's picture

@lotlizard
Although twitter and more were full of people saying, 'Good Riddance' upon hearing about her death. Me, I thought, another grave to dance on!

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If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

Perhaps we should ask the refugees from Haiti and central america about this!

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@humphrey

How many Ukrainians are in for a rude awakening once Uncle Sam reneges on yet another
promise. Makes good headlines, little short on practical solutions IMO.

What about the Afghans?

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Sima's picture

@QMS
What about the Afghanis?

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If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

Sima's picture

@humphrey

Yes. The color of the skin (or location of the invaded country, as it's in Europe) has everything to do with this...

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If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

I dissent from the common view among many critics of the Biden War of Indignation against Putin and Russia to the effect that our President is dragging the USA into the Neocon Wet Dream of kicking the asses of first Russia and then China to take full control of Planet Earth. Just like Pinky and The Brain. I recently stated on this board the opinion that nobody on the planet is so stupid as to imagine that such a scheme could possibly be successful. As we get deeper into absurdity, another explanation has occurred to me.

Personally, I have still not bought into the idea that the WEF Reset is based in the pandemic. I do not disbelieve that theory -- like everything else now, it could be true, it could be partly true, or it could be nonsense to imagine that Klaus and Company have been the driving force behind the never ending nightmare of Fauci's Follies. I don't worry about the who at this point anyway -- I am still trying to figure out what the fuck is the point of the Covid Cult and the Putin Hate.

In the deep blue sky, an azure sky of deepest summer so to speak, I want to imagine what would be a rationale for what we are seeing as the USA hokes up a trade war that we will lose -- not just lose, but get brought down from the heights of world domination to the dregs of Third World dysfunctionality?

So, let's leave provable objective facts behind as we speculate. Suppose you see national sovereignty for more than 200 jurisdictions, each with its own political and social structure, as a Problem to Be Solved. Facing world wide problems like Climate Change and Environmental Degradation that demand cooperation and shared sacrifice, and with the United Nations being a total failure at preventing war and fostering international cooperation, somebody could easily conclude that the world will fall into chaos unless a New World Order succeeds the current chaos.

One possible solution is to imagine that the American Neocons have nominated themselves as Unifiers of the Planet. First step is to have Regime Change in Russia. Second step is to have Regime Change in China. Boom! US is the Boss Country forevermore. Right? I repeat, no one is stupid enough to believe that would be result.

How'd that Regime Change Strategy work out in Afghanistan and Iraq? Dear Reader, do you, in your heart, really believe that these guys are so stupid to think that they will rule the world with the power of insults?

Please, if only for shits and giggles, join with me and imagine yourself in a position to help the People of Earth get passed the obsolete stage of National Sovereignty and to unite in a stable global community ruled by competence rather than blood loyalty. If that is your ultimate goal, what would be the first step?

Knock off the American Empire.

Hmmmm. Who are our leaders? Biden, Harris, Pelosi.

Hmmmm. What keeps our economy afloat? The dollar is the world's reserve currency.

Hmmmm. What "friends" do we have in other countries? A shrinking cadre, mainly in Europe.

So is somebody else knocking off the American Empire, or are we doing it to ourselves?

Is that even a meaningful question when capitalists run all the governments of the world?

.

Edited to add quotation marks around the word, "friends" referring our vassal states that will be hit even harder than we get hit by our roundhouse punch to our own nose.

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I cried when I wrote this song. Sue me if I play too long.

lotlizard's picture

@fire with fire  
Germany in particular acts as if it were still occupied. I guess with so many U.S. military bases, de facto, it is.

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@lotlizard @lotlizard
.
I edited the reference to put "friends" in quotes. It makes the point a little better. Thanks for pointing it out.

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I cried when I wrote this song. Sue me if I play too long.

Sima's picture

@fire with fire
I don't know that it's based in a pandemic, although they sure practiced for a lot of them. I think the PTB are scared, but blind like all the rest of us about certain things. I also do not have much faith in humanity. Some, maybe most, of humanity is pretty good. But... we've killed each other and other animals, plants, whatever, for... well all of our existence. Hopefully we are smart enough to stop, but I doubt it. I really do. So the WEF reset? Not gonna do much.

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If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

janis b's picture

The chorus of tree frogs and the sight of pussy willows starting to flower in addition to all the other life coming alive must be such a treat. Thanks for picturing it for us.

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Sima's picture

@janis b
I just got a new camera, so we might be getting some pictures of the pussy willows, at least. And maybe some frogs! Have a great Friday, as I seem to have missed most of Thursday!

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If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

janis b's picture

@Sima

are especially what I'd enjoy seeing.

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Sima's picture

@janis b
I'll get some for next week's photography thread!

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If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

janis b's picture

@Sima

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