Andrea Dworkin Haunts Me -or- Ghosts of Protests Past

Every 68 seconds, an American is sexually assaulted. Every 9 minutes the victim is a Child. Only 25 of every 1,000 perpetrators will go to prison.

https://www.rainn.org/statistics

Now that REDpublicans are proposing to put women who abort a rape pregnancy in prison for more time than their rapist, I thought I would run this again.

I'm a radical feminist, not the fun kind. - Andrea Dworkin

The #MeToo Movement's power, and the chaos that has accompanied that power's expression, has me remembering Andrea Dworkin.

Ms. Dworkin was reviled for talking about pornography and the politics of rape and sex in the 70s. And is still reviled by folks making something off her strong back.

But what no one said, and what no one wrote in Dworkin's obituaries, was this: Dworkin's true legacy has been that far too many young women today would rather be bitten by a rabid dog than be considered a feminist. - Havana Marking 

Andrea Dworkin and I were in college in 1968. Different colleges. Irrepressible, furry, thinking/being Andrea is the activist Sister I turned to in my mind when I began reading #MeToo accounts. So I went looking for her and this quote sprang at me off the page. She died in 2005 and ironically has become even more relevant in 2018.

“I don’t believe rape is inevitable or natural. If I did, I would have no reason to be here. If I did, my political practice would be different than it is. Have you ever wondered why we [women] are not just in armed combat against you? It’s not because there’s a shortage of kitchen knives in this country. It is because we believe in your humanity, against all the evidence.” ― Andrea Dworkin

I publish these quotes out of context. With Andrea Dworkin there is so much context. 

Poster by Favianna Rodriguez. I am a fan.

I never met any of the New York media-darling Sisters in the flesh. I read them all religiously. Ti-Grace was the Southern Belle, Gloria was effective Seven Sisters, Valerie was Artist Nutz, Florynce the Cowboy Lawyer and Germaine was a Brit. What a Meme Bouquet.

In New Jersey we were busy looking up each other's vagina with speculums provided by nurses from NOW at house parties. We were not waiting for the government to say was okay we owned our bodies. We were learning menstrual extraction.

Why Andrea? She speaks to the burning core of my condition now the WombZombies are on the march again.:

“In her heart she is a mourner for those who have not survived. In her soul she is a warrior for those who are now as she was then. In her life she is both celebrant and proof of women's capacity and will to survive, to become, to act, to change self and society. And each year she is stronger and there are more of her.”
― Andrea Dworkin

 

UPTOWN FUNK - Attitude Adjustment - I NEED IT. Tired of crying.

Thus says the LORD: “A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted, because they are no more.”

“Dance is a song of the body. Either of joy or pain.” – Martha Graham

“We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once.” – Friedrich
Nietzsche

“Work like you don’t need the money. Love like you’ve never been hurt. Dance like nobody’s watching.” – Satchel Paige

Ethics. I think I am talking about Ethics. #2

So You Know Where I  Come From 

 
Born 1943 in an Italian Catholic 'hood.
Most Neighbors came from Calabria for work in the steel mill.
My Nonno came from Emilia-Romagna, so I have blue eyes.

Every Fall just as we did in Italy
We carry a statue of Madonna of Casandrino 

bedecked with flowers
on palanquin
to the Park with Music
and Feasting
and Knights of Columbus
and Girls dressed as Angels
and Boys carrying be tasseled golden banners.

 

Republican Conservatives have made Hunter Biden a symbol of Uncle Joe Catholic's decadence. Our media never chooses to make talktalk about his war hero Son who died. All we get to see is Hunter the Hound. Hunter just wants to feel good and live well and make bad Art. He makes hot new copy. 

Roman Catholic Conservatives have made Uncle Joe's membership in the Democratic Party a symbol of Joe Biden's Sin. Uncle Joe is to be shamed when he attends Communion is the plan. Dirty baby killer some chant. Makes hot new copy.

Jesus said at the Seder "Do this in remembrance of Me." Jesus loved absolutely. Jesus broke bread in Communion with Judas and Peter.  Peter who denied him. And Judas who left Communion with bread crumbs in his beard to get his reward from the Romans.

In my 'hood, a Neighbor who carries the story of that slutty Pagliaro girl or the Arcamone boy's arrest about everywhere, like a gift in a basket, is called Chiacchierone. That means bigmouth or chatterbox. That person is greeted by everyone and trusted by no one. And ghosted relentlessly, except at the tables of those equally despised, where they dine on cakes, wine and malice. "I say to you, they have their reward." That is what Jesus said. I say it is a damn shame that Malignant Scrupulosity is not painful, except to Others.

After the war, US personnel discovered a very large diary dictated by Goebbels. In it are his principles of propaganda. Leonard Doob's 1950 article details them from a translation of the diary by Louis Lochner (1948).

Goebbels' Basic Principles

Avoid abstract ideas - appeal to the emotions.
Constantly repeat just a few ideas. Use stereotyped phrases.
Give only one side of the argument.
Continuously criticize your opponents.
Pick out one special "enemy" for special vilification.

How shall we live in an age of Propagandists and Liars and Doom Merchants? What shall we do about all the pernicious talktalk marketing? 

I am not a powerful person. I am not rich, nor influential in any significant manner. I cannot unilaterally change the way the world around me runs, and I certainly cannot change what people think and say and believe. All I can do is live with integrity, and use that integrity as a platform for living the rest of my life. This living with integrity may not change anything, it may not sway anyone to my way of thinking (or any way of thinking). But it is all I have, and it is what I am committed to do. - Michael Boyle

 

Where is Benjamin Franklin when you need to talk to him? - UPDATE

I wrote this in 2017. Now this article from Wapo gives more substance to my alarm:

The U.S. says humans will always be in control of AI weapons. But the age of autonomous war is already here.

The Pentagon says a ban on AI weapons isn’t necessary. But missiles, guns and drones that think for themselves are already killing people in combat, and have been for years.\

Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote. - Benjamin Franklin 

Congress is not at all interested in what the American people want. And they have no plans to give us anything we want. That becomes more obvious by the day and the event. 

And the government (yours and mine) is working on robot soldiers to kill a lot of us when:

Scott Olsen - Getty Images

1. climate change produces riots because of famine and liack of potable water everywhere or 
2. there is an "American Spring." Mass civil rights demonstrations and food riots are so messy. 

Governments are planning to kill you and me only if necessary, of course. And they have the machines to do us now in great numbers. Right now. And they are working on improving them. And they have secret courts.

So stop with the "lizard people" and "they coming to take our guns, RickyBoy" conspiracy theories and wake up. Just because you are paranoid does not mean no one is following you. Wake the fuck up, World. We all have a big problem. A problem not amenable to retaliatory force. And we cannot solve it if we do not help each other.


UPDATE: Nobody read this much. Most folks probably dismissed my concern because they think I am a crackpot.

I am a crackpot. So the only argument I can extend is continuing to provide information. Talk me down. I am scared.

Progress on developing armed robot soldiers is continuing. As this article from WIRED asserts. I do not know what Franklin's concept of "well-armed" could be when we are confronted with such golems.

Killer Robots With Automatic Rifles Could Be on the Battlefield in 5 Years

• BY ALLEN MCDUFFEE
 

“They’re not just tools, but members of the squad. That’s the goal,” Lt. Col. Willie Smith, chief of Unmanned Ground Vehicles at Fort Benning told Computerworld. “A robot becoming a member of the squad, we see that as a matter of training.”

Darpa Robotics Challenge

UPDATE 2: 

Military Researchers Develop Corpse-Eating Robots

• BY JOHN SCOTT LEWINSKI  
 

From the file marked “Evidently, many scientists have never seen even one scary sci-fi movie”: The Defense Department is funding research into battlefield robots that power themselves by eating human corpses. What could possibly go wrong?

UPDATE 3:
If the Atlantic is writing about robots, robot weaponry and other golems, I guess I am not crazy paranoid after all.

If the Robots Kill Us, It's Because It's Their Job

Don't kill us, guys.

PATRICK TUCKER

UPDATE 4:
Is this a mosquito? 

No. It's an insect spy drone for urban areas, already in production, funded by the US Government. It can be remotely controlled and is equipped with a camera and a microphone. It can land on you, and it may have the potential to take a DNA sample or leave RFID tracking nanotechnology on your skin. It can fly through an open window, or it can attach to your clothing until you take it in your home. 

Read more At http://www.snopes.com/photos/technology/insectdrone.asp#pQ6D2qlAHs9yrW0o.99