I liked a very thoughtful talk Pratiksha delivered in Hindi on the subject of disadvantages men and women suffer for being men and women in her video-blog on Lallantop, and posted the following comment addressing Pratiksha.
You've been courageous and candid in your expression, Pratiksha.
So thanks for that.
And special thanks for relying on that primordial human emotion 'love' which can heal all wounds there are, and bridge all differences there can be.
There are, however, less thought out threads in your view.
Calling men a 'quam' is cringe-worthy because all men are women, just as all women are men.
My mother, my sister, my cousins, and all other women close to me are inside me. They are part of me.
I like the view that Gulab Kothari has disseminated through his writings, namely that the
difference is only in the degree of non-material elements: 'som' and 'agni'.
Men tend to have more 'agni' and less 'som', just as women have more 'som' and less 'agni'.
So a man and a woman complement each other.
'Complement' is the operative word.
Guess what? The basis of all human relationships is 'complementarity' -- not 'equality'.
In all our relationships, we 'complement' each other --- and not 'equal' each other.
None of us is 'equal' or can be 'equal' to any other human being.
'Equality' is, in my view, is a meaningless concept. Why on earth would I want to be 'equal' to any other person? What does it mean to be 'equal'?
Another less thought out thread in your talk is to posit an ultimate culprit called 'society' and seek to hang everything on this peg called 'society'.
But aren't you 'society' too?
And I?
Isn't your sister or brother society? And your cousin or friend or colleague?
Each one of us is society. So who are we blaming for what each of us is?
I believe we need to have a clearer understanding of primordial human community and culture -- which has continued to exist among us although it seems to have been fast eroding -- and how it reconciled all differences without taking this fraudulent view of men and women as two opposite poles.
A lot of our imagined "problems' has to do with fraudulent concepts introduced by a fraudulent domain called 'political'.
A cohesive human community and culture has the capacity to reconcile all differences and allow every member to have a fulfilling life.
So the key is not to engage in the wild goose chase after fraudulent or meaningless concepts like 'equality', but to appreciate the value of human community and culture -- and seek to set right whatever fault we find in our community and culture.
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This post contains the following Web-links.
1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJxKLtYu_hY
(पुरुषों, आज एक औरत तुम सबको Thank you कहना चाहती है. The Lallantop; published on 02 April 2018)
2. https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/complementarity
(Definition of 'complementarity' in online Oxford English dictionary: A relationship or situation in which two or more different things improve or emphasize each other's qualities.
‘a culture based on the complementarity of men and women’)
You've been courageous and candid in your expression, Pratiksha.
So thanks for that.
And special thanks for relying on that primordial human emotion 'love' which can heal all wounds there are, and bridge all differences there can be.
There are, however, less thought out threads in your view.
Calling men a 'quam' is cringe-worthy because all men are women, just as all women are men.
My mother, my sister, my cousins, and all other women close to me are inside me. They are part of me.
I like the view that Gulab Kothari has disseminated through his writings, namely that the
difference is only in the degree of non-material elements: 'som' and 'agni'.
Men tend to have more 'agni' and less 'som', just as women have more 'som' and less 'agni'.
So a man and a woman complement each other.
'Complement' is the operative word.
Guess what? The basis of all human relationships is 'complementarity' -- not 'equality'.
In all our relationships, we 'complement' each other --- and not 'equal' each other.
None of us is 'equal' or can be 'equal' to any other human being.
'Equality' is, in my view, is a meaningless concept. Why on earth would I want to be 'equal' to any other person? What does it mean to be 'equal'?
Another less thought out thread in your talk is to posit an ultimate culprit called 'society' and seek to hang everything on this peg called 'society'.
But aren't you 'society' too?
And I?
Isn't your sister or brother society? And your cousin or friend or colleague?
Each one of us is society. So who are we blaming for what each of us is?
I believe we need to have a clearer understanding of primordial human community and culture -- which has continued to exist among us although it seems to have been fast eroding -- and how it reconciled all differences without taking this fraudulent view of men and women as two opposite poles.
A lot of our imagined "problems' has to do with fraudulent concepts introduced by a fraudulent domain called 'political'.
A cohesive human community and culture has the capacity to reconcile all differences and allow every member to have a fulfilling life.
So the key is not to engage in the wild goose chase after fraudulent or meaningless concepts like 'equality', but to appreciate the value of human community and culture -- and seek to set right whatever fault we find in our community and culture.
----------
This post contains the following Web-links.
1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJxKLtYu_hY
(पुरुषों, आज एक औरत तुम सबको Thank you कहना चाहती है. The Lallantop; published on 02 April 2018)
2. https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/complementarity
(Definition of 'complementarity' in online Oxford English dictionary: A relationship or situation in which two or more different things improve or emphasize each other's qualities.
‘a culture based on the complementarity of men and women’)