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Originally posted by 2HousePlague
Of course, in theory, altruism is gender-neutral and wholly GOOD. It's in practice and application that the ideas of necessary servitude and noble suffering become capriciously associated with the latest System of Power -- and since it's usually men who are defining and enforcing thoses associations (between compliance and virtue), the implications for women (again, in practice, not in theory) are enslaving and objectifying. Of course, as advice against this treatment, Rand's Objectivism is correct.
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I don't necessarily agree with the idea that altruism is good, to be honest.
You see, the argument you make about altruism in practice forcing women into a subservient, objectified role applies to humanity as a whole, if you look at it closely.
Altruism, the way it has developed under both humanistic and christian modernist traditions, ultimately requires of man that he becomes not only a part of, but also secondary to society as a whole.
The woman who is forced to stay at home and take care of the house and kids is just as heavily influenced by this as the man who spends 70 hours a week working jobs he hates, or is sent of to war to die for the words of politicians.
The problem with this, ofcourse, is that it isn't solved by feminism and female emancipation. The woman who moves from the stove and the children to those 70 hour work weeks remains a slave of the system, she just takes a different position in that system.
What someone like Rand (or Nietzsche) does, is to promote breaking free from the entire "slave morality", and to promote living according to one's own morality, passions and judgements.
If one looks only at women who do this, it will indeed look as if they are merely fighting the traditional patriarchal social forms. The truth, however, is that the difference is a much more fundamental one.
Unfortunately, society as a whole would collapse if everyone did this. For society to continue functioning, it is necessary that many people - if not the majority - live lives they'd rather not have, with jobs they hate and a moral system which mainly consists of what is forced upon them by society.
Quote:
Originally posted by 2HousePlague
And yes, I do agree wtih that (most of the time) belief systems (whether secular or sprititual) rob the individual of power and self-determination. But, it is my personal opinion that GROWTH for human beings requires a constant struggling with the question: "Am I God, or am I subject to God" -- just like Milton illuminated in Paradise Lost.
j-
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Just curious, why do you think personal growth requires the involvement of the question of God?