[p2p-research] Intelligent People Have "Unnatural" Preferences And Values That Are Novel In...

[j.martin.pedersen]

On 03/03/10 17:27, Kevin Carson wrote:
> On 3/2/10, j.martin.pedersen <m.pedersen at lancaster.ac.uk> wrote:
> 
>> also, for what it is worth - monogamy, in Euro-American culture, is in
>> great part an aspect of an authoritarian institution called the
>> christian church...
> 
> The general value may be associated with Christianity, but at least in
> the U.S.  divorce rates tend to be much higher in stereotypical "Red
> States" where authoritarian strains of fundamentalist Christianity are
> more common, whereas marriages on average are more stable in parts of
> the country where liberal protestantism predominates.

That's the point: monogamy is an authoritarian value imposed upon people
through oppressive institutions - the more you are subjecting yourself
to them, the bigger the strain on your relationship. If you choose to
live monogamously out of your OWN FREE WILL, the pressure decreases. And
vice versa. It is not as if those Christians fundamentalists made the
church and its values originally. They just live in it - and of course
they fail more than others, because they try to live by insane and
insane-making rules to a degree that others do not.

Don't let the tail wag the dog!

> That's one of those paradoxes of American politics that drive the Tea
> Party folks crazy.

This isn't a paradox at all: it confirms the point exactly.

|  Another is that Red States, whose populations are
> much more likely to look down on "welfare queens" and sing the praises
> of "rugged individualism" and "free enterprise," tend to be net tax
> consumers with more working poor on welfare, and to have economies
> heavily reliant on federal military bases or extractive industries
> with privileged access to federal land.

I know nothing about this, really, but one might suggest that being
dependent upon an oppressive force will turn you against that force and
its mechanisms. Not exactly rocket science?!?!?!

- m