Humans are the quintessential social animal: talking about stuff, especially each other, is what we do, and is of the same moral value as ants using pheromones to tell each other about whatever ants talk about. If it’s not good, that doesn’t make it bad.
But we’re smarter than the other social animals, in that we can talk about what we’re being told. We’re meta-social. And this is what we — especially you, you’re being meta-meta-social — are doing here. We’re critiquing Budgor’s discourse; we’re error-correcting, filtering the signal so that it makes sense to us. And that involves that other human ability, reading each other’s minds. We’re analysing what Budgorr’s telling us to try and figure out the sources of her error. Which means speculating about her character.
If this seems unfair to you, consider that she has managed to amplify her voice via her book, magazine articles and probably a TV documentary to raise the signal strength so that she can meme-bomb many, many of us. If a few dozen of us respond in our incoherent fashion, that only goes a little way towards rebalancing the discourse, to providing a counter to her bad ideas.
Defending people helpless to defend themselves from the wrath of the Internetz is one thing, but Budgor is far from weak, and the criticisms here have been civil and valid for the most part. (That Paris Hilton comparison is possibly the most vicious, to my eyes, and I think it has as much chance of denting her self-esteem as a mosquito getting through a rhino’s hide.)
Yeah, I read the story, too! Great summary for the people who have made it this far without knowing what’s going on.
I guess people are choosing to ignore my “white people complaining about white people” comment, along with the sarcasm.
I’ve been seeing, in various places, but especially on this particular website fellow white people referring to white people as “them” and “they”. Honestly, folks, if you find it troubling, problematic, or embarrassing to be white, ridding yourself of what you perceive as unclean just ain’t that easy.
There’s just something bizarre about white people using “white” as a pejorative. (Hey, what do you call it when you divide humanity into distinct biological groups, and view people of a certain group as inferior or undesireable?)
Having said that, this woman has done something really…I’m trying to think of a non-misogynist word here. I’ve seen ‘douche’ used here before, so I guess it’s okay to call this douchey. She’s done more living than most of us will, yeah, but…she could have seen the world without doing this, and the whole thing of claiming to be a warrior princess and trying to sell books and get an Under Armor deal…wow.
And back to the tribe: considering that they’re poor, about to be impacted by climate change, and are unlikely to be able to do anything about the freight train that will hit them even if we were to stop all pollution tomorrow–what do people propose? They’re not supposed to raise money by bringing in gullible Westerners, they’re not supposed to get aid because it causes cultural contamination…this isn’t Star Trek and none of y’all are Jean-Luc Picard, so don’t give me a bunch of Prime Directive crap about how we have to just let them fend for themselves, let Darwin sort them out. Their culture is already tainted and we’re to blame for their current and future suffering. Solutions, anyone?
“She is harmless”. But is she really, though? I’d quote the late, great Bill Hicks, and say she is one of those that “taint our collective unconsciousness”. I’d say that is harmful to us as a society. We should at the very least be allowed to tell her how stupid she appears, and maybe discourage others from following her lead.
Eh, Mate! The gravy and cheese matter. I’m a large fan of beef an’ havarti myself - the trick is to drizzle with just enough gravy to melt, so you have a nice, sticky, oooey-gooey pile of slightly soggy (but thoroughly delicious) fries. Come on back - I’ve got a moose nose to offer yuh.
I think people even tend to miss (or forget) how introspective and subtle the film is. Lawrence vacillates between egotistically reveling in his own accomplishments, and detesting himself for doing so. The movie is not so much about glorifying T.E. Lawrence as drawing out questions of power and identity – for Lawrence personally, as well as the British Empire and the Arab tribes. It was particularly apt for its time, considering the state of the world then. Heck, it’s just as relevant now.
So, according to a Maasai I talked to a few weeks ago when I was in Africa, daughters are actually considered more valuable than sons in a Maasai village, because you get dowry for a daughter when she is married. It’s also typical for men to marry multiple wives; when I asked what happened to the surplus men, he said, “There aren’t any extra men.” Because being a warrior has a high mortality rate. So viewing the lack of female Maasai warriors purely through a prism of Western power structures is limiting; women are considered too valuable to send out to be eaten by lions. According to my guy, that is.
To be fair, there is this… From a guy who tends to think hard and critically about race in America, discussing what it’s like to be a black American abroad, and the kind of privilege that being an American affords him, while not at all ignoring the fact that he’s black. For what it’s worth, he makes a point, but that point would not work coming out of a white mouth. And of course, Europeans, for all their looking down their noses at racist, imperialist Americans, have a deep and troubled history of their own racism and imperialism that continues to inform the present.
I think my point is not that Colman is right because I don’t agree with him, but that the relationship between race, cultural imperialism and the world is more complex than just black and white, if you will.
But in the case of this white woman who thinks she’s a warrior princess, I think it does matter that she’s white. But being American might in this case be somewhat decisive, too.
I think this is a great point. I think what people forget is that many cultures don’t adhere to our notions of public-private sphere, and hence they have different notions of value for members of their community. While women may be barred from being warriors, it doesn’t mean they are not valued for how they contribute to their societies. Prior to industrialization, women were indeed seen as contributing members of a household, and often worked outside the home in their communities, producing value for their families in complex ways.
I agree, nothing wrong with haggling as you participate in a transaction. I do it here too, when appropriate. But there is haggling as cultural form, and then there is having knock down drag out haggles over 25 cents with people who make $5/day at best.
The specific experience I was referring to was a group of taxis that were available to take us up a mountainside to a remote hot springs. There had been a mudslide the night before and it was not known whether the springs were open or not. The privileged assholes who were haggling didn’t want to pay for the taxi, if the springs were closed - they wanted the drivers to take them up the mountain on spec, burning their own gas and time, and presumably give them a ride down again for free if it was a bust. Assholes - when talking about what at the time was a dollar at most. In the worst case they’d have an amazing ride up a mountainside on a backroad.*
Those privileged douchebags (there really is no other word) wanted to have their cake and eat it too - and I’ve seen the same dynamic many times.
I know all the arguments against overpaying in places where there is a huge currency/wealth gap. I also know there is a line, and if the people there can’t get a little economic boost from having us in their country, then what good are we?
*The springs were open and the future Mrs. rocketpjs and I had a fantastic 5 days. None of the privileged douches showed up, so I assume they found the prospect of paying a dollar too rich for their blood. (Ignoring the fact that they must have taken the trip to that town to go to the springs, there was no other reason to be there).
I think the reason that white people are bitching about white people is because some of us actually want a world that is not based on privilege and power based on something as arbitrary as the color of one’s skin and the HISTORICAL AND CURRENT MEANING BEHIND THAT SKIN COLOR, which is the real point here, not whiteness itself. And I will point out the instability of “white” anyway, something still in a constant flux of change-- look at the debate of the “race” of Zimmerman, for example-- is he white or isn’t he? Some people don’t consider hispanic to be white, but it is to others. I could also point out historically, the history of the Irish, who were seen as a degraded “race”, especially in relationship to the English, into the 19th and 20th century, but the meaning of Irish became “whitened” as they interacted with the American power system and became a backbone of power in places like New York City. Do you really think that the history of race and how it was constructed and used to brutalize people, which I will remind you is in living memory for a whole shit load of people in the world right now as we speak and in fact continues to inform our foreign and domestic policy on a daily basis, is meaning less because it happened before you or I were born?
The point isn’t to “clease” oneself of whiteness, but to try and understand the story from another point of view. Being white means that you understand and experience the world from one perspective - fair enough. Rather than striding the world, trying to make everyone else fit into our narratives of bootstrap rationalized/secularized protestantism, it makes so much more sense to actually spend time listening to people whose skin color, location, gender, sexual orientation, or whatever gives them a different perspective on how the world works. Going out and becoming a Masai “warrior princess” is not listening to this community and trying to figure out who they are, how they view the world, and what they want out of a global society (or if they want out of that global society). It’s white, American privilege that is forcing an idea of egalitarianism on them. Maybe instead of imposing solultions on the Masai, we maybe let them live their lives and stop trying to force them and billions of others into the global neolibral capitalist economy? But we won’t, because I bet a fair amouth of them live on land that has resources of one kind or another that we “need” to be able to sit around and bitch about white people trying to become Masai warrior princesses?
Also… white people… lol… They are funny. [edited to add] Myself included… I’m ridiculous and hilarious. Ask my undergrads.
Based on the physical and intelligence tests, they aren’t looking for the best and brightest (Can you do 3 pull ups without falling over, do 50 crunches in 2 minutes and run 3 miles in 30 minutes? Do you know what words like wilted mean and what the square root of 9 is? If so, you could be a US marine!) I guess it’s not a great analogy, but the real test of a warrior would seem to be things like their commitment to their comrades and to serving in the face of danger rather than their ability to hit a buffalo in the butt with a spear and attend a wedding.
(Can you do 3 pull ups without falling over, do 50 crunches in 2 minutes and run 3 miles in 30 minutes? Do you know what words like wilted mean and what the square root of 9 is? If so, you could be a US marine!) I guess it’s not a great analogy, but the real test of a warrior would seem to be things like their commitment to their comrades and to serving in the face of danger rather than their ability to hit a buffalo in the butt with a spear and attend a wedding.
