THAT BEING SAID.. 'KNOWLEDGE IS POWER" As soon as we close our minds to anything new information , we have begun to dig our own graves.
I find it offensive you insult Guess who's reverence for his parents...
I didn't.
It's because it's been said so many times that I'm really over it.
Yetti, I now think you have repeated some comments to the point of causing us 100 times more boredom:
"See a therapist for your issues"
"having pity parties".
"Get a job"
and so on, ad nauseum.
I also find your personal attacks on people such as Max, Tigger, Rossco and Sarah quite tedious to say the very least.
The more you say these things, the more we won't want to take any notice. I tried therapy - it only made me feel crappier about myself for the most part. I don't need it - I can manage with just a little bit of practical assistance on occasion.
Therapy helps a few people but unlike the society you live in, people in other countries aren't usually so obssessed about it.
You never took notice from the beginning ..that is your challenge. As A Deist it is my belief we all make our own heaven or hell right here on Earth. God gives us the power and tools. If we don't use them ,then it falls back to us.. and NO one else.
A heroine of mine Elizabeth Cady Staton.. the mother of Feminism in America along with Susan B Anthony her life long friend.. wrote "The Solitude of the Self"
Let me share.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article..._cady.html
The Solitude of Self by Elizabeth Cady Stanton
By Lori Voth
Takeaways
The Solitude of Self speech is by Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton was a key figure in the women's rights movement.
The Solitude of Self is a speech about the sixteenth amendment As president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), Elizabeth Cady Stanton worked closely with other leaders to argue for women's rights. The speech, "Solitude of Self" was delivered before the House Judiciary Committee in Washington on January 18, 1982 along with other testimonies from Susan B. Anthony. It was originally written for the NAWSA convention as Stanton's farewell speech as she gave up her position as president, but she was forced to skip the convention to attend the unexpected, last minute hearings of the House to testify. It is believed that she still delivered the speech to the convention, only at a later time.
The speech is very appropriate for the House audience. Stanton begins by addressing the chairman and the gentlemen of the committee and states that since she "has been speaking before them for the last twenty years and has gone over all the arguments in favor of a sixteenth amendment, it is not necessary to repeat them again." This opening is direct and matter-of-fact and is a good technique for setting the tone of the speech. She is basically saying, "You already know what I'm here for; now let's get down to business." This tactic is very particular to the audience because had she been speaking to a regular public, it may have been necessary to go into the arguments the Association had thus far presented. In this case, the men had already heard them and doing so would have been superfluous. As for the members of the NAWSA, whom the speech was originally written to address for their convention, it is also very appropriate. For them, it again, does not go through all the arguments for women's' rights that they all know so wee, but instead simply describes what each woman deserves. It is persuasive in a subtle way, for it is not really intended to initiate one certain action, but it is more of a subtle persuasive tool to get the crowd motivated and dedicated to their beliefs and rights.
The thesis and main point of the speech is that as an individual, "a woman has the right and the duty to use all her faculties for he own safety and happiness." Stanton's main support for her thesis is the theory of solitude, the idea that each individual must face life alone and that each individual should have an equal opportunity to handle it. She wants us to believe at the end of the speech that in everything we do, each emotional relief or torment we go through, we ultimately experience it alone. She states that although there may be times when things are made easier by someone or something else, in the end we fight for ourselves and therefore we should be given the same opportunities to take care of ourselves.
Stanton begins her argument by setting the stage, listing what belongs to a woman as an individual, as a citizen, and as an equal factor in civilization. She states that under these titles, women are entitled to the same rights as other citizens and other members of civilization, or men. She makes it clear that women should be viewed by what they are, individuals, and not by their roles as mother, daughter or sister because they may never even be that, and as she states, men are not viewed by their role as father or brother.
Her major point to argue for a woman's rights is the isolation of every human soul and that the necessity of self dependence must give each individual the right to choose his own surroundings. Stanton states minor arguments under this idea throughout the speech but it is for this reason that she is making every statement, with many different ideas to support it. One supporting idea is that nature set us up as individuals ready for individual action. She explains how every person is different; everything in nature is unique, that "no one has ever found two ribbons of grass alike." We come into this world alone, we have to face it alone, and we leave it alone.
She describes how children when they are too young to analyze or share their feelings of pain have to deal with them alone and she tells a story of a girl who was disappointed at a family Christmas and no matter what was done to help her in the end, she dealt with the pain in solitude. She goes on to list several more instances when we deal with pain alone, such as when facing the death of a loved one, or a defeat by another candidate for a position (presidency), or as a pauper or a criminal in jail. Stanton states," seeing then that life must ever be a march and a battle, that each soldier must be equipped for his own protection, it is the height of cruelty to rob the individual of a single natural right."
To rebut arguments that a woman may be dependent on man and get help from men she claims that still, "to manage a household, have a desirable influence in society…train her children and servants well, he must have rare common sense, wisdom, diplomacy and a knowledge of human nature." She says that a woman trained to be dependent on someone else is a failure in any position and when she is unhappy in her ignorance and embarrassed by her dependence, again, she deals with it alone. She later claims that nothing can "shelter women from the fierce storms of life for they beat on her from every point on every compass, just as they do man…" And again she deals with them in solitude.
Stanton delivers these arguments using simple, matter-of-fact style to get her points across and she does so very effectively. She begins by getting directly to the point. After her introduction to the Chairman and gentleman of the committee, she begins by saying, "The point I wish plainly to bring before you is the individuality of each human soul" Our Protestant idea, the right of individual conscience and judgment, our republican idea, individual citizenship." She elaborates briefly on that and then moves on to secondly, thirdly, and fourthly. This tactic of putting her arguments in order and in their own categories leads us to believe that she knows what she is here to say and that she is prepared and it is all very simple. She uses easy language, not only making it easier for the listeners to grasp, but implying that the matter she is arguing for is simple, nothing detailed or difficult to understand, simply a god given right that women deserve.
An interesting technique Stanton uses is that she makes everything into a statement, as if it is true. There are never any self conscious sentences like "I feel" or "Women feel" and as well she never acts as if she is trying to persuade by saying "I urge you to…" or "Please understand." Instead she says things such as "The isolation of every human soul and the necessity of self-dependence must give each individual the right to choose his own surroundings" and "No mortal ever has been, no mortal ever will be like the soul just launched on the sea of life," and "in youth our most bitter disappointments, our brightest hopes and ambitions are known only to ourselves." All of these statements are philosophical but Stanton says them as truth, even though they are things she thought up on her own. This subtly leads the listener to also believe it as truth.
"The Solitude of Self" is also very rich in analogies and Stanton uses many examples for the point she delivers. When asking for the complete development of every individual, "first for his own benefit and happiness" she uses the analogy of fitting an army: "In fitting out an army we give each soldier his own knapsack, arms powder, his blanket, cup, knife, fork and spoon. We provide alike for all their individual necessities, then each man bears his own burden." She also cites an analogy of a satire on woman's position in the nineteenth century from a Shakespeare play, "Titus and Andronicus." She tells of how in the play the king's daughter was taken and her hands and tongue were cut out and then she was told to go call for water and wash her hands. Stanton explains this towards her point saying the woman is "robbed of her natural rights, handicapped by law and custom at every turn, yet compelled to fight her own battles and in the emergencies of life to fall back on herself for protection."
More resources
American Intellectual Tradition: Volume Two, 1865-present, by David Hollinger, Eighty Years and More Reminiscences 1815 to 1897 by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton: Woman Suffrage and the first vote by Dawn Adiletta
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