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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lane3 who wrote (73195)	8/25/2003 10:40:43 AM
From: Solon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 82486

Very astute post. As you know, I think, my personal preference is to go head to head with people and to judge the words rather than the person. But I am guilty at times of looking beyond the words. "I find that particularly cruel because it's so subtle and pervasive, so indirect and craven, so easily rationalized by the perpetrators." I find such a world-view incomprehensible. I wonder what motivates such behaviour? Rage? Fear?

To: Lane3 who wrote (73195)	8/25/2003 11:13:18 AM
From: The Philosopher	Respond to of 82486

Right up there at the tippy top of my list, though, is exclusion. Which is why you don't exclude anybody from your posting here, right?

To: Lane3 who wrote (73195)	8/25/2003 11:59:09 AM
From: one_less	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 82486

"Right up there at the tippy top of my list, though, is exclusion." Yes. So, much so that you may be blind to a balanced view of this highly politicized "code word." You have promoted the terminology “code word,” to indicate hidden political agenda. A while back I suggested that you consider the possibility that “inclusion” has become a code word. Since, you and ‘X’ decided to go on a chortling jag, I figured it would not make a worthy topic for discussion. Now, I see that you using “Exclusion” as having topical interest. In our society we start early on with our including and excluding of individuals based on their unique identifying characteristics. Age is a big factor we use to consider whether or not to include or exclude. There are age criteria used to decide who will be allowed to go to school and once in school the entry criteria to move into a higher grade. Age criteria to get a driver’s license and skills criteria to qualify for an auto racing event. Skills and abilities are major factors used to help us decide who will be included and who will be excluded. In some cases it is simply a matter of having some history of involvement with a group. You are an alumni of your school or class and are included in the reunions on that basis alone. You may also qualify for inclusion into some professional organization based simply on your having some involvement in the field. Likewise, with employment you may need some history of involvement with people in the profession as well as some special skills. In 1978 I was employed at a mine in the high mountains of western Colorado. The product was U238 Uranium. The operation was active for 3 shifts so that it ran around the clock and employed a couple of hundred people from the beginning. There were several hundred applicants and among them were 4 women. All four women were hired since the international mining company had a gender equity policy. Many men who were the sole bread winners of their family were passed over to give these women a job. The qualifications of the women? You might argue that they must have been the highest qualified women in western Colorado. However, I was there and they were not. They were hookers who openly and actively promoted their wears on the job. I know because they car pooled with me. Some of the men were so upset over it, that they threatened to take me behind a tree and show me the seriousness of their concerns (never happened). They did break the ice for women working at mines and eventually women who actually offered some useful mining skills were hired, and the sluts went back to their night jobs. Inclusion in education has been huge over the past few decades. Students with handicaps are included into programs where the only possible benefit that could be identified would be diversity of involvement. The other educational goals of the program might be totally beyond the person’s abilities to benefit. It is often argued that including the handicapped person in these situations is costing the handicapped person other opportunities to learn useful skills, and that it is costing the other students an opportunity to advance at their optimum in the skills domain. There have been lots of efforts to include people due solely to their demographic. In some cases it has been to socially engineer a different power structure. Most of the time the word “inclusion” is used innocuously. However, it is also used to advance political agendas. You seem to dislike “code words” that underlie issues that you don’t like but deny their presence when lying beneath issues you do like.