Date: Fri, 23 May 1997 18:58:08 -0700 From: redflag <redflag-AT-hominy.dominy.amen> Subject: Re: "education," feminism, and bargaining (was Re: M-FEM: feminism Yoshie Furuhashi wrote: > I agree that it is totally annoying to hear men say that they expect women > to teach them how to respect us. While education should and will go on in a > multi-gender feminist circle, one needs to do some *homework* if one > expects to learn something. Besides, as Jan says, the need for more > education shouldn't be used as a way to displace the responsibility for > change. ==> I never meant to imply that that the resposibility for educating men about their insensibility lay exclusively with women. Nor did I wish to convey the idea that men are somehow excused from having to invest significant effort in their own enlightment. This discussion, i hope, is a good example of men and women trying to arrive at a common understanding of reality with a view to effective revolutionary activity. It is my opinion that socialists have a solemn duty to approach their proletarian fellows with a version of reality in tune with working class interests. Under the influence of capitalism, workers are generally unable to perceive things from their legitimate class interests. It's not their fault; that's the only way they've learned to think. Socialists (workers lucky enough to have have matured politically and socially) possess the necessary understanding to make sense of all things social and economic. Who's responsibility is it to make that knowledge available to workers? This also applies to women who have a clearer understanding of reality regarding the nature of gender oppression. It is primarily *their* responsibility to insist on enlightening men whose social conditioning prevents them from asking the right questions and pursuing the answers as far as logic will take them. -- redflag-AT-bellsouth.net redflag-AT-dc.seflin.org -- Access The People on-line by using our gopher on the Internet at gopher://gopher.slp.org:7019/ Send e-mail to: thepeople-AT-igc.apc.org or 757002.1036-AT-compuserve.com. -- "Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much; Wisdom is humble that he knows no more."
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