...this is not to say that I am anti-anything! Just a curious conundrum. What is normal? Normal is usually defined as what is generally societally acceptable. Murder is not societally acceptable - except when everybody (or the ruling class) agrees to it! Oh yeah? What's the death penalty? What is war - even "just" wars are "making the other bastard die for HIS country" (thanks, General Patton). By and large, I have really never seen anyone but the obvious bigot decline conversation with any other person, except in a crowd - again, societal acceptance, mob rules. *sigh* - Its late - and Im losing my thread. -- Eddie Pedantic Gasbag Discussion Group

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Date Posted: 00:21:06 07/11/01 Wed
Author: a little more, for clarity
Subject: ...this is not to say that I am anti-anything! Just a curious conundrum. What is normal? Normal is usually defined as what is generally societally acceptable. Murder is not societally acceptable - except when everybody (or the ruling class) agrees to it! Oh yeah? What's the death penalty? What is war - even "just" wars are "making the other bastard die for HIS country" (thanks, General Patton). By and large, I have really never seen anyone but the obvious bigot decline conversation with any other person, except in a crowd - again, societal acceptance, mob rules. *sigh* - Its late - and Im losing my thread.
In reply to: gumtree (digging deeper and deeper) 's message, "Im not sure about Mr. Vidal, but - nature vs. nurture - who put the "vs" in it? I believe that we are Human Beings, a blend of genetics and environment - you cannot separate them. All but basic behavior is learned - and learning has many forms, only one is "the way yer raised." We make decisions through our lives (not making a decision is a decision) - and with personality one tends to what works (which can include being outrageous to society - being "different" can be as strong a desire as many others). On the "nature" side of things, if we are honest, homosexuality is abhorrent - (wait! READ) as its counter-survival, in a species-survival sense. I know of no animals that practice same-gender sexual relations (on a continuing basis) except Human Beings (I exclude infamous Malthusan experiments with lab-rat overpopulation). Why is this? Our overdeveloped fore-brain, re: decision making capabilities? Where does this lead? Why am I writing this? Aggh...." on 00:10:01 07/11/01 Wed

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LOL Gummy, you know socially acceptable is such a sieve innit? I mean all those Repubs getting all upset about Clinton's BJ and then, oops, a little bit of a mess in their own private lives, socially acceptable is what everybody kowtows to, not what they actually practice. And because I'm lazy I've copied and pasted thisold post of mine from Teri's board, it kinda links to your discussion above-CLICK HERE -- spoot, 03:09:42 07/11/01 Wed