2. Another thought on my mind is I wish more people would make a distinction between "correlation" and "cause" as they make judgments about things. A correlation is merely an observed relationship between two or more factors...its a starting point for analysis and decision-making. Cause, on the other hand, is a decisive relationship between variables which gives rise to multiple and varied "effects" or results. For instance, when one thing happens and another also happens, we can observe, tentatively, that there is a correlation between these events. However, that doesn't mean there is a causal relation between them. If most people going to college, for example, have drank a glass of chocolate milk some time in their life, does that mean drinking chocolate milk has "caused" them to go to college? Hardly anyone would try to maintain it did. Yet, the same relationship between more serious realities might be given a causal definition. Just because so many black people are in prison doesn't mean that their blackness "causes" them to commit crimes, does it? Granted, the correlation seems evident...but that's the problem...evident doesn't mean "actual." A correlation is only a posed or possible "truth." In fact, without much effort at all, one could establish many correlations between various and sundry realities. This in reality is what science must do in order to progress...speculate about correlations between realities, events, etc....in order to have something to investigate. Besides that, are the only meaningful relations causal ones? Maybe we ought to just forget about finding "causes" and instead, look for conditions which give rise to things. So, lets take care about confusing correlations with causes. Without this care, anything that merely "looks" like truth will be taken as such...and that's the problem with the so-called "reasoning" that passes for real analysis or thought.
3. Maybe what we call "bisexuality"...a physical attraction to members of both genders...is the actual reality of our human existence. Maybe "heterosexuality" is the distortion...that is, maybe its a distortion to limit our physical attraction to the so-called "opposite sex." Maybe "homosexuality" is likewise, a distortion of our "wholeness" as physical beings. Maybe...
4. Speaking as a male who really DOES like and enjoy the female form...I'm quite tired of seeing so much skin. I'm tired of watching woman after woman parade themselves around with this or that showing. Cleavage here...thighs there...enough's enough...especially in situations where its very distracting from the task at hand. I'm not disputing a woman's right to dress any way she pleases, but who's fooling whom? This is especially true about the "professional" woman. What is so "professional" about short, tight skirts which reveal 3/4 or her thigh when she's sitting with her legs crossed? Let me see, we're suppose to NOT notice? We're suppose to take her serious as a thinker and doer all the while she sits there letting it all hang out? Give me a break!! Talk about mixed messages. Skin is great...but in its proper time and place. There ARE many women who understand all this and act and dress appropriately, but too many don't. Plus, there are far too many men who accept all this and in fact, encourage it. There's enough responsibility to go around, but I sincerely believe it starts with women.
5. George Bush, Al Gore, Bill Bradley, Pat Buchanan, etc.? Give me another break. Lets elect nobody...leave the office vacant for 4 years...can that be any worse than what we've always had?
Well, I got a few things off my chest...again. Comments...good or bad...are welcomed.
In the near future I'm going to start using this column as place to comment on some of the sites/links in The Sociology Shop. Please check back if interested. Thanks
