Datapanik
Earthling
Posts: 26
(6/7/07 22:41)
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Mea Culpa: A Retraction
Upon reflection, and a rather extended period of simply not caring, I’d like to take this opportunity to retract the apology offered in the thread titled "Mea Culpa." Having recently run across the Gorean Chronicles website, I found some very disturbing letters by John Norman—some new, some republished from the World of Gor website. His rhetoric in these letters clearly show that his novels are not merely the puerile B&D musings of a hack writer, but, rather, deeply held philosophical opinions considered applicable to human beings in general. Norman’s letters also reveal a right-wing ideologue, of a distinctly Libertarian slant, who eschews humanist principles, declaims "liberal" politics, and continues in his rather paranoiac attacks on feminism. In short, he is something just this side of Lyndon LaRouche—or maybe something a little greasier on the other side.
My apology was a mistake. It now strikes me as somewhat akin to offering an apology to Jean-Marie le Pen, of France’s National Front—a thing I’d never do under any circumstances. Nor would I apologize to a misogynist, a racist, or a believer in angels. My apology was an effort to avoid being banned from the Gorean Fellowship board, a condition imposed by the moderator, Singh, in response to ad hominem attacks from Marcus_of_Ar and various "Gorean lifestylers." Why I wished to retain my membership with that forum is a mystery to me, one made more vivid by the subsequent disappearance of that board. In fact, there is not a single thing, vis à vis my interaction with "Goreans" since 1996, for which I now feel remorse. Yes, I’ve engaged in certain deceptions over the years in my quest to understand the mindset of these people—pretended to be a female submissive, a Free Woman, and a veteran of the Air Force so as to gain acceptance among the Silk $ Steel crowd. I don’t apologize for any of that.
To my eye, the so-called "Gorean philosophy" is both vacant and bankrupt. It is based upon a distinctly unscientific view of the biological world, and politics drawn from the fetid swamp of Objectivism. It is, beyond any shadow of a doubt, a consistently poorly-written diatribe against women—to the extent of misogyny. It may not precisely reflect National Socialist politics, but it is an extreme right-wing worldview that runs counter to my principles. There is the odor of eugenics to it, and the profound stink of solipsism. And, when everything else is said and done, it is a worldview drawn from—leapin’ lizards!—pulp fiction written by an angry third-rate writer. The simple fact is that much of the Western world does not take Norman’s ideas seriously—either as depicted in the novels or as expressed by political leaders on the fringes of society. Self-styled Goreans represent a backward-looking minority of Americans (or Canadians, or Australians, or whomever), and a bunch who’ve already lost the battle.
I really do not expect anyone to read or respond to this entry. Since EZBoard’s decline—or conversion into the significantly less user-friendly Yuku—I’m of the opinion that hardly anyone visits this site any longer. Maybe no one does. But, having read the perplexing letters of John Norman on the Gorean Chronicles site, and remembered the "Mea Culpa" post of quite awhile back, I just decided that this addendum was necessary. In short, phuck John Norman, and phuck anything redolent of that Gorean atrocity.
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