Biological determinism – some introspection

I have since a very early age known that we are the product of our biological processes, expressions of our genes, manifestations of our neurochemical interactions. We are by no means somehow elevated to a living theory-in-vivo concept of self-consciousness.

Some might profusely deny the postulation and produce arguments for a plethora of esoteric and spiritual/religious dogma as substantiation that humans are somehow wholly superior and should rule the world as per ancient instruction.

An acquaintance mused that she thought that a large part of our brains are involved in fooling us that we have a consciousness and are self-conscious. The statement made me think about how we see ourselves and how we construct our realities. The poststructuralists like Foucault have postulated that language is used to construct our reality and I tend to agree with them. The often chaotic and tongue in cheek self-contradictory nature of Derrida as the ultimate Postmodernist makes for interesting and frustrating reading. The Postmodernists deliberately rejected the Modernist notion of the sublime or ultimate truth.

Rang, H et al. 2003. Pharmacology. 5th ed. London: Churchill Livingstone was my real in depth introduction to pharmacology and physiology as the book is targeted at medical students for first and second year Pharmacology. The emphasis is thus greatly on physiology as pharmacology as a science is rapidly evolving. Today’s miracle breakthrough might be desecrated a year or less later. The substance paracetamol (known in America as acetaminophen) is almost ancient and there is still much debate over its exact mechanism of action. Even the leaflets of most medicines bluntly state that the exact mechanism of action is unknown. Should we be content with that?

After having had a transient friendship of sorts with a psychiatrist and made his little protégé and reading Stahl's Essential Psychopharmacology for fun I knew I needed an introduction first. I was a self-indulgent student with a completely different degree towards which I was studying to but was far more interested in my new pastime. Having read Pharmacology by Rang et al thrice I came to the conclusion that we as a highly evolved species still know so very little about the functioning of the human brain. I could of course cite a superfluity of neurotransmitters, their receptors, its functions, the differentiation of function based on location and the even more convoluted so-called second messenger systems. Would it make this hermeneutic more impressive if I cite the excess of academic journals out there which support my core philosophy?

I have a theory that whenever humans do not comprehend something they tend to manufacture almost mythical and esoteric rationales. Calling it a rationale is actually a contradiction in terms (an oxy-moron paradox?) since there is nothing rational about the esoteric. Descartes might have said his famous “Je pense, donc je suis” but then again he performed vivisection on animals which I see as utterly cruel and disgraceful.

Fight it as you wish but every time you lift a finger or have a fleeting or persistent thought, emotions, reactions, if you speak, do, comprehend — quite a few million neurons polarise, depolarise and repolarise via opening of sodium, potassium and calcium channels, release a multitude of neurochemicals which relay “messages” via a synapse to a receptor which is either voltage gated or G-protein coupled, which in turns signals second messenger systems like cAMP, DAG, IP3 etc which in turn activate various protein kinases and DNA/RNA encryptions which all have negative and positive feedback systems. (Condensed and paraphrased from Rang, H et al. 2003. Pharmacology. 5th ed. London: Churchill Livingstone)

On a lighter note (well less academic-esque) we might think we are the only species that have superior intellectual prowess and have the intellectual property rights to self-consciousness akin to how the taxi drivers in Johannesburg maintain that the routes and roads are their intellectual property and the BRT system infringes on this. I am purposely mentioning the taxi fraternity as an analogy not to derogate them purposefully but to illustrate that I do not care who says what, have they not empirical evidentiary proof it is plain fodder. So do not fool or flatter yourself by thinking that you are a living concept. Your mind/psyche is not separated from your body as some ubiquitously incomprehensible construct which defies every precept of science and rests in mythology alone.

I think of my brother’s ginger cat called Quila (after tequila) and its expressive meows and I cannot but wonder that we see animals as lacking self-consciousness simply because we do not understand them. I wish I could understand Meow — it would make my life easier. I have now to rely on guesstimates to figure out what Quila wants. Often Quila will come fetch me and show me that his bowl is empty or that he wants fresh water. He cannot be that intellectually disadvantaged.

It is time to ditch all those a priori assumptions and do some research and not indulge in charlatan science: par example — avoid “Dr” Paul Cameron et al at all costs.

References:

Rang, HP, Dale, MM, Ritter, JM & Moore, PK. 2003. Pharmacology. 5th ed. London: Churchill Livingstone

Segal, EA & Kilty, KM. 1998. The Resurgence of Biological Determinism. Race, Gender & Class, v5 n3 p61-75 (for substantiation)

Towards a label free society

We have a rather clumsy and long acronym for our beleaguered community: LGBTIQ. I propose that henceforth we refer to ourselves as the Pink Community. The acronym perpetuates division through the use of language and if you read some of the works of Foucault you will see how linguistics is an existential tool used to construct reality – I am of course a huge follower of the post-Structuralists.

During the weekend of 15 of 16 August 2009 a rather strident war of words were exchanged on Facebook. The issue: some transgender persons regard themselves superior to other transgender persons and the basis for this: sexual orientation. To make it very clear (and there has been much research done on this issue) sexual orientation vastly quantitatively differs from gender identity and they are by no means mutually exclusive.

Some charlatan psychiatrists came up with a term which would divide the transgender community into two groups. The so-called ‘true transgenders’ who are heterosexual and then the so-called ‘depraved ones’ which are gay, lesbian or bisexual/pansexual.

This division is a simple ploy to cause divisions in our community, and the right wing knows very well that when we do not stand together as one we are a far lesser force to be reckoned with.

It saddens me greatly if members of the LGBTIQ/Pink community fight amongst each other. We should stand together as one. Otherwise we gay males will have the upper-hand because statistically we present the vast majority of the pink community. Now imagine we run a gaystapo type of regime and renounce the rest of the pink community cause numbers wise 'we don't need them'. I have more humanity and compassion to ever allow that and promote the rights of the entire community. I once took on a popular 5fm DJ after he cracked a few horrid and distasteful jokes at the expense of the transgender community. Some might ask why I did that. I will answer I'm bound by my conscience. I don't do it for glory or money, in fact, it just costs me, and I don't want a medal.

The classification as debated does nothing but promote division and reminds me of that website where the so-called straight transgender people declared their superiority and went about with much strident trite about how lesbian or gay transgender people are an abomination. It is absolutely no different than racism and Nazi eugenics.

What if I was half-transgender like bisexual people are neither exclusively straight nor gay? Enough with these evil heteronormative dichotomies that have been imposed on us by the patriarchy! Why on earth do we entertain their taxonomies and elaborate on them? This infighting is exactly what the patriarchy wants. United we stand divided we fall.

Enough with these pigeon-holes, should I be content by being labelled cisgender and gay? I am most definitively not. I am who I am and I may decide what that is and reserve the right to alter it at any time. I am not my body, I am not my sexual orientation and neither my heritage. I am henceforth just pink. No more divisions. Who will join me in renouncing these labels; it is in any case a heteronormative notion?

Even my first year Psychology textbook displayed the notion very cleverly by using a graph (and it is a widely shared school of thought) that sexual orientation is not a black/white dichotomous issue but that exists in a continuum ranging from exclusively heterosexual on one side and exclusively homosexual on the other side and several degrees of bisexuality in between.

“...sexual orientation is usually discussed in terms of three categories: heterosexual, homosexual, and bisexual. These orientations exist along a continuum that ranges from exclusive heterosexual to exclusive homosexual, including various forms of bisexuality in-between. The continuum between heterosexual and homosexual does not suit everyone, however, as some people identify as asexual.^”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_orientation

Jim Burroway from the venerable Box Turtle Bulletin wrote this on 13 August 2009:

“The eleventh annual Reykjavik Gay Pride parade... attracted about 80,000 people to the middle of Reykjavik on Saturday. Involving roughly a quarter of Iceland’s entire population, the sheer size of the party is tribute to Iceland’s leading equal rights legislation and the citizens’ inclusive nature.

“Iceland does not have a gay village. It does not even have many gay bars and clubs at all. But that has nothing to do with Iceland being a strict, conservative society… quite the opposite in fact.

Peek into a Reykjavik gay bar on a Saturday night and you will see a clientele anything but exclusively gay. And if you think all the dozens of other bars in town are straight-only, think again. People in Reykjavik go partying in places dictated by their taste in music, their taste in décor or simply by their bossy friends. They do not need to choose a venue based only on their sexuality.”

http://www.boxturtlebulletin.com/2009/08/13/14019

Hopefully one day this counterproductive infighting in the Pink Community will stop and the supremacists and their ideology die off. The Reykjavik article makes for a prime example of how a society could transcend social divisions and I would like to use it as an example for South Africans to strive for.

If you take Iceland into account, their Prime Minister (de facto president) is an out lesbian woman and the country has no gripe with that. Looking at the extract above by Jim Burroway, one day we too will transcend labels and categories and be seen simply as people.

“The Heterosexual Agenda”

In a basement of an unusually inconspicuous building an intrepid bunch of militant heterosexuals plot their next move. The gays are taking over they say. Yes and they prey on our children someone else says. All nod in self-righteous agreement.

They close ranks. Of course they don’t close information highways – it is an efficient method of spreading nefarious fallacies and to recruit gay people because they are not content with just ninety per cent.

***

Here is where my anti-nausea medication taken as prophylaxis wears off and I feel deeply disturbed. Yet, the short text above is just a tiny peek into what propaganda is disseminated against the LGBTIQ community en masse every single day. Millions of gullible people feed on this fodder and charlatans like “Dr” Paul Cameron churns it out with the fervour you will never see in this world. America has long ago lost it title of home of the brave and land of the free – it is now mainly seen as the land of the origins of great bigotry. A sad sentiment since a few million very commendable persons live there and they are confronted with this tripe. The other sad fact is their First Amendment makes it impossible to seek redress in such cases of hate speech and defamation and enticement of violence and hatred. We all know hatred kills.

The venerable Wayne Besen, founder of the American group Truth Wins Out wrote a thought provoking piece on incitement of violence through words on 12 August 2009:

Stirring The Pot Until It Boils Over

“Sometimes, words can kill. A vocabulary carefully crafted into lethal lies almost always foreshadows fatalities.”

“... let’s not pretend such irresponsible words and behavior does not have casualties and consequences. We can best celebrate free speech and assembly by freely choosing not to incite or assemble irate mobs that lack control or any normal sense of inhibition.”

In South Africa the most hateful, morbidly logic-defying, morally reprehensible and, nefarious book was published called THE PINK AGENDA: Sexual Revolution in South Africa and the Ruin of the Family", by Christine Mc Cafferty with Peter Hammond. This was of course published ‘in house’ by Christian Liberty Books for Africa Christian Action since no other reputable publisher will publish such blatant hate. The Film and Publications Board (FPB) came very close to banning this piece of trash which would have made it the first banned book in the New South Africa. The FPB decided to rate the book R18 – restricted for sale for over-18’s only, in my humble opinion that nefarious junk in the guise of religion should never have seen the light of day, and were I a preacher I would have condemned the authors for dragging my faith into the most abysmal cesspit. And their nefarious gripe goes on and on ad nauseam.

It seems these fundamentalists are hell-bent on proselytising everyone to their brand of merciless spiritually, and of course they need a scapegoat...

Jim Burroway from the equally venerable Box Turtle Bulletin wrote a 36 page parody called THE HETEROSEXUAL AGENDA: EXPOSING THE MYTHS.

It was clearly indicated as a parody and social experiment. His booklet makes for fascinating reading and is blissfully tongue in cheek. The LGBTIQ community has a sense of humour alas the bigots really believe the reprehensible claptrap they write often under the guise of science – I call it pseudo-science.

During an Exodus International attended “ex-gay” conference in Uganda as extensively covered by Box Turtle Bulletin the roots of homophobia as an export product became increasingly apparent – we have the Americans to blame (who else?)

“And all of this began when three Americans — Exodus board president Don Schmierer, Holocaust revisionist Scott Lively, and Richard Cohen Protege Caleb Lee Brundidge — spoke at a conference in Kampala in early March and endorsed proposals to strengthen Uganda’s criminal code which bans homosexual acts with a lifetime sentence, with the penalty of compelling gays and lesbians into forced therapy.”

The story makes for disturbing reading quite reminiscent of a nightmare.

Information on Scott Lively will make this a ravishing read:

During the conference in Uganda “Lively added a new twist, blaming the 1994 Rwanda genocide on gay men”

Scott Lively, the ultimate half-wit came to prominence with the publishing of his hate-ridden book called ‘The Pink Swastika: Homosexuality in the Nazi Party.

“In it, he contends that ‘the Nazi Party was entirely controlled by militaristic male homosexuals throughout its short history.’ A brief outline of his book is presented on the LeadershipU web site. His book is also available for free online in its entirety, and it was also offered for sale at the Uganda conference, with Lively referring to it throughout his talk.

The essence of Lively’s thesis is this: The Nazi party’s idealized view of masculinity was a significant draw to “butch” homosexuals. He cites as his principle evidence the rumored homosexuality of Ernst Roehm, the leader of the early Nazi paramilitary group known as the Brownshirts. Lively claims the Brownshirts trace their origins to the Wandervogel youth movements, which he says was ‘dominated and controlled by the pederasts… and its leadership was rife with homosexuality.’ Lively also claims that Adolph Hitler was probably gay and a homosexual prostitute while in Vienna (the unsubstantiated phrases like ‘probably homosexual,’ ‘almost certainly homosexual’, ‘may well have been homosexual,’ and ‘it is assumed’ pop up with astonishing regularity in his book) — while elsewhere say Lively concludes that Hitler was ‘probably not’ gay. But in either case, he concluded that Hitler ‘knowingly and intentionally surrounded himself with practicing homosexuals from his youth.’

Lively adds that ‘There is no question that homosexuality figures prominently in the history of the Holocaust,’ saying that German gays were eager to target Jews for extinction because of Judaism’s traditional prohibition against homosexuality. He doesn’t explain why Christianity’s traditional prohibition against homosexuality — which held a far greater moral influence throughout Europe — was ignored.

As for the estimated 15,000 gay men who were sent to concentration camps under Germany’s notorious Paragraph 175, Lively contends that the Nazis almost never used the law against actual gay men (the law was silent on lesbians), claiming that most of those who were convicted weren’t gay, but political enemies. Or if they were gay, then it was because they were effeminate. He writes, ‘There is evidence to suggest that only the effeminate homosexuals were mistreated under the Nazi regime — and usually at the hands of masculine homosexuals.’ In fact, Lively is very fascinated by what he considers ‘the enduring Butch/Femme conflict among German homosexuals.’

The very few historians who have bothered to take his book seriously have dismissed it out of hand. They point out that most of Lively’s source material comes from Nazi political opponents, and that it was a common practice in Germany’s political culture to charge that one’s political opponents were overrun by homosexuals. Before coming to power, Nazis themselves used this tactics against the Wiemar Republic as well as against their Bolshevik and Socialist opponents. And they weren’t alone. Social Democrats, Conservatives, Bolsheviks, Socialists, Liberals and Centrists all used the same charges against the Nazis, as well as against each other, often with little or no reality behind the charges.

Lively however used only one set of those charges — those against the Nazis — and ignored the political context to maintain that the Nazis were overrun with homosexuals, specifically ‘Butch’ gay men. He only raises the specter of ‘baseless charges’ when discussing the evidence that the Nazis themselves persecuted gays throughout their reign of terror.

Lively’s book also goes beyond Nazi Germany, claiming that Nazis’ murderous tendencies wasn’t an aberration of homosexuals’ power, but a natural consequence of it. ‘From the ashes of Nazi Germany,’ he writes, ‘the homo-fascist Phoenix has arisen again — this time in the United States.’ He claims that ‘eight of the top ten serial killers in the United States were homosexual, and that homosexuals were responsible for 68% of all mass murders.’

Need I even talk about the aftermath of that horrid anti-gay conference of March 2009?

SA GLAAD denounced the conference but as far as I know no other single African or South African LGBTIQ organisation for that matter said a word.

As one would expect a massacre sprouted from the hate-ridden conference. The already beleaguered LGBTIQ community live under much strife and mobs maim and kill many LGBTIQ people and our South African government is blissfully ignorant and silent.

Does it come as any surprise?

To off yourself or not

Recently I was confronted by the partial stories of complete strangers who attempted suicide and of course like many things it made me think.

There was a song that that was play listed on TuksFM for years which touched me in a profound way:

Bobby Gaylor - Suicide

“Animals don't have a choice.
If they're not happy with their place in the world... too bad.
They have to live the life they've been given.
Humans, on the other hand, don't have to.
We have a choice.
If you don't like your place in the world, you can get off anytime you want.
Suicide. That's right.
You don't like the way your life's going,
you don't like the way you are in the world,
anything around you, you can check out anytime you like.
Animals aren't allowed that thought
and believe me, if they were, they would use it.
There'd be a lot of dogs and cats, owned by assholes
that live in high-rises, diving out the windows.
Zebras... if they even had remotely that thought
would take a look at themselves and go, "What the F*#K!"
Black & white in a green & brown world... this blows.
I'm just gonna jump in the river....
I don't have a thumb to work a gun or hold a knife
or even open a jar of pills.
I'm just gonna dive into the next lion's mouth.
Why even bother?"
Now, monkeys have the opposable thumb
so they could kinda do it the exact same way we do.
Now, there's a bunch of people that say,
"Oh, it's against the law".
Well, it's only against the law if you do a crappy job and get caught.
Other people say, "Oh, we should save them".
Yeah, well you know what?
Not everybody wants to be saved.
Not everybody should be saved.
And who are we to force our will upon them?
I mean, isn't that one of the joys about being a human?
Freedom of choice?
Now, it's not all bad.
Now, I'm not saying "Kill yourself".
But if you're gonna be an idiot and do it anyway,
it's no sweat off of my back.
There's a lot of good that could come from it.
A little bit of bad thrown in.

Some of the things:
A job will open...
An apartment will become available...
There'll be more air for me...
They say there's two girls for every guy - if you're a man, there'll be four chicks for me...
There'll be more Ketel One vodka for me...
There'll be one less idiot in line at the bank who gets up to the window without their F*#King slips filled out...
I won't ever have to go to the store to buy my favorite Salt & Vinegar Chips
and have the clerk point at you and say, "They bought the last bag"....
You won't help change the McDonald's sign to a Hundred Billion Served...
You'll never get AIDS...
You won't have to worry about calories ever...
No more, "Hey, does this make me look fat?"...
There'll be one less polluting human...
You won't have to recycle... There'll be one less car on the road...
There'll be more Ring Dings for me...
Fifty or so chickens' lives will be spared...
Your fingers won't ever get red from eating pistachios...
You won't be forced to visit your Grandparents on Sundays anymore...
No more church...
You'll be saying, "Hey, World - Kiss My Ass!"...
No more wet dreams about Supermodels...
No more Barry Manilow... Not for a few years anyway...
Wondering "Am I a loser?" will be a thing of the past...
Say good-bye to crappy Xmas presents from Aunts and Uncles...
You won't have to suffer through a Motley Crew reunion...
F*#K flossing and brushing...
You'll never lose sleep over a pregnancy scare...
Adios, Acne...
Worrying whether you fit in or not won't be on your brain...
See ya later, homework...
You'll never have to sit through another movie brought to you by the creators of South Park...
School's out forever....
No more paying bills...
You won't have to do chores...

You won't be able to run over toads with the lawnmower though...
You'll also miss McDonald's French Fries...
Bugs Bunny...
The amazing electrifying feeling that surges through your body when you kiss someone for the first time...
You won't be able to watch the letterbox director's cut of Jaws...
Candy...
Living above ground...
Pudding crust...
You'll miss the rush of getting your first apartment...
Getting to the point in your life where you can tell your parents to
"F*#K Off! I gotta make my own mistakes, you did"...
You'll miss sex - you'll miss thinking about it, looking for it,
sex by yourself, sex with a partner, sex with multiple partners...
No more summer nights that seem to go on forever... Roller coasters....
Naming your kid the name you always wanted...
Making a difference in the world...
You'll miss the experience and pleasure of Hallucinogenics...
Watching your neighbor's wife change clothes with her blinds open...
A lifetime of masturbating...
Watching your favorite team sweep the series...
Music, you will definitely miss music...
Trying to sneak into your house drunk - three hours past your curfew...
You'll miss the blaze and glory of the 4th of July fireworks...
The taste of Captain Crunch...
If you're a boy, you'll miss the feeling the first time you reach up a girl's shirt...
If you're a girl, the feeling the first time you reach down a boy's pants...
You'll miss your favorite coat...
Waffles with whipped cream and strawberries...
Beating your friends at video games...
You won't be around to see what shape and color the new marshmallow in Lucky Charms will be...
You'll miss the feeling you get when reminiscing about your first love - thirty years after the fact...
The joy of giving and receiving at Christmas...
Skinny dipping...
Getting stoned, reading Green Eggs & Ham, and eating like a horse that got loose in the grain bin...
Flying cars...

Hey, you were born, finish what you started!"