Who are the Pimps?

This week, the FBI rescued 105 young people and arrested 150 alleged pimps in a three-day sweep in 76 cities.

Articles reporting the roundup, as that referenced below, point out that the young people in the roundup were almost all girls, ranging in age from 13 to 17. However, no article we could find referenced the gender of the pimps.

We know from studying hierarchies that we are programmed not to hold the top accountable. Is that the reason that we aren't informed of the gender, assuming men are the pimps? Is it because in hierarchies we assume that what the top does is a reflection of, and problem of, all of society, and not isolated problem of the top group? Are we assuming "boys will be boys" and there is nothing we can do to change the detrimental attitudes of how men view and treat themselves and women sexually?

Like a city who continuously cleans up the river from a company that continues to pollute, we are not dealing with why male culture in our society finds child prostitution enticing. Stating that further, we are not talking about why male culture produces pornography and stands by while men to commit so many rapes and sexual assaults. Almost every week we see another news story of a girl or woman being sexually assaulted and/or murdered by men, and we hardly ever see women doing the opposite.

Let's start insisting that if a lower group of the hierarchy is going to be identified as such, as in the case of girls with the roundup of pimps, that the upper group be identified also. We would undercover gems of wisdom about our hierarchies.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/fbi-raids-in-76-cities-save-105-kids-forced-into-prostitution-150-others-arrested/2013/07/29/03ee9496-f865-11e2-a954-358d90d5d72d_story.html

Limited View Brings Limited Life

In a great video, Dustin Hoffman describes how men will only consider talking to women who have a certain look, and he has realized how much men miss. Men do limit their lives when they insist on staying at the top of a sexist hierarchy. Women have known this for years, as so many women will go to great lengths – surgery, eating disorders, uncomfortable shoes and clothes, changing their natural selves –  just to "make the cut" so men will pay attention to them.

http://www.upworthy.com/dustin-hoffman-breaks-down-crying-explaining-something-that-every-woman-sadly-already-experienced-3?c=ufb1

No Problem with No African Americans on the Jury?

It appears to us that it was Travon Martin who was on trial, not George Zimmerman, as so much talk was about Martin's actions. Typical of our racial hierarchy, anyone in the bottom group is scrutinized, while the top is not held accountable for their actions, even when they fully initiate the problem.

The jury did not include any African-Americans, as we would expect in our race hierarchy. The top group is assumed to represent everybody, so it wasn't questioned when most of the jurors were white.

Each of us is programmed from childhood to believe that the top group in a hierarchy represents everyone. 

For example, our schools teach American history as the history of everyone in this nation. But the stories we learn are predominantly about white men. To study the history of other groups, people have to take separate classes, such as African American history, women’s history or Native American history. And if we take “Hispanic American History,” we don’t expect to learn “Asian American History,” because a class about anyone but white men is assumed not to be inclusive of anyone else.

Leveling the Religion Playing Field

The group American Atheists is planning to erect 50 monuments on public sites around the country where the Ten Commandments stand alone. A quote from a member of the organization puts their perspective into hierarchical terms:

“True equality means all or none,” said Ken Loukinen, a retired firefighter in Florida who volunteers as director of state and regional operations for American Atheists. “Christianity has had an unfair privilege for at least the last 150 years. We want to level the playing field by stripping them of privilege, and bringing them to equality with all other ideologies.”

Christianity does not have to put itself on top of a hierarchy claiming to be "the only" religion. But unfortunately in our country, many people also use the "superiority" of Christianity as an excuse to build hierarchies based on additional factors besides religion.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/05/us/to-fight-religious-monuments-atheists-plan-their-own-symbols.html?_r=0

Huckabee, and Jesus Weeping Tears of Joy

The day after the Supreme Court rulings striking down DOMA and reinstating Prop 8, we still are celebrating. Such significant contributions to breaking down the sexual orientation hierarchy are exciting and rewarding.

Hierarchy-conservator former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee's response was, "My thoughts on the SCOTUS ruling that determined that same sex marriage is okay: 'Jesus wept.'"

No doubt, if you support a religion where man is not made in the image of "God," but "God" is made on the image of a man on top of a hierarchy, then you might believe that Jesus would be disappointed in yesterday's ruling.

But for those of us who understand that human interpretation of religion in often used to further hierarchies, we more likely would think that Jesus is smiling, unless instead weeping tears of joy.

30% of Women Suffer from Domestic Violence

People on top of hierarchies keep the hierarchies going because they perceive that they benefit from them.

Why do men perceive that they benefit from being violent toward their partners?

Are they taught that being in control is more important than valuing a human relationship that is rooted in equality and fairness? Are they taught that to use violence as a control tactic to keep a hierarchy strong is more important than the relationship they are destroying? Do they believe that men should get what they want at the expense of women who are lower on their hierarchies?

Do they pass the blame for any of their problems down the hierarchy to their female partners, keeping accountability away from themselves on top? With the priority of maintaining the hierarchy, do men remain emotionally detached from the negative effects of their actions on women?

Men are not born violent, but our system of hierarchies keeps them believing violence for them is normal.


http://www.ctvnews.ca/health/about-30-of-women-suffer-from-domestic-violence-who-study-1.1333868

Hierarchies Masquerading as Religion

It will be a great day for our country's spiritual health when so many of our religions are no longer used to promote outdated hierarchies. Unfortunately, this technique has been successful for decades, as when hierarchy conservators meld their religions with support for hierarchies, it is easier for them to hide behind their "noble causes."

On this website, we describe how this works, under the tab "Your Life" and the webpage "Religion." In hierarchies, "Man" is not made in the image of God, but God is made in the image of a man on top of a hierarchy.

Three examples around the United States this week illustrate the point very well.

As we see the erosion of hierarchies in every corner of the globe, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul said that there is a "war on Christianity, not just from liberal elites here at home, but worldwide." GOP leadership is saying 'a war on Christianity' is funded by taxpayers. Prominent religious conservatives this week are continuing to push the party to embrace limits on women's right to control their bodies and gay and lesbian rights.

Three weeks after the Boy Scouts of America voted to allow gay youth to join, Frank Page, president of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee, said, "There will be a mass exodus over time. Churches are finally going to have to come to realize – there is a point when you say, ‘sorry, no more.'"

A "North Carolina Defense of Religion Act" proposed this spring would allow a state religion, presumably Christianity. As part of ongoing "Moral Monday" protests, 83 opponents were arrested this week for opposing the conservative agenda of North Carolina's Republican-run state government. "Forward together — not one step back" — a theme of the more than 380 protesters arrested in the six weekly protests held so far. The rally, organized by the NAACP, was dominated by clergy members whose religions do not support the hierarchical laws proposed by the Republican-run state government that they say will harm minorities and the poor.

We think that Mr. Page has a great train of thought. It has come time to say "sorry, no more," to hierarchies masquerading as religion.

http://www.kval.com/news/national/GOP-leaders-court-social-conservatives-211436111.html

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/06/12/southern-baptists-expected-to-address-boy-scouts-homosexuality-decision-at/

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-moral-monday-20130612,0,1372924.story