By Tom Kando
Two weeks ago I treated you to some provocative aphorisms. I explained that such concise statements generally contain both truth and falsehood, and that they are meant to rile up the reader, to make him/her think. Several of you sent me back humorous examples, for example this:
“To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research.” That’s a good one.
I now offer you some additional provocations. These are about the social “sciences” and the helping professions. That has been my world for the past 40 years, a world about which I had plenty of opportunity to become cynical. Here are some aphorisms I came up with:
1) The result of Psychiatry is mental illness, which requires more psychiatric services.
2) The result of medical intervention is illness - which necessitates further medical intervention. (This is what some of my friends, sociology professor Howard Becker and radical believers in holistic medicine believe)
3 ) The result of Marriage Counseling is Divorce.
4) The function of the legal system is to protect white-collar criminals and the elite’s privileges. (This is the radical/Marxist criminological perspective).
5) The role of the police is to brutalize and to intimidate harmless citizens. (This is the perspective of some African Americans)
6) The result of formal education is to subtract from understanding, especially in such higher education programs as Women’s Studies, Ethnic Studies and other so-called Social Sciences. (This paraphrases a 5/21/02 syndicated column by George Will)
7) Schools destroy students’ minds. (This paraphrases sociologist Howard Becker, and child psychologists such as Bruno Bettelheim and Benjamin Spock).
8) Most professors hate teaching and they despise their students.
9) Most doctors hate sick people.
One of the big subjects within sociology is gender and sex roles. Here are some of the man-hating and family-hating thoughts I sometimes heard from my ardently feminist colleagues:
1) Men are rabid dogs. They should be either muzzled or destroyed.
2) All heterosexual sex is rape.
3) All married women are whores.
4) Parenthood is torture.
5) Frankenstein is a metaphor for having children: You create life, but it grows into a monster and turns against you.
But let’s give equal time to the opposite perspective - that of the misogynist. I have heard some men say, for instance after a painful divorce, things like:
1) Man needs woman because he is a masochist.
2) There are only two kinds of women - those who need help and those who cannot be helped.
I’ll stop for now. Something for everybody. I bet you everyone among you agrees with at least one/some of these, while being outraged by many. As Terrence said, veritas odium parit (truth engenders hatred). leave comment here
