nashville_brook
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Tue Oct-03-06 03:08 PM
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Homoerotic social ordering -- Deconstructing Foley |
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Edited on Tue Oct-03-06 03:11 PM by nashville_brook
(a re-tool of a post I wrote during Gannongate... brook)
Question of GAY SEX surrounding White House reveal who we have become
Who here has ever attended an elite prep school? Anyone been to jail? Well, I'm sure everyone has been to the zoo.
The kind of behavior associated with Foley's "naughty emails" has nothing to do with what most people consider sex. I know this is difficult to understand because we *are* talking about (people talking about) the act of eventually bumping uglies. Make no mistake, that happens in the end (pun intended), but it's not "romantic." All the well-groomed bachelors of a certain age in surrounding the GOP and the While House, they aren't all looking for love. They are "establishing order."
Homo-erotic social ordering is at the center the Lord-of-the-Flies world inhabited by the orphans of privilege at their boarding school and in their positions as congressional pages. It's also common in public schools, and in neighborhoods. You most certainly see it in prison. Who is whose bitch. It's certainly not a behavior exclusive to the wealthy. I grew up in central Florida and the cracker kids in my neighborhood did it. I've witnessed it in the corporate world where you have the bullying in a hereto-erotic manner. Hell, my 14-pound female Italian Greyhound asserts her authority over her roomie, an 18-pound male Iggy. I love it when we have guests over in the summer for BBQ's and Astra is humping away at Trouble. "Well you see, they are establishing dominant order. It has nothing to do with sex-drive. If she were in heat, believe me, she would be acting much different."
The Foley Flap is a perfect example of this social ordering. Pages are the very bottom of the heap in DC -- they are expected to DO ANYTHING to get a leg up. Or both legs. Foley provided that opportunity. Foley took advantage of their position of weakness -- but isn't that just the way things go?
The excuse made for homoerotic social ordering in uber fraternities such as Skull and Bones, is that the hazing is supposed to be the final stopping place for the adolescent ready to leave that ordering process behind. Reeeeally? Does the behavior serve a purpose beyond the developmental ordering of youth? I would say it most certainly does. Who wouldn't want to be privy to your opponent's darkest vulnerability? "He loves to screw little boys. He has a thing for _____________ (fill in the blank)." It's pure gold in the darkest depths of big time politics.
This is base nature, folks. It's WHY we form social institutions: to protect the weak. The Enlightenment, humanity in general, the arts, music. Our entire culture until now has been centered on progress and The Social Contract. Now, it is Hobbe's State of Nature re-created by men in power in order to fill a need -- most likely a garden variety narcissist need with Daddy-issues thrown in. Always needing to show oneself to be "the boss," or "the big Man," is not normal behavior. It's aberrant. Transgressive.
The issue of sex is relevant to the Foley story because it tells us something about this the Republican sense of social ordering. It's claw to jaw. It's pre-modern. It's Old Testament.
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Cronus Protagonist
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Tue Oct-03-06 03:14 PM
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1. True, this is a symptom of many authoritarian groups |
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And the Republicans are the epitome of authoritarian.
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whirlygigspin
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Tue Oct-03-06 03:15 PM
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2. ah, we all need a psych class in power/sex/dominance and the social order |
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Edited on Tue Oct-03-06 03:20 PM by whirlygigspin
I still don't get it--off to the library for me!
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nashville_brook
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Tue Oct-03-06 03:22 PM
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4. i've been thinking about this... |
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as a woman i don't have the experience of being an adolescent boy... but i'm told (ha!) that the hormonal surge is fierce. fierce in that cliche kinda way of guys being led around by their wangs.
so, there's a vulnerability. everybody wants that itch scratched. what sexual bullies do is provide the means for "weaker" guys to relieve themselves (maybe... it's just a theory) at the cost of becoming a "bitch." maybe that's all well and good for some who already lean in that direction... so, i wonder if there's "score-keeping" in sexual bullying. i wonder if it's not looked down upon to coerce a completely weak guy... and considered a greater acheivement to coerce a strong guy.
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Karenina
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Tue Oct-03-06 03:40 PM
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Be sure to look up Roy Cohn while there. |
nashville_brook
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Tue Oct-03-06 04:45 PM
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8. Roy Cohn? must google... |
femmedem
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Tue Oct-03-06 07:25 PM
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11. He's well depicted in Tony Kushner's Angels in America. n/t |
nashville_brook
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Tue Oct-03-06 03:15 PM
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3. link to more stuff from the last REPUBLICAN GAY SEX SCANDAL |
fasttense
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Tue Oct-03-06 03:24 PM
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5. I have a hard time believing those Pages are even in the power structure. |
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They weld nothing, they have no power to help or hinder. They would more likely serve as rewards and trophies.
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whirlygigspin
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Tue Oct-03-06 03:37 PM
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this is a needed discussion
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nashville_brook
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Tue Oct-03-06 03:40 PM
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7. exactly -- they are trophies for some and... |
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they think/hope that their participation will gain them influence
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nashville_brook
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Tue Oct-03-06 06:45 PM
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The Count
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Tue Oct-03-06 06:54 PM
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10. Bravo! Randi Rhodes was also commenting in the frat culture of submission |
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finding a common thread between Bushco's torture fantasies, Gannon (with his military uniform fantasies) and the Foley's follies.
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nashville_brook
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Wed Oct-04-06 10:22 AM
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13. robert parry has a piece on consortium that's along these lines |
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http://www.consortiumnews.com/2006/100206.htmlFor generations, American parents have sent their high-school-age children to Washington to serve as Capitol Hill pages and to learn about the real world of politics. In the scandal surrounding Rep. Mark Foley’s salacious e-mails, it’s clear that one lesson the pages learned was to fear Republican retaliation.
It now appears that one of the chief reasons why Foley’s e-mails remained secret for so long – and why some former pages still won’t speak publicly – is that they recognize that divulging what Foley did to them could kill their hopes for future careers in politics.
This fear of retaliation from today’s take-no-prisoners Republican power structure in Washington has been a little-noted subtext to the stories about Foley’s sudden resignation on Sept. 29 over his e-mails to pages since 2003.
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OneBlueSky
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Wed Oct-04-06 02:23 AM
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12. and then there's Bohemian Grove . . . |
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the more formalized and more stylized version of same . . . http://www.sonomacountyfreepress.com/bohos/bohoindx.html
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Wed May 08th 2024, 10:47 PM
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