And this is just disgusting.
As women gain visibility in the blogosphere, they are targets of sexual harassment and threats. Men are harassed too, and lack of civility is an abiding problem on the Web. But women, who make up about half the online community, are singled out in more starkly sexually threatening terms -- a trend that was first evident in chat rooms in the early 1990s and is now moving to the blogosphere, experts and bloggers said.
And I agree with Arianna.
Arianna Huffington, whose Huffington Post site is among the most prominent of blogs founded by women, said anonymity online has allowed "a lot of those dark prejudices towards women to surface."
Which brings me to something I've thought about for years: are most humans civil because of a fear of getting caught and punished? Eliminate that fear of going to prison and would most humans would act like the animal the species really is?
I think that is quite possibly true.
I think religion deters very few people from committing atrocious acts (and there are those atrocious acts carried out in the religious community anyway) so I don't think that's what's keeping people "in check" if you will. No, I think it's a fear of being anal gangraped in prison. If there was no possibility of anything "bad" happening to some of these people then we would have more behaivor similar to what's happening in the blogosphere only this behavior would be happening in the streets, in homes, offices, cars, malls, parks, etc.
Humans are animals, and without the fear of punishment, most would act as such. It's rather depressing when you think about.
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Unfortunately, I can't say I'm surprised by this story, especially given recent reports of continuing gender inequity (e.g., different salaries for the same job) that are largely ignored (if not supported) by the general population.
I do agree largely with your observation about people mostly staying in line due to fear of punishment. Be it something (seemingly) trivial such as obeying the speed limit due to fear of getting a ticket, to not drinking and driving for fear of being arrested, to not embezzeling from one's company for fear of being locked up for years, I would say that the majority of the population, to some extent or another, is kept in line through fear and not a sense of moral or legal obligation.
I differ, however, in thinking that religion plays a greater role in keeping people in line. All religions (at least all those I've studied) come with their own set of rules and punishments, and this, for better or worse, I believe plays a great role in the behavior of practitioners. One trend I am noticing, however, is that many of the "folk in the pews" are taking a more laisser-faire attitude towards their religious obligations (if you wish to call them that) because the penalties are generally not immediate, and the opinion is that either there will be no penalty or that good done will "even things out".
I'd be very surprised if those organized religions which executed immediate penalties saw the same amount of deviance from accepted behavior (for instance, while I won't name names, there are some churches which are quick to excommunicate those who don't strictly tow the party line). But even in these churches, if obedience were higher, I'd believe it would be greatly due to fear of penalty and not so much to an honest sense of personal obligation; the difference would lie in which set of rules they chose to be obedient to.
All that said, I'm not necessarily of the opinion that this "obedience thru fear" is such a bad thing, given that it serves as the only deterrent to many of the drunk drivers, embezzelers, etc., out there.
The "obedience thru fear" of most religions is one reason I'm not a fan of organized religion.
While I understand your thought on "obedience thru fear" as not necessarily a bad thing, my take is more pessimistic:
This fear was man-made. Take it away and we'll see our true humanity. It's rather depressing.
If humans were a terrific species then this fear would not be necessary, because if the only deterrent is fear then the species isn't all that it's cracked up to be.
So, while yes, it can be viewed as good that humans are deterred by this fear, I don't think it makes humans good. Humans are what they are and quite frankly we're a violent species that in general gives little regard to each other and much less to the other species of this planet.
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