I Applaud a Herald of Truth!

A few days ago in my philosophy class we were discussing Immanual Kant and his duty ethic, which is centered upon the categorical imperitive. According to Kant, any absolute or universal principle can be defined by two keys: 1) Can I will that the principle behind my actions should become a universal law? 2) Rational beings are never to be used solely as a means to an end. On the surface Kantian ethics appears pretty solid, and that is in many instances true. It is not, however, perfect. Among the several points where this system breaks down is the question of who/what consititutes a rational being? Kant, our proffessor explained, didn't believe women to be rational beings.

Now, as soon as this argument was raised, an uncomfortable silence spread through the room like a whispering spectre, and all the men in the room looked at each other knowingly. At long last a solitary champion exorcized the unwelcome spirit and vanquished the repressive silence by saying what every one of us was thinking:

'Well, women can be pretty irrational sometimes.'

When his comment was rewarded with looks of horror and stares of disbelief, he qualified it with the admission that women are, in fact, quite intelligent. But, as our proffessor so self-righteoursly declared, "There's no digging yourself out of that hole." Not a word was uttered in defense of this brave soul who offered himself as the sacrificial lamb, this yet undeniable truth. Disapproval for making such a bold statement was rendered by men and women alike, as though each of us silently agreed to make our defender of truth the fall guy so we could somehow save face, and deny that all of us - even the women - were tempted to say exactly what he said (in words at least that strong!) As this has been gnawing at me for several days, I'd like to take a minute and record what I wish I'd have had the courage to say:

***

'Okay, no! I refuse to hang this young man out to dry just to look good with the ladies! The man spoke his mind, at great peril to himself, and I say Bravo! How sad it is that at the height of this self-declared age of "reason" we have become so afraid of axioms and generalizations that we fear even the truest of truisms merely because we might just offend the sensitivities of some pour soul! The man has spoken truth today, friends! He admits, as do I, that women (with a few notable exceptions) have the capacity for great thought and achievements of the intellect. But we crucify such a prophet for the mere suggestion that, on occasion, such capacity can be marred or muddled by the intricate emotional faculties of womankind.

'Men, no doubt, often lack a degree of logic and reason behind their actions, I will concede that. I will even concede that women are more likely to look before leaping than are their male counterparts. A lack of logic and reason on man's part, however, denotes only a lack of thought behind the action. In this case, as men we occasionally wave our right (or forget to exercise our right) to think. When we do exercise thought, it's a deliberate, common-sense, experience-based and rational thought proccess which guides our actions. Women more rarely fail to exercise thought entirely, however, their judgement is in constant danger of interference from emotion, reaction, and passion (in lieu of logic or reason). This emotional interference quite often manifests itself in bahavior which is lacking in clearly-visible logic, and therefore appears irrational to much simpler men. While men certainly can and do act out of passion and many women do temper their passion with deliberate logic, the statement that "women can be pretty irrational sometimes" is generally true, and true enough of the time that a broad generalization is not unwarranted.

This in mind, friends, i applaud this herald of truth! Yes, I applaud him though i do so at my own peril, but ladies and gentlemen, even you that reject this axiom of the sometimes irrationality of womankind, you ought to applaud this man just the same. Though we all made him feel small for speaking out, he nevertheless spoke according to his belief, a rare hapenstance which has been tabooed in this postmodern age wherein the only thing worse than being stupid is being "wrong." Take a lesson, friends, from this lad of lads and speak your mind with conviction! Repent for your ostracizing and join me (if indeed there be a scrap of integrity between the lot of you) in a round of applause for this and every martyr whose dignity we have claimed in our own cowardice to take a stand!'

Your's Truly,

The Littlest Blogger