This is not a new story, but still something I felt needed to be shared. This Reuters article briefly describes a most regrettable religious tradition carried out by farmers in the eastern Indian state of Bihar.
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE56M3G020090723
Allow me to provide helpful commentary and suggestions!
As regions of California experience heavy drought over the years, Im going to suggest this as a means of ending the next drought that occurs. Farmers: Please send your daughters to plow the fields naked so that the gods will become embarrassed and send us water in the form of rain. My proof that this is a successful strategy is the fact that all the local villagers in that area of India trust this tradition and stubbornly stick to it. Also, there are people still living in the village. My proof, you see, requires no real results, but facilitates women getting naked and running around outside for the benefit of Men. I mean God.
I respect all cultures and make no claim to try to change local traditions in rural India, but for fuck’s sake, its 2011! Could a male dominated culture express itself any worse? Wait, don’t answer that silly, silly question…
What would any good, loving father do with his innocent young daughter during a time of drought? send her to plow fields naked, of course! Maybe its my brainwashed western mind that is telling me this is wrong. I mean, at least the farmers had the decency to make the elderly women help the young women with that naked plowing. Maybe Im being too harsh, or too closed minded.
What the FUCK!
My philosophical background and personal opinions are screaming bloody murder at this. No – wait – strict theocracy is the way to go. Chain your women to ignorance and relegate them to specific tasks, as dictated by a philosophy authored BY men, FOR men, back when men were Men! I think I might know a couple women who could benefit from being chained to ignorance and relegated to simplicity, but then again, I know a few men who could use the same.
“This is the most trusted social custom in the area and the villagers have vowed to continue this practice until it rains very heavily.” STAY THE FUCKING COURSE. I sometimes feel like I live in a world surrounded by madness and madmen. Why do I have this sinking feeling my species is going to eradicate itself long before interstellar travel is close to happening? If we dont become extinct, we will probably evolve into a type of species that we are so fond of making science fiction about. Clouds of locusts moving from planet to planet, consuming all natural resources, destroying or indoctrinating the indigenous, then moving on to the next planet.
I want to have more faith in my species, really I do, but in a world where parents and other adults teach their children to become “soldiers for god”, where nations become immune to their own brand of evil while viewing everyone else as evil, and where soldiers commit atrocities on the battlefield with hearts hardened and cold from the warmth of their fabulous spiritual faith, I find it sadly difficult to have faith in my fellow man.
This article and the behaviors detailed within it are just a couple of reasons why I do what I do. And my goodness did this age well! (EDIT: 2020)
yourcreepyuncle 