This is a work in process, anyone who has come upon it, go ahead. Not a secret, but if you are reading this caveat this is not a completed project.
This is an attempt to organize much previous writing, mostly on AlRodbell.blogspot.com,, that comes together now at the time of the Obergefell decision on Marriage Equality of June 2015. I'm writing this long form, a book, a monograph, however it turns out -- because it convey.
No one else would do it, as the values of the West, the Occident have been transformed in such a short time that what I will be expressing will be seen as hate speech, verboten, taboo, or just plain non productive for most anyone to express the way I'm expressing it. I use the term "ebook" not technically, but sociologically, as implies it can be written by an individual outside of obtaining the support or approval of any of the nodes of authority that inherently
Here's the thrust, a way of expressing it inspired by Michael Foucaut, The History of Sexuality Vol 1 (Deployment of Sexuality par. 4 -- pp100 pback ed) I'll paraphrase: He talks about rules of sexuality being not law, but the word he uses are discourse, conversation, that in the aggregate form a way of defining this powerful and transcendent human need. .
"...we must conceive conversations as series of discontinuous segments whose tactical function is neither uniform or stable. It's not just acceptable or or excluded conversations or between the dominant and the dominated. It is this distribution we must consider, who is speaking, his positions of power, the institutional context in which it happens to be situated, what this implies. In like manner, silence and secrecy are shelter for power, anchoring its prohibitions.
I'm writing this paper only because within a short time, a few decades, there has been a sea change that defies any rational explanation. This is represented by two words, "homophobe" and "faggot.", the latter was a term of contempt for homosexuals, while the former has become one of contempt for those who would not support the advancement of those embrace the homosexual culture.
The distortion of this conversation, from the mass media to the Supreme Court, is worthy of exploration, yet those in the academic disciplines that study these area choose not to address it, for reasons that are knowable, yet not able to be explored in our existing zeitgeist. This is an ebook. "book" because it encompasses an audacious scope, with the preface of "e" meaning more than "electronic" but that this format not requiring any institutional support,is freed from their inherent constraints.
It is rare, perhaps unique in modern history, that the cultural changes that happened to correspond with my own life time have been so extensive in the absence of change of regime by revolution or war. My first memories were the ending of WWII, specifically the celebration of VE day, Victory in Europe, in May of 1945, living in Washington D.C. This was the capital of the victorious coalition against the fascist forces that happened to be part of the Jim Crow culture that was a continuation of the Civil War -- actually the retreat from the ideals of the victors of that conflict.
This ebook is written seven decades after that event, corresponding with development of my own intellectual awareness from a childhood with no awareness of the world around me to one who has lived through and explored changes that were never even imagined by the vast majority of people in this country at the time of celebration of the victory over fascism.
The website is written on the occasion of the Obergefell decision mandating same sex marriage on June 2015. I realize that any attempt to explore the decision's meaning must go far beyond the specifics to issues seemingly unconnected but intertwined, as avoiding them will entangle this exposition into the very limitations it is written to disclose.
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In the short time from when I started to write this only six months ago, there have been major changes in the world, the mass migration of refugees from Syria into Europe, and the rise of right wing resistance, which at the time of this writing at the beginning of 2016, includes the Donald Trump phenomenon. How this will be integrated into this ebook remains to be seen.
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