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SHOULD MEN TREAT WOMEN AS EQUALS?

29/11/2013

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The White Ribbon campaign to reduce or stamp out violence against women is a great initiative. However, I look forward to the time when men don’t treat women as equal to men but instead recognise that women and men are equal, and act accordingly. There are many things we can do, right now, to move towards such a reality; the first of which is to recognise the shortcomings of our present society.

The emphasis on family violence should be viewed as just a starting point leading to cultural, systemic and structural changes in society to remove things that currently feed problems such as domestic violence, road rage and street violence.

Physical violence makes headlines because of the damage it causes. However, some forms of violence cause lifelong suffering by destroying the spirit, self esteem and confidence of people. These forms of violence can be compounded if labelled as weaknesses that people should just ‘get over.’ Anger, depression and resentment from this often lies dormant until alcohol, or some perceived injustice, brings it bursting to the surface, sometimes surprising the actor. Others may see it as unprovoked violence because it is not directly caused by people but by the way our society operates.

Family violence can be a symptom of a wider problem caused by injustices known as systemic violence, structural violence and cultural violence that appears ‘normal’. Study after study links this violence to a vague sense of frustration and ‘not being good enough’ that nags at some people and affects every part of life. These injustices form the breeding ground for headline surface violence. And this may be increased by inadequate or inappropriate education.

People decide to set up these systems and structures, and the injustice they build into them is unnecessary simply because it is a decision. People should be held accountable for the effects of the choices they make regardless of whether those choices are made in a relationship or in setting up social systems. A person’s background can make their choices understandable and may remove blame from them for making those choices but it doesn’t remove the need for accountability for the effects of those actions. People learn how to act in future by being accountable now.

The ever-widening gap between rich and poor is evidence of the injustices in society’s systems and structures. Our politicians know, or should know, of the many studies linking inequality to the frustrations that lead to the anger, depression and resentment so common in our society. People find it so difficult to cope and this is compounded by a culture of alcohol abuse. Politicians will only act to address these problems if people demand such action.

The claim that all people are equal before the law becomes another level of injustice when that principle is applied regardless of a person’s ability to pay. E.g. a fine of $300 imposed on the wealthy and on a pensioner for the same offense is a gross injustice. Being equal before the law is unjust when the social system it operates in is unjust.

It’s important to provide people with the knowledge and skills to reduce the frustration that precedes the anger, depression and resentment that so often leads to violence. However, more can be achieved by also removing the cultural, systemic and structural causes of the frustration.

My book, Travelling the Road of Peace and Happiness explores ways we can counter the effects of living in an unjust society.

 Bob Myers.


  


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WE SHOULD ALL BE CONCERNED ABOUT INEQUALITY.  By Bob Myers.

19/10/2012

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Many studies show a strong link between inequality and all kinds of social diseases. My latest book, Travelling the Road of Peace and Happiness  draws from the information revealed in the book The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Nearly Always Do Better. 

Based on thirty years of research by leading organisations, various universities and independent social scientists, the authors argue that inequality is the root cause of many of society’s ills.

 They claim that if an affluent society suffers from one social disease – for example high levels of stress – you can be reasonably sure it will also have high rates of obesity, drug use, mental illness, imprisonment, violent crime, distrust, depression, and illiteracy. And the more unequal the society is, the higher the rate of those diseases. Although most of the evidence is centred on income inequality, they make a strong link between perceived social inequality (judging ourselves in relation to other people) and all the stress-related social diseases.

The authors emphasise that inequality doesn’t just affect the poor of society; the affluent are also adversely affected. To put that in a more positive way, reducing inequality also benefits the affluent members of society.


Most people think of equality in terms of income but it's very unlikely there will ever be a society in which everyone has the same income. At the beginning of board games like Monopoly every player has an equal amount of money but it isn’t long before that equality is upset. Some social analysts use equal opportunity to rate a society’s level of equality, which is certainly more practical than rating it by income.

 The studies mentioned above show that, up to a point, money is very important for health and happiness but past that point it makes little difference to health or happiness. What then becomes important is perceived social equality, which is so delicate in a society obsessed with domination and competition in almost every area of daily life. The obsession with domination is seen in our parliamentary system and legal system, both of which set and reflect the adversarial nature of our culture in regard to conflict resolution and differences of opinions.

The obsession with competition is seen in sport, which has become unhealthy because of the high emphasis placed on winning. An alternative is for the emphasis to be on participation, or on the comradeship of team sport, or on the social side of individual sport. The harm caused by the attitude that ‘winning is everything’ comes out when elite athletes reveal their battles with depression or their thoughts of suicide to escape the pressure to be constantly winning.

Violence begets violence and what these studies reveal is that socio-economic inequality is actually a form of violence built into our social systems and this produces the violence we refer to as ‘social diseases.’ None of us are to blame for the system we were born into but each of us can do something to change the system. Our politicians are well aware of the studies linking inequality to all the social ills and they are also aware that social ills increase as inequality increases. Politicians can have the most influence on changing the system, simply by adopting policies and making laws that reduce the gap between the advantaged and the disadvantaged.  However, voters can put pressure on politicians to base their bid for power on their ability to come up with policies centred on reducing inequality. And the good news is that it appears we would all benefit from reversing the trend of ever increasing inequality.

An added bonus is that politicians can be held accountable and voters can more easily decide which party to vote for. If the socio-economic gap is decreasing under whatever party is in power, voters would know the government policies are working. If the gap is increasing, voters would know the policies are not working.

 



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    Author

    Bob Myers owned and operated an electronics sales and service business before gaining a degree in sociology and further training in relationship counselling, conflict resolution and mediation. He worked in that field for more than thirty years, mainly with teenagers and their families. For 16 years he was the director of a non-government residential facility for teenagers. He is the author of three books on parenting as well as :
    Travelling the Road of Peace and Happiness.

    Bob is dedicated to nonviolence as a way of life; a founding member of Pace e Bene Australia (PeBA); and a PeBA nonviolence facilitator.

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Travelling the Road of Peace and Happiness is an ebook that helps you learn more about family peace, conflict resolution, self development, relationship building and more.
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