Thursday, February 25, 2010

War of the Mind

So a while ago I saw this show on Abuse against Women called Apeksha. The show went on to show men as evil beasts who just plain do horrible things to women. In fact at one point it seemed that one man actually saved the titular Apeksha from her terrible fate to only end up marrying her and becoming another monster.

The whole thing seemed somewhat one sided to me. Sure these things happen but they themselves go on to say that abuse can be both physical and mental. In the discussion with the audience that followed afterward I found myself agreeing with the Father from the Church who said that abuse can go both ways, it’s not only against women… yes even the physical kind. Pots and Pans people… pots and pans. But psychological warfare is equally or more potent.

In fact I’ve noticed that women are generally better at psychological attacks with the reason being that physical attacks are generally out of their means. I stress generally. They can be great schemers. Such forms of offensive action are also commonly employed by men who lack physical strength because they too need to develop alternatives.

In fact it seems to me that mental abuse can have more far reaching consequences and be sometimes be permanent or near permanent. Physical blows on the other hand will heal and recover but sometimes damages on the mind cannot. Even worse other people can’t really see if another person has been mentally abused either.

To show you the strength of what can happen to the mind I’m going to take two examples... though I'm sure there are many other examples that can be found.

The first is Al Capone. This hard man gangster was the untouchable man during the major bootlegging era of the United States. But strangely enough when he was caught he was a broken man who was quiet and humble. Once the game was up he was finished being completely defeated in the mind.

The Second is Lawrence of Arabia who led many successful campaigns in the Middle East. Unfortunately for him he was captured by Turks who subjected him to all kinds of sexual abuse. He was never the same and he died a broken man.

Just think hypothetically of a robot whose exterior was completely fine. But it if its programming is messed up it may behave erratically but you might not be able to see why and I believe this is the same with human beings.

I leave you with a quote from the Matrix:

Morpheous "The body cannot live without the mind"

6 comments:

  1. When was the last time you saw a man being reduced to blubbering mess by a woman???
    Women being abused by men is rampant! It doesn't even compare to the reverse!
    "Physical blows will heal"?
    Just last week I spoke to the director of a womens' organisation and she showed me pictures of SEVERAL women whose limbs were sawed off by their husbands!
    Women whose husbands had thrown acid on them permanently disfiguring them!
    They've been sexually abused blooming day!
    How's that for physical abuse?
    AND even if the injury heals, there's still mental scarring. Mental abuse comes in tandem with physical abuse!

    Also according to statistics, physical abuse where the husband uses the most brutal and unimaginably horrific ways of torturing his wife has been rising over the recent years.

    And as for mental abuse practically all Sri Lankan women have experienced that!

    The fact that we are giving more prominence to the issue of men abusing women, is because it's more common and the degree at which it's at is occuring is scary. It's raging wildly around the country and we're trying to do something about.

    You're free to do something about men being abused by women. But don't criticise the efforts taken to reduce women being abused.

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  3. agree with puppeteer.

    I'm not sure exactly what you're trying to say. Perhaps you can elaborate?

    Somehow trying to determine mental or physical abuse is worse doesn't make sense. Phsyical abuse, leaves mental scars that are very difficult to overcome.

    Abuse of any kind by one human being on a another is terrible. Unfortunately women are physically weaker and you don't need a genius to understand the data.

    "The show went on to show men as evil beasts who just plain do horrible things to women" ANY man OR woman who inflicts such pain on a another human being is a monster.

    I don't think you really understand the issue at hand, otherwise you would not speak of it so lightly.

    I echo Puppeteer here, "don't criticise the efforts taken to reduce women being abused"

    Wasn't it Lincoln who said, "Not all men are scoundrels" and for every scoundrel there is a good one.


    FEBRUARY 26, 2010 2:26 AM

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  4. @ Puppeteer and Blissfully Ignorant

    Yes I agree with you on some of what you said. It is a terrible problem and I know of someone who was set ablaze by her husband among other things. In fact I feel quite strongly on it.

    Maybe it was because I was a man, but that show was downright offensive in that it didn't show a single good man. It's like every man is some sexual deviant psychophant and women are ALWAYS the victim. That's all there is in the world. That sounds a little discriminatory to me.

    Furthermore they gave a card at the end that said "I will prevent abuse against women". No shit. Of course I will. I would never have turned up for something about Gender Based Violence if I was too busy beating up women.

    I'm sorry but every man in that play was a RAPIST and a Abuser. From the factory manager to the Army to the Husband.

    I apologize if some stuff was written offensively, it was written in a hurry though.

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  5. well if the show was on abuse against women, doesn't it make sense that it involved abused women and abusive men?

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