According to "Rio 2016: Second boxer held over alleged sex assault," a second athlete competing in the Rio Olympics is now likely to miss his boxing matches because a judge has ordered him held prison while police investigate the claims of a female Olympic worker, a maid, that he sexually assaulted her (2016).
_______________________________________
My Yes/No question is:
Are natural things good?
My answer is:
No, natural things are often much worse than healthily unnatural human creations.
I responded to another Olympics article yesterday, but it's in the news a lot this week. I'm not really very interested in the Olympics, but a couple of non-sport related articles have interested me. Yesterday, it was the interesting issue of drug use by athletes, which led me to drug use in society generally. Today, it's the crimes of violence committed by competing athletes. This interested me mainly because they are being reported. I'm sure that in every past Olympic games, athletes, especially male athletes, have been committing the same sorts of crimes against the same sort of victims: powerless women working in menial roles who the filthy men admired, respected, loved and so on in their own nations think that they can abuse with the same impunity that they probaby have back in their adulating home countries. I'm glad to see the truth being told instead of being censored and silenced to maintain a dishonest, false image that everything is wonderful: that is, and probably always has been, a lie.
 |
| Namibia's flag bearer is now in prison |
I wonder how the news of their alleged abuses of Brazilain women is being reported in the thletes' home countries, and what the reactions there are?
___________
Reference
Rio 2016: Second boxer held over alleged sex assault. (2016, August 9). BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-37012299
At first, I am not sure what is the meaning of natural in this context. After I read, your idea thinks that natural is something not have been regulated. Therefore, you stated that natural things are not good. For me, if the natural means the thing like that, I am agree with your answer, too.
ReplyDeleteKen, and everyone else worried about this, I've added a comment that gives my quick answer. Unfortunately, part 2 is not very short. The much briefer idea that Ken has here is fairly close to my idea. I think it's good enough.
DeleteI'm a bit confuse about the topic and your answer. Maybe because i didn't read it enough. Anyway, i think it is difficult to define what is better between natural and man made things. However, the sexual abuse is easier to justify.
ReplyDeleteI'm confused about natural things. What does it means? I think it maybe thing made from the nature such as bag, clothes and so on. In this writing maybe a drug to help athlete right?
ReplyDeletePeople who commit some illegal things most also do some other illegal crimes.
ReplyDeleteAnd that prompts me ask is being criminal a bad thing? Is it (always) wrong to do illegal things?
DeleteKitt has also raised an interesting point to which I look forward to seeing the responses.
I like your prompt questioning? It will be a great debate. And of course, a lot of time required. To decide whether right or wrong depends on many factors. Context, the background of the commentator's education, the way he was brought up and o lots more are the unable to oversee factors.
DeleteThe news of their alleged abuses of Brazilian woman is being reported shows that the Olympic home country are sincere to shows the bad things.
ReplyDeleteI agree. When our country does bad things, we should admit that.
DeleteSince I studied Australian history in school, my country has become much better at teaching school children the truth awful things our leaders did, for example, the racist way my white ancestors often treated the Aborigines who were there for 40,000 years before we arrived and started killing them for fun.
Some of teh things Australian legal authorities have done, often believing they were "good," were in fact evil. For about five decades, it was common for Aboriginal children to be taken from their natural parents and placed in homes because it was argued that would better fit them for life in the modern world: all false.
That is good. If we want to see improvement, we need to really listen to the comments and the reflections with heart. In case the existing problems are true, solve or correct it. If not, just leave it there. No one wants to listen to something not nice, but we better do it for the sake of development. I support 'Freedom of expression' The recent referendum in our country which not allowed people who disagree of the drafted constitution to voice their comments is weird and unaccepted in international arena.
DeleteI understand your idea that the increasing crime rates make you think that most human behave badly. However, I still believe that human are the only living thing that can learn to be better in both physical and moral aspects. This is just one example that cannot be used to describe all people on earth or compare with unnatural human creations. Please do not ignore the rest of the world's people who behave.
ReplyDeleteActually, I think that crime rates are decreasing. There is less violence, less murder, less rape, and so on today than ten years ago. and much, much less than 10 years ago. The world is becoming a less violent, more peaceful place.
DeleteI agree with Peter here. It might be because of globalization which makes people notify of every news from the other side of the world in just a second. More occurring crimes are broadcasted to the world. This is why many people feel that the crime rates are increasing, whereas it is the opposite.
DeleteFor me, I think that education prevent other people to commit a crime or some what like a bubble that protect us not to commit a crime.
DeleteThis make me think of Lord Of the flies quote.
"Here, invisible yet strong, was the taboo of the old life. Round the squatting
child was the protection of parents and school and policemen and the
law. Roger’s arm was conditioned by a civilization that knew nothing of
him and was in ruins."
This quote is about a boy name Roger who is going to throw a stone to his friend but he is stopped by invisible force of civilization.
I really think that Lord Of the flies is suited for this debate.
Have you been talking with Feem?
DeleteOr did you read Lord of the Flies recently?
It's a great novel, but I'm not sure that Kitt loved it last term.
I hope someone replies to your quotation.
In case you would like to follow it up, Phu's quotation is from chapter 4 of Golding's novel, "Painted Faces and Long Hair". In my edition, it's on page 67 (Perigee, Kindle edition).
I do not read much. To me to read novels is like to get a big punishment. I'm not patient enough to read them no matter how they are. I prefer to watch movie instead.
DeleteI had a class 2 years ago about Lord of the Flies as my English class. Now I am currently reading Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.
DeleteI think natural things are good for everyone according to the Olympics. If athletes can't play sports because they are sick, it isn't good to use drugs which are very fast recover and can occur any side effects. They should maintain their health in a good way (I mean that a good natural way) to repair their bodies.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that their background, and human biology, make the natural acts of rape or lesser sexual abuse understandable, but that does not make the natural actions and desires of these athletes good or acceptable in decent society. I am not sure about natural things good. How does it related to athletes?
ReplyDeleteI don't think it does relate much to athletes.
DeleteBut when I think more, I guess we must expect them cheat if they can, which is why changing the rules to allow drug use might be simpler and just give medals to the ones who win by whatever means they can get their bodies to be faster, stronger and so on.
I agree that natural things are not always good. This topic is quite interesting and the way you put it make me think about moral of our society. Moral, the ability to distinguish between good and bad, is man made. In other words, it is developed during the course of human evolution. People in the past have no morality, they acted the way they wanted, and rape might be looked as a normal thing to do. The term rape might not actually exist. This support the claim that you made earlier when you asked "are natural things good?" The example of this sexual offence in the Olympic Game teaches us that natural things might not be the best option. Because the notion of morality is obviously much better than our wild instinct.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if i understand the sense of "Nature" in your blog post correctly. But after reading your post, it reminds me of "human nature." If it fits in this context, i rather agree with your answer. We are human. We call ourselves civilized human being. But when it comes to unethical, immoral or illegal issue, we blame it on the "Human nature"? That doesn't make any sense to me at all. I understand that the definition of moral, ethic and rules are differed in different culture. But the sense of good and evil is quite universal: do not harm other people and treat other like you want to be treated.I believe, we human, can be refined or educated.
ReplyDeleteSo many thoughtful responses to respond to!
DeleteI wonder how others will respond to Mieng's idea that moral "rules are differed in different culture." Does that also mean that morals, what is actually morally right, differs from culture to culture?
I really agree in some point that you have made about both man who got arrested because there is a culture difference . However, I can't find clear link between your answer and your respond writing. Maybe, I got to do wuith human nature of raping. For me, I disagree with you since we have some of knowledge of what is right and wrong.
ReplyDeletePhu raises a good point. I will be interested to see how others reply here.
DeleteAfter read this post I feel regret with this news. It seems like sexual harassment in workplace, on aspects as women in the news. The human feeling on sexual term is nature, but everyone has subconscious. In my opinion, Nature is not worse things. We have to find the ways to deal with it in this case, nature of human's body.
ReplyDeleteI like the worries that several people express about the meaning of the word natural. I just thought of a quick definition that's probably good enough, but I think a bit more work might be more useful. Let's start with some examples.
ReplyDeleteNatural things include: eating, fresh milk, cotton, honey, talking with a lover, and sunsets.
Unnatural things are: wearing high heel shoes, homogenised milk, polyester, refined white sugar, texting with an AI, and the abtract art of Picasso.
Part 1 ends here. I have to take a short break, and we can't save comments to post later!
Part 2.
DeleteWhat do our examples tell us?
I tried to think of examples that readers, you, would agree are clearly in one of the two groups, and left out difficult cases where we might disagree. I also tried to think of different types of examples.
Now, what does each set of examples have in common?
The sort of definition, not perfect, but perhaps good enough, is that natural means "occurring without the need for human activity or culture."
Eating comes naturally to us and all of our animal relatives, from dogs to rats to worms. Wearing high heels, in contrast, seems very much an activity that requires the intervention of human culture.
Honey was and still does occur wherever bees have not been destroyed by human activity, whereas refined white sugar requires human ingenuity to create from the raw sugar can juice.
And with a useful definition, we can then apply it to the more interesting and controversial cases.
Are drugs natural? Well, some such as marijuana and opium, are natural. Other drugs, for example, cancer drugs and methamphetamine (yaa baa), are not natural.
And behaiour? Rape seems to me natural. Sex is what male animals are biologically programmed to do as much as possible. What is unnatural is never having sex, for example Catholic priests and some monks say that they practice this very unnatural behaviour. I think it's also natural for human beings to lie, steal and so on: in the absence of cultural restraints, those are the default behaviours of human beings. We are not naturally a very nice species, but then, your average plant or animal species is genetically programmed by nature to do pretty much the same.
What do you think? Does my proposed definition help? Do you agree with it? Can you suggest a better definition to help us understand the terms natural and unnatural?
And with the definition clarified, we can get back to the more interesting question of whether natural things are good or not. I don't think there is any particular reason to value natural things more than unnatural things. I prefer my milk highly processed into tasty Gorgonzola or at least cheddar, not fresh from the cow.
Now that i've read your post again with more examples and explanations from you, I think I understand what you want to imply. Your definition of the word 'natural' is really helpful.
DeleteFirst i think natural things is good, always good. But I've changed my mind after I read your posts and other ideas of my classmate. Natural things is not that good. And when think about it as a behavior, like in your example, it's evil. The news about about crimes and violence really eat away my faith in humanity and i'm wonder if other people feel the same? It would be better if they report more news about good things we've for each other and this world.
On the other hand, i think natural things, which is food, are good. I don't mind if it taste worse than processed food or unnatural things. I usually find everything is delicious except what i cooked. But that doesn't mean i think unnatural thing is not good. Human does create many useful things and add more benefits to it. So, I think I both are good but I'm slightly on the natural side.