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From: mokhtar@ubc-vision.CDN (Farzin Mokhtarian)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: RE: Never stop fighting
Message-ID: <443@ubc-vision.CDN>
Date: Tue, 26-Jun-84 16:53:29 EDT
Article-I.D.: ubc-visi.443
Posted: Tue Jun 26 16:53:29 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 28-Jun-84 03:44:56 EDT
Organization: UBC Vision, Vancouver, B.C., Canada
Lines: 38

------------------------ 
  
   +---------------------------------------+
   | To be nobody but yourself in a world  |
   | which is doing its best night and day |
   | to make you like everybody else       |
   | means to fight the hardest battle     |
   | any human being can fight and         |
   | never stop fighting.                  |
   |                                       |
   |                       e.e. cummings   |
   +---------------------------------------+
      
      I think what e.e. cummings sought to escape was "being someone 
but himself". I don't see this poem as "self-obsessed" or "having an
attitude of individual-vs-society". 
     
      A role becomes a prison when it is incompatible with what the
individual is. If the society/group of which that individual is a member
can not tolerate free expression of the self (which is *not* equivalent
to social anarchy), then the individual suffers. If one can only express
him/her self through a role, something is lost because roles don't allow
for great differences that exist between individuals.
  
      Perhaps the widespread feeling of "alienation, loneliness and
unhappiness" that exist in our culture comes from the failure of roles
to recognize individual differences between people. The fabric of 
society will become stronger, in my view, if those differences
are recognized and tolerated. My anxiety and lack of trust
would be produced if I suspected rejection when being myself. If I didn't
have to worry about that, I would have no need to "fit in" anywhere.
  
      Freedom to express self without roles can be very responsible and is 
not equivalent to social anarchy. If there are any harms done by removing
roles, I would very much like to know about them.
  
                                Farzin Mokhtarian, UBC, Vancouver, BC