Prejudice in science fiction
quote:
Originally posted by DalekTek790:
You were the one who brought sex and Puritan values into this thread, not I. I don’t know if you’re trying to make me feel ashamed for saying cloning is okay or if you’re just trying to start an argument but it’s getting on my nerves.
You asked for thoughts as to why cloning is always depicted as being wrong or evil in science fiction. Western society is, for good or ill, heavily influenced by (IMHO, completely unnecessary) guilt instilled in it by religious leaders as a means of control. I used that as one reason that, in many cases, a society that utilizes cloning is depicted as decadent and villainous.
You, on the other hand, brought up your own personal hangups. I was speaking in terms of the realm of speculative fiction, and you turned it into a personal comment about your own sexual hangups. My comments were on-topic and relevant to the discussion. Your comments weren’t.
And, you know, while we’re on the subject, I find it a little hard to believe that on one hand you can use a small handful of extremely biased (and in some cases, completely discredited) sources to back up one argument, while widely accepted and established truths about human psychology and biology are dismissed by you as “unfair generalizations.” It is widely acknowledged (I hesitate to use the word universally only because you, and perhaps a handful of extremists, refuse to acknowledge it) that human sexuality is an inborn part of behavior. Centuries of attempts by clergy have not stifled it, and the widespread use and acceptance of birth control has not limited it (using your argument, if procreation is limited, the urge to procreate should diminish, and this is not the case as is evident in society…if your hypothesis is valid, sex without procreation is something that would disappear, and birth control would give rise to cycles of estrus in which people would only desire sex when it was neccessary to produce offspring — this isn’t happening). Every study and report on human sexuality states in no uncertain terms that sexuality is an ingrained part of mankind and its biological and psychological makeup. It is not an unfair generalization. Anyone, you included, who states that they have no sexual desire is either malfunctioning biologically or psychologically.
–Aleck