360 Lashes in Saudi for OAP

[robvalue]

I've been thinking about how imbalances in society are difficult to move away from.

When you have a society where the religious people have all the power, or the men have all the power, at the expense of the remainder of the population, it's not easily remedied. It seems to be human nature to hold onto whatever advantage you have, and making a choice to give that advantage away is not one people make easily. And because those in power have the power... they are the ones who keep things the way they are. For that powerful group to get together and say, "Hey, we should be less powerful, this isn't fair" seems to be a whole lot to expect when viewed this way. But ultimately, that is what is needed.

It takes some massive event for things like this to change; like I was learning recently about how the first world war ended up being a turning point for women's rights in England.

I've come to the conclusion that the majority of people will go with the flow. If they grow up in a society where men and women are pretty much equal, and most people support that, then they'll say "Fair enough". They may even convince themselves that this is so obvious that they would have stood up to it being any other way. But if they had been born into a society where women were deemed inferior, and most people supported that, they would probably have said, "Fair enough". It takes a strong mind and will to stand up to what society is doing in general and say, "No, this is wrong." In some ways, societies simply wouldn't work if most people didn't have this go with the flow attitude, because everyone would constantly be clashing with everyone else and society as a whole.