Egal

Sunday November 9, 2008 - 6:49AM EDT

This is an aside. But we really need to ban the advertisment, especially on tv, of various perscription medications. Even suggesting putting the decision of what medication to take into the hands of the average person with little or no medical education or knowledge is ludicrous. The most disturbing part is that companies are trying to sell directly to the patient. That kind of advertising stinks of the old time snake oil salesman. Promising cures to an uninformed populace. At the end where they spew a bunch of side effects and disclosures usually belies the whole feel of the commercial itself that seems to make this the best cure for what's ailing you. Those side effects and caveats become an afterthought and aren't given the weight they should be. And the #1 most disturbing thing about the commercials is how they suggest self diagnosis of problems. They give the most generic list of symptoms for ailments that basically anyone at some point in their lives have had some of the symptons and by extension are afflicated with whatever this medicine will cure.

Ok now to what I wanted to say first. Egalitarian society.  I keep thinking about it. What I am mainly referring to is gender equality. I feel like that will be the hardest to ever achieve, if there is even a will to achieve it. Various societies seem ok with rigidly defined definitions of each gender when it comes to contribution to society. I try to think what the world would be like if all genders were allowed to contribute equally to society. I honestly can't imagine a United States where women are still treated like they were prior to the advances of the womens movement. But what is more interesting is what our society would be like if there was gender equality. I have to think it would be infinitely better than it is today. Even a couuntry like Saudi Arabia, notoriously known for women occupying a low place. How is it that you exclude half of your population from full participation? You are artificially restricting the potential of your society.  I just wonder how far such societies can advance or if they can even survive.

Most baffling and dissapointing to me is the tacit acceptance of the status quo of gender inequality by the ones most disadvantages or looked down upon. For reasons of tradition, of not knowing anything else or imposed philisophical ideals which have eliminated or reasoned the desire to attain equality out of themselves.

There was an article I read a little bit ago about how the relationship between Barack Obama and his wife Michelle was a bit different from the traditional first lady and president relationship. More of a equal partnership than where the first lady takes a peripheral or background role of supporter of the husband and not much more. I suspect the article was referring more to the public image of the relationship than the actual inner workings of it but still an important observation. It may be of great impact the view that they are equal partners in moving forward with greater gender equality in this country and maybe to a lesser extent around the world. I am curious to see if this "equal partnership" thing will really be at the forefront or will it give way to the more background support roles. The last president's wife was scantly even talked about and you never heard much from her. Whether by design or just the nature of the situation I am not sure. But there was certainly no overt projection of equal partnership, whether there was internally or not. The president before last own indiscretions completely lampooned any kind of equality image even though she projected a much stronger personal image herself than the succeeding first lady.