Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Merry Christmas 2007
Monday, November 26, 2007
Saturday Night at the Meadowlands
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The above program is from the Meadowlands Racetrack on Saturday night, November 24, 2007. As you know, all I bet at the races is triactors. The system that I employ focuses on this particular bet.
There were a number of high quality stakes races on this card. They were two and three year old horses, which I do not like to bet. I prefer older horses of good quality and that is what my system is based on. I did not spend a lot of time on these stakes races even though my system would have picked some winners in these races. In fact, my system produced four (4) winning triactors on this card. Three of them involved these stakes races which I did not bet.
Take a look at the thirteenth race shown above. I bet my usual 14 dollars and the system produced for me. This triactor paid $ 1165.80. for a one dollar bet. The winning combination was 10-3-8.
My top five horse according to my handicapping were:
10-8-4-3-9
My first bet would be to box (10-8-4) for a total of six dollars. This is called a triactor box bet. Here are the combinations that I receive for my six dollars. These are all one dollar bets and are contained within the box bet:
10-8-4
10-4-8
8-4-10
8-10-4
4-8-10
4-10-8
I am going to spend 8 more dollars on my system and I am going to bring in the "fourth" and "fifth" horses into combination with my top rated horse, which is horse number 10. My fourth and fifth rated horses are numbers 3 and 9, respectively. Remember, in a horse race, any horse can potentially win the race, or be in the top three. My system tries to pick the best five horses in the race according to the criteria that I employ by picking them. I am simply trying to save money by looking at the factors that I do; factors which I consider to be important in determining a winner of a race. I am now going to make a number of " key " bets. This means that the horse that I key with the other two in this particular betting example, would have to win. The other two can come in second or third, or place or show. Here are my key bets. Each bet costs two dollars and here are the combinations:
3/10-8 = 3-10-8 and 3-8-10 ( two dollars )
In the above key bet horse number 3 has to win the race and horses number 10 and 8 can come in either second or third.
10/8-3 = 10-8-3 and 10-3-8 ( two dollars )
9/10-8 = 9-10-8 and 9-8-10 ( two dollars )
10/8-9 = 10-8-9 and 10-9-8 ( two dollars )
So, once again the winning combination in the race was 10-3-8. My top rated horse won the race, my fourth rated horse came in second and my second rated horse came in third.
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This was quite a nice win for me and it was my only win of the evening. But, then sometimes you only need one win to come out ahead.
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Results at the Meadowlands for Saturday November 24, 2007
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Live Video Replay Here. Free to join up
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Sunday, November 18, 2007
My Brain
Monday, October 15, 2007
Catching the Great Fish
Women and fish have things in common when it comes to pursuing them. I am able to make these sorts of observations regarding women and fish since I have experience in both matters. One has to know the habits of women and the things that are of interest to them, etc. Chasing a woman is after all a science just like that of catching that Great Fish that is in the back of one's mind.
Once you catch sight of that Great Woman one must employ all one's acquired skills in the objective of landing her. Where does she hang out? What does she like to do or talk about? What things annoy her or make her happy and interested in your presence? And, like in the pursuit of the fish, what lure shall I use to grab her attention? These are the considerations for the serious fisherman of women.
Some men are very aggressive or even cavalier fishermen and that is how they treat their female objects of desire. A man in a pursuit of a woman might treat her like a sucker fish and use common bait to lure her in. Things like buying her dinners and drinks or saying pretty things to her might do the trick. If you think your woman is of a common variety then these tricks would most likely work. You will catch your fish and enjoy your pleasures - with a typical sucker fish.
But, a man interested in that really big catch, that special fish of fishes might do something a little bit different. His woman is not going to be fooled by cheap lures and flashy pieces of equipment like an automobile or the waving of money in front of her face. No, a really fine specimen of a woman or that really large fish requires something different. That is why the fish has become so large or the woman has remained independent for so long, because it is crafty and self-supporting. It has learned how to survive in the waters and to be wary of its attackers and of the things that it devours. And, so it is with that special woman, the trophy fish that one engages in catching when no other can.
As I mention above, my personal strategy involves patience and an understanding of my fish, and my woman. She is special and requires that special lure, and it is a matter of being in the right place at the right time as well. So, as you can see luck enters the picture as well. But, luck is only the catalyst I think you would agree. If I am pursuing that big fish and being in the right place at the right time then time is working in my favor. Having identified the type of woman that I am after I must determine what strategy to use to win her favor. And, it is the precisely the same thing as utilizing that special lure in the right place and at the right time when bagging that Great Fish.
Since this special woman is privy to all of the common tricks that men have used she is wise to their efforts and will reject them. She might play with them and nibble a bit on their hooks, maybe even take a taste of them. But, she will not be caught entirely for that is not her want. She will not necessarily end up on their dinner plate if she has anything to say about the matter. If she is going to sacrifice herself and fall for the bait it will be as her choosing. This is where the element of luck comes in.
Sunday, October 07, 2007
The Philosophy of the Broken
Lately, I have been studying philosophy, concentrating on the important men in the field and their ideas. You will notice that I said men because I have not yet encountered any famous women in the field. This is a fact, and it is quite instructive a feature of the study of philosophy I think you will agree, but it does not lay at the center of my proposed Philosophy of the Broken.
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I looked at the Greek philosophers, the so-called modern ones, and finishing up by considering the thoughts of the existentialists. I can relate a great deal to the personalities of Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and Heidegger et al. The first two philosophers are a personal interest because of their problems with women. Undoubtedly, their world views were influenced by their relationships with women, as have mine.
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But, on the other side of the idealists are the materialists. These people think all life and ideas are formed from matter. Some of the early Greek were ' atomists ' which is the belief that all life is part of indivisible matter. Early materialists were the Greeks Leucippus, Democritus, and Epicurus. This is my conception of things as well. Ludwig Feuerbach and Karl Marx were later materialists who challenged the Christian view of things in the nineteenth century. There is also something called Dualism which considers the relationship of the mind and the Spirit.
There has been a steadfast group of philosophers in the western tradition who still consider that God exists and this idea forms part of their philosophy. Most of the modern Renaissance men were Christians so it was hard to extricate this influence in their life. God had a role to play and he could be used to explain that mysterious force which controls all things.
In the modern context, however, philosophers began to think about this force as being some kind of 'Will' that propels man and his action. You can call it the 'Thing in Itself ' or just the main driving force of man. A philosopher's whole life can be consumed with the business of knowing and reasoning based on the information that is available.
But, whatever philosophy you subscribe to, be it Christian or god oriented or based on some materialistic conception of things there is, I believe, a central theme to consider. And, that is, that man is essentially broken. As a corporeal being and as a spiritual being. The existentialists concentrate on this notion of being, and I think that is the right approach to take. I am me. I am Carl Baydala, existing in the here and now. I know not from what or where I came from and neither do I know what my fate is in the future. My origins are unclear as well any possible future outcome. Everything is in doubt. If there is a God I am separated from him and I do not know him. The link is broken. And, in the materialist sense there is a brokenness as well. Why is there man and woman? Who or what decided that these two creatures should exist side by side and require the sexual cooperation of each other for the continuation of their species. Why?
The modern philosopher, if he is not a Christian is a thinking man. He is forced to be because he knows that no rational answer is available for the explanation of things. The Christian person can live a life of fantasy if that is his want, but he still does not know if the Entity exists or not. And, even his life is given to soul searching and becoming closer to God or of trying to understand him. He is making up ideas in his mind about something he believes exists, but cannot prove beyond a reasonable doubt that this is the case or not. So, in a way, he is still separated from his god as well; he wants to move closer to the Entity. Just as the modern materialist philosopher wants to move closer to the truth. The atheist is not going to deny the existence of a 'God'. That god for him is going to be the culmination of his entire being and of this thought processes. Man could be God Amighty himself, or nature could be God. These are possibities among many. He doesn't know and that forms the basis of his knowledge. Man is separated from reality because he does not really know it. Man is limited by what he can know in the finite as well as the infinite. He is missing some information. He does not know if the infinite exists because he cannot imagine it. Man tries to get to the bottom of things through logic. That is his main tool and this is where the ideas about reality, being, and knowledge are thrashed about. He can, or will most likely work out a logical explanation of the physical world about him. But, it is like being stuck in a closed box in the middle of outer space and someone chucks an object inside of that box. His job is to explain that object and his next job is to explain who or what is responsible for placing the thing in his presence.
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Man is a broken or separated creature. He is broken because he cannot truly understand his reality in relation to others and why he came to exist in the form that he did. He is detached from his God if he has one, and in everyday life must absorb the meaning and existence of the objects that surround him.
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But, I really believe that understanding women may be the answer to all of life's mysteries. In women you find mystery in a whole host of ways. They are different in physical form and they can be challenging mentally as well. Call it love or lust as I mention above, but man is drawn into women for the purposes of sex and reproduction. Man and women are just matter, matter all broken up and split in two. Maybe the Greeks were right about man and woman originally being one entity. Maybe the entire universe was one solid mass at one time and then everything just broke apart; the galaxies and all the other phenomena in space were tranformed. Maybe the concept of life did not exist in the far past. Maybe life did just evolve from nothing as they say. Does that involve the work of the Almighty? Not necessarily I would retort. As a materialist I have to stick to my guns. I do think all things are created from matter, including thought. And, that is the true secret of the universe is it not? The origin and nature of thought I mean. If this theory is true then you would have to examine what the essence of thought is and upon discovering that you would have to say that some other form of matter at some time was involved in the business of thought. Can a rock think? If you are a materialist like myself you would have to answer in the affirmative. The philosopher John Locke, a former idealist turned atheist thought as I do in this matter. Can you imagine myself having to appear in a courtroom somewhere in the backwaters of space and defend such a notion such as that? Well, that is precisely what the Christians are doing by saying that God exists. And, all they are doing is defending an Idea.
By Professor Emil J. Piscitelli
Education and Dialectics
"Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest" (Proverbs 6:6-8).
Saturday, October 06, 2007
Arthur Schopenhauer on Women
One of my favorite philosophers is Arthur Schopenhauer. ( 1788 to 1860 ) He is most famously known for his: " The World as Will and Representation. " He is also considered to be the most pessimistic of the philosophers on account of his dim view on the nature of man and what is in store for him. The world according to Schopenhauer consists of two parts, what we see and the second part of our will. This will would be his ' thing in itself '. This is the blind force that guides our actions and is the cause of the interactions between men. An atheist such as myself would be attracted to such an idea and would replace the notion of an all-knowing omnipotent god - the creator and mover of all things. We seem to have a lot in common as regards philosophical thought and like myself, he was a bachelor. And, like myself, he fell in love with a seventeen year old girl who rejected him. He was 43 and I was 34. I take this fact to be a significant similarity and it certainly adds to my interest in the man and his thoughts concerning women.
These few words of Jouy, Sans les femmes le commencement de notre vie seroit privĂ© de secours, le milieu de plaisirs et la fin de consolation, more exactly express, in my opinion, the true praise of woman than Schiller’s poem, WĂĽrde der Frauen, which is the fruit of much careful thought and impressive because of its antithesis and use of contrast. The same thing is more pathetically expressed by Byron in Sardanapalus, Act i, Sc. 2:—
“The very firstOf human life must spring from woman’s breast,Your first small words are taught you from her lips,Your first tears quench’d by her, and your last sighsToo often breathed out in a woman’s hearing,When men have shrunk from the ignoble careOf watching the last hour of him who led them.”
Both passages show the right point of view for the appreciation of women.
One need only look at a woman’s shape to discover that she is not intended for either too much mental or too much physical work. She pays the debt of life not by what she does but by what she suffers—by the pains of child-bearing, care for the child, and by subjection to man, to whom she should be a patient and cheerful companion. The greatest sorrows and joys or great exhibition of strength are not assigned to her; her life should flow more quietly, more gently, and less obtrusively than man’s, without her being essentially happier or unhappier.
Women are directly adapted to act as the nurses and educators of our early childhood, for the simple reason that they themselves are childish, foolish, and short-sighted—in a word, are big children all their lives, something intermediate between the child and the man, who is a man in the strict sense of the word. Consider how a young girl will toy day after day with a child, dance with it and sing to it; and then consider what a man, with the very best intentions in the world, could do in her place.
With girls, Nature has had in view what is called in a dramatic sense a “striking effect,” for she endows them for a few years with a richness of beauty and a, fulness of charm at the expense of the rest of their lives; so that they may during these years ensnare the fantasy of a man to such a degree as to make him rush into taking the honourable care of them, in some kind of form, for a lifetime—a step which would not seem sufficiently justified if he only considered the matter. Accordingly, Nature has furnished woman, as she has the rest of her creatures, with the weapons and implements necessary for the protection of her existence and for just the length of time that they will be of service to her; so that Nature has proceeded here with her usual economy. Just as the female ant after coition loses her wings, which then become superfluous, nay, dangerous for breeding purposes, so for the most part does a woman lose her beauty after giving birth to one or two children; and probably for the same reasons.
Then again we find that young girls in their hearts regard their domestic or other affairs as secondary things, if not as a mere jest. Love, conquests, and all that these include, such as dressing, dancing, and so on, they give their serious attention.
The nobler and more perfect a thing is, the later and slower is it in reaching maturity. Man reaches the maturity of his reasoning and mental faculties scarcely before he is eight-and-twenty; woman when she is eighteen; but hers is reason of very narrow limitations. This is why women remain children all their lives, for they always see only what is near at hand, cling to the present, take the appearance of a thing for reality, and prefer trifling matters to the most important. It is by virtue of man’s reasoning powers that he does not live in the present only, like the brute, but observes and ponders over the past and future; and from this spring discretion, care, and that anxiety which we so frequently notice in people. The advantages, as well as the disadvantages, that this entails, make woman, in consequence of her weaker reasoning powers, less of a partaker in them. Moreover, she is intellectually short-sighted, for although her intuitive understanding quickly perceives what is near to her, on the other hand her circle of vision is limited and does not embrace anything that is remote; hence everything that is absent or past, or in the future, affects women in a less degree than men. This is why they have greater inclination for extravagance, which sometimes borders on madness. Women in their hearts think that men are intended to earn money so that they may spend it, if possible during their husband’s lifetime, but at any rate after his death.
As soon as he has given them his earnings on which to keep house they are strengthened in this belief. Although all this entails many disadvantages, yet it has this advantage—that a woman lives more in the present than a man, and that she enjoys it more keenly if it is at all bearable. This is the origin of that cheerfulness which is peculiar to woman and makes her fit to divert man, and in case of need, to console him when he is weighed down by cares. To consult women in matters of difficulty, as the Germans used to do in old times, is by no means a matter to be overlooked; for their way of grasping a thing is quite different from ours, chiefly because they like the shortest way to the point, and usually keep their attention fixed upon what lies nearest; while we, as a rule, see beyond it, for the simple reason that it lies under our nose; it then becomes necessary for us to be brought back to the thing in order to obtain a near and simple view. This is why women are more sober in their judgment than we, and why they see nothing more in things than is really there; while we, if our passions are roused, slightly exaggerate or add to our imagination.
It is because women’s reasoning powers are weaker that they show more sympathy for the unfortunate than men, and consequently take a kindlier interest in them. On the other hand, women are inferior to men in matters of justice, honesty, and conscientiousness. Again, because their reasoning faculty is weak, things clearly visible and real, and belonging to the present, exercise a power over them which is rarely counteracted by abstract thoughts, fixed maxims, or firm resolutions, in general, by regard for the past and future or by consideration for what is absent and remote. Accordingly they have the first and principal qualities of virtue, but they lack the secondary qualities which are often a necessary instrument in developing it. Women may be compared in this respect to an organism that has a liver but no gall-bladder.9 So that it will be found that the fundamental fault in the character of women is that they have no “sense of justice.” This arises from their deficiency in the power of reasoning already referred to, and reflection, but is also partly due to the fact that Nature has not destined them, as the weaker sex, to be dependent on strength but on cunning; this is why they are instinctively crafty, and have an ineradicable tendency to lie. For as lions are furnished with claws and teeth, elephants with tusks, boars with fangs, bulls with horns, and the cuttlefish with its dark, inky fluid, so Nature has provided woman for her protection and defence with the faculty of dissimulation, and all the power which Nature has given to man in the form of bodily strength and reason has been conferred on woman in this form. Hence, dissimulation is innate in woman and almost as characteristic of the very stupid as of the clever. Accordingly, it is as natural for women to dissemble at every opportunity as it is for those animals to turn to their weapons when they are attacked; and they feel in doing so that in a certain measure they are only making use of their rights. Therefore a woman who is perfectly truthful and does not dissemble is perhaps an impossibility. This is why they see through dissimulation in others so easily; therefore it is not advisable to attempt it with them. From the fundamental defect that has been stated, and all that it involves, spring falseness, faithlessness, treachery, ungratefulness, and so on. In a court of justice women are more often found guilty of perjury than men. It is indeed to be generally questioned whether they should be allowed to take an oath at all. From time to time there are repeated cases everywhere of ladies, who want for nothing, secretly pocketing and taking away things from shop counters.
Nature has made it the calling of the young, strong, and handsome men to look after the propagation of the human race; so that the species may not degenerate. This is the firm will of Nature, and it finds its expression in the passions of women. This law surpasses all others in both age and power. Woe then to the man who sets up rights and interests in such a way as to make them stand in the way of it; for whatever he may do or say, they will, at the first significant onset, be unmercifully annihilated. For the secret, unformulated, nay, unconscious but innate moral of woman is: We are justified in deceiving those who, because they care a little for us,—that is to say for the individual,—imagine they have obtained rights over the species. The constitution, and consequently the welfare of the species, have been put into our hands and entrusted to our care through the medium of the next generation which proceeds from us; let us fulfil our duties conscientiously.
But women are by no means conscious of this leading principle in abstracto, they are only conscious of it in concreto, and have no other way of expressing it than in the manner in which they act when the opportunity arrives. So that their conscience does not trouble them so much as we imagine, for in the darkest depths of their hearts they are conscious that in violating their duty towards the individual they have all the better fulfilled it towards the species, whose claim upon them is infinitely greater. (A fuller explanation of this matter may be found in vol. ii., ch. 44, in my chief work, Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung.)
Because women in truth exist entirely for the propagation of the race, and their destiny ends here, they live more for the species than for the individual, and in their hearts take the affairs of the species more seriously than those of the individual. This gives to their whole being and character a certain frivolousness, and altogether a certain tendency which is fundamentally different from that of man; and this it is which develops that discord in married life which is so prevalent and almost the normal state.
It is natural for a feeling of mere indifference to exist between men, but between women it is actual enmity. This is due perhaps to the fact that odium figulinum in the case of men, is limited to their everyday affairs, but with women embraces the whole sex; since they have only one kind of business. Even when they meet in the street, they look at each other like Guelphs and Ghibellines. And it is quite evident when two women first make each other’s acquaintance that they exhibit more constraint and dissimulation than two men placed in similar circumstances. This is why an exchange of compliments between two women is much more ridiculous than between two men. Further, while a man will, as a rule, address others, even those inferior to himself, with a certain feeling of consideration and humanity, it is unbearable to see how proudly and disdainfully a lady of rank will, for the most part, behave towards one who is in a lower rank (not employed in her service) when she speaks to her. This may be because differences of rank are much more precarious with women than with us, and consequently more quickly change their line of conduct and elevate them, or because while a hundred things must be weighed in our case, there is only one to be weighed in theirs, namely, with which man they have found favour; and again, because of the one-sided nature of their vocation they stand in closer relationship to each other than men do; and so it is they try to render prominent the differences of rank.
It is only the man whose intellect is clouded by his sexual instinct that could give that stunted, narrow-shouldered, broad-hipped, and short-legged race the name of the fair sex; for the entire beauty of the sex is based on this instinct. One would be more justified in calling them the unaesthetic sex than the beautiful. Neither for music, nor for poetry, nor for fine art have they any real or true sense and susceptibility, and it is mere mockery on their part, in their desire to please, if they affect any such thing.
This makes them incapable of taking a purely objective interest in anything, and the reason for it is, I fancy, as follows. A man strives to get direct mastery over things either by understanding them or by compulsion. But a woman is always and everywhere driven to indirect mastery, namely through a man; all her direct mastery being limited to him alone. Therefore it lies in woman’s nature to look upon everything only as a means for winning man, and her interest in anything else is always a simulated one, a mere roundabout way to gain her ends, consisting of coquetry and pretence. Hence Rousseau said, Les femmes, en gĂ©nĂ©ral, n’aiment aucun art, ne se connoissent Ă aucun et n’ont aucun gĂ©nie (Lettre Ă d’Alembert, note xx.). Every one who can see through a sham must have found this to be the case. One need only watch the way they behave at a concert, the opera, or the play; the childish simplicity, for instance, with which they keep on chattering during the finest passages in the greatest masterpieces. If it is true that the Greeks forbade women to go to the play, they acted in a right way; for they would at any rate be able to hear something. In our day it would be more appropriate to substitute taceat mulier in theatro for taceat mulier in ecclesia; and this might perhaps be put up in big letters on the curtain.
Nothing different can be expected of women if it is borne in mind that the most eminent of the whole sex have never accomplished anything in the fine arts that is really great, genuine, and original, or given to the world any kind of work of permanent value. This is most striking in regard to painting, the technique of which is as much within their reach as within ours; this is why they pursue it so industriously. Still, they have not a single great painting to show, for the simple reason that they lack that objectivity of mind which is precisely what is so directly necessary in painting. They always stick to what is subjective. For this reason, ordinary women have no susceptibility for painting at all: for natura non facet saltum. And Huarte, in his book which has been famous for three hundred years, Examen de ingenios para las scienzias, contends that women do not possess the higher capacities. Individual and partial exceptions do not alter the matter; women are and remain, taken altogether, the most thorough and incurable philistines; and because of the extremely absurd arrangement which allows them to share the position and title of their husbands they are a constant stimulus to his ignoble ambitions. And further, it is because they are philistines that modern society, to which they give the tone and where they have sway, has become corrupted. As regards their position, one should be guided by Napoleon’s maxim, Les femmes n’ont pas de rang; and regarding them in other things, Chamfort says very truly: Elles sont faites pour commercer avec nos faiblesses avec notre folie, mais non avec notre raison. Il existe entre elles et les hommes des sympathies d’Ă©piderme et très-peu de sympathies d’esprit d’âme et de caractère. They are the sexus sequior, the second sex in every respect, therefore their weaknesses should be spared, but to treat women with extreme reverence is ridiculous, and lowers us in their own eyes. When nature divided the human race into two parts, she did not cut it exactly through the middle! The difference between the positive and negative poles, according to polarity, is not merely qualitative but also quantitative. And it was in this light that the ancients and people of the East regarded woman; they recognised her true position better than we, with our old French ideas of gallantry and absurd veneration, that highest product of Christian–Teutonic stupidity. These ideas have only served to make them arrogant and imperious, to such an extent as to remind one at times of the holy apes in Benares, who, in the consciousness of their holiness and inviolability, think they can do anything and everything they please.
In the West, the woman, that is to say the “lady,” finds herself in a fausse position; for woman, rightly named by the ancients sexus sequior, is by no means fit to be the object of our honour and veneration, or to hold her head higher than man and to have the same rights as he. The consequences of this fausse position are sufficiently clear. Accordingly, it would be a very desirable thing if this Number Two of the human race in Europe were assigned her natural position, and the lady-grievance got rid of, which is not only ridiculed by the whole of Asia, but would have been equally ridiculed by Greece and Rome. The result of this would be that the condition of our social, civil, and political affairs would be incalculably improved. The Salic law would be unnecessary; it would be a superfluous truism. The European lady, strictly speaking, is a creature who should not exist at all; but there ought to be housekeepers, and young girls who hope to become such; and they should be brought up not to be arrogant, but to be domesticated and submissive. It is exactly because there are ladies in Europe that women of a lower standing, that is to say, the greater majority of the sex, are much more unhappy than they are in the East. Even Lord Byron says (Letters and Papers, by Thomas Moore, vol. ii. p. 399), Thought of the state of women under the ancient Greeks—convenient enough. Present state, a remnant of the barbarism of the chivalric and feudal ages—artificial and unnatural. They ought to mind home—and be well fed and clothed—but not mixed in society. Well educated, too, in religion—but to read neither poetry nor politics—nothing but books of piety and cookery. Music—drawing—dancing—also a little gardening and ploughing now and then. I have seen them mending the roads in Epirus with good success. Why not, as well as hay-making and milking?
In our part of the world, where monogamy is in force, to marry means to halve one’s rights and to double one’s duties. When the laws granted woman the same rights as man, they should also have given her a masculine power of reason. On the contrary, just as the privileges and honours which the laws decree to women surpass what Nature has meted out to them, so is there a proportional decrease in the number of women who really share these privileges; therefore the remainder are deprived of their natural rights in so far as the others have been given more than Nature accords.
For the unnatural position of privilege which the institution of monogamy, and the laws of marriage which accompany it, assign to the woman, whereby she is regarded throughout as a full equivalent of the man, which she is not by any means, cause intelligent and prudent men to reflect a great deal before they make so great a sacrifice and consent to so unfair an arrangement. Therefore, whilst among polygamous nations every woman finds maintenance, where monogamy exists the number of married women is limited, and a countless number of women who are without support remain over; those in the upper classes vegetate as useless old maids, those in the lower are reduced to very hard work of a distasteful nature, or become prostitutes, and lead a life which is as joyless as it is void of honour. But under such circumstances they become a necessity to the masculine sex; so that their position is openly recognised as a special means for protecting from seduction those other women favoured by fate either to have found husbands, or who hope to find them. In London alone there are 80,000 prostitutes. Then what are these women who have come too quickly to this most terrible end but human sacrifices on the altar of monogamy? The women here referred to and who are placed in this wretched position are the inevitable counterbalance to the European lady, with her pretensions and arrogance. Hence polygamy is a real benefit to the female sex, taking it as a whole. And, on the other hand, there is no reason why a man whose wife suffers from chronic illness, or remains barren, or has gradually become too old for him, should not take a second. Many people become converts to Mormonism for the precise reasons that they condemn the unnatural institution of monogamy. The conferring of unnatural rights upon women has imposed unnatural duties upon them, the violation of which, however, makes them unhappy. For example, many a man thinks marriage unadvisable as far as his social standing and monetary position are concerned, unless he contracts a brilliant match. He will then wish to win a woman of his own choice under different conditions, namely, under those which will render safe her future and that of her children. Be the conditions ever so just, reasonable, and adequate, and she consents by giving up those undue privileges which marriage, as the basis of civil society, alone can bestow, she must to a certain extent lose her honour and lead a life of loneliness; since human nature makes us dependent on the opinion of others in a way that is completely out of proportion to its value. While, if the woman does not consent, she runs the risk of being compelled to marry a man she dislikes, or of shrivelling up into an old maid; for the time allotted to her to find a home is very short. In view of this side of the institution of monogamy, Thomasius’s profoundly learned treatise, de Concubinatu, is well worth reading, for it shows that, among all nations, and in all ages, down to the Lutheran Reformation, concubinage was allowed, nay, that it was an institution, in a certain measure even recognised by law and associated with no dishonour. And it held this position until the Lutheran Reformation, when it was recognised as another means for justifying the marriage of the clergy; whereupon the Catholic party did not dare to remain behindhand in the matter.
It is useless to argue about polygamy, it must be taken as a fact existing everywhere, the mere regulation of which is the problem to be solved. Where are there, then, any real monogamists? We all live, at any rate for a time, and the majority of us always, in polygamy. Consequently, as each man needs many women, nothing is more just than to let him, nay, make it incumbent upon him to provide for many women. By this means woman will be brought back to her proper and natural place as a subordinate being, and the lady, that monster of European civilisation and Christian–Teutonic stupidity, with her ridiculous claim to respect and veneration, will no longer exist; there will still be women, but no unhappy women, of whom Europe is at present full. The Mormons’ standpoint is right.
In India no woman is ever independent, but each one stands under the control of her father or her husband, or brother or son, in accordance with the law of Manu.
It is certainly a revolting idea that widows should sacrifice themselves on their husband’s dead body; but it is also revolting that the money which the husband has earned by working diligently for all his life, in the hope that he was working for his children, should be wasted on her paramours. Medium tenuere beati. The first love of a mother, as that of animals and men, is purely instinctive, and consequently ceases when the child is no longer physically helpless. After that, the first love should be reinstated by a love based on habit and reason; but this often does not appear, especially where the mother has not loved the father. The love of a father for his children is of a different nature and more sincere; it is founded on a recognition of his own inner self in the child, and is therefore metaphysical in its origin.
In almost every nation, both of the new and old world, and even among the Hottentots, property is inherited by the male descendants alone; it is only in Europe that one has departed from this. That the property which men have with difficulty acquired by long-continued struggling and hard work should afterwards come into the hands of women, who, in their want of reason, either squander it within a short time or otherwise waste it, is an injustice as great as it is common, and it should be prevented by limiting the right of women to inherit. It seems to me that it would be a better arrangement if women, be they widows or daughters, only inherited the money for life secured by mortgage, but not the property itself or the capital, unless there lacked male descendants. It is men who make the money, and not women; therefore women are neither justified in having unconditional possession of it nor capable of administrating it. Women should never have the free disposition of wealth, strictly so-called, which they may inherit, such as capital, houses, and estates. They need a guardian always; therefore they should not have the guardianship of their children under any circumstances whatever. The vanity of women, even if it should not be greater than that of men, has this evil in it, that it is directed on material things—that is to say, on their personal beauty and then on tinsel, pomp, and show. This is why they are in their right element in society. This it is which makes them inclined to be extravagant, especially since they possess little reasoning power. Accordingly, an ancient writer says, [Greek: Gunae to synolon esti dapanaeron physei].10 Men’s vanity, on the other hand, is often directed on non-material advantages, such as intellect, learning, courage, and the like. Aristotle explains in the Politics11 the great disadvantages which the Spartans brought upon themselves by granting too much to their women, by allowing them the right of inheritance and dowry, and a great amount of freedom; and how this contributed greatly to the fall of Sparta. May it not be that the influence of women in France, which has been increasing since Louis XIII.‘s time, was to blame for that gradual corruption of the court and government which led to the first Revolution, of which all subsequent disturbances have been the result? In any case, the false position of the female sex, so conspicuously exposed by the existence of the “lady,” is a fundamental defect in our social condition, and this defect, proceeding from the very heart of it, must extend its harmful influence in every direction. That woman is by nature intended to obey is shown by the fact that every woman who is placed in the unnatural position of absolute independence at once attaches herself to some kind of man, by whom she is controlled and governed; this is because she requires a master. If she, is young, the man is a lover; if she is old, a priest.