Dear Antiseptic,

I'm not sure that I agree with your statement about
the fact that academics and sociologists have
pre-conceived ideas on this subject and that
education will require some major shift in their
thinking. After all part and parcel of their jobs
involves research,(the systematic investigation of a
particular subject). They have to define the problem,
study existing information, formulate a hypothesis,
collect evidence, before drawing any conclusions.
It's an involved process - and therefore their views
are not set in concrete.

I think part of the problem may lie in the fact that
when discussing the causes of violence - you're dealing
with people not some inanimate object. You're dealing
with complex individual personalities who are capable of
choosing their own courses of action for both rational
and irrational reasons.

I agree with what Pelican posted. She summed it up rather well.
It does have to start from childhood - and respect for others
is part and parcel of the values and norms that parents should
pass onto their children. Education begins at home.

Well Anti I actually agree totally with you.
Respect must be the start and very back bone of every relation ship.
Lexi I wish to remind you, these folk you quote are not perfect.
And for a certainty SOME of the people I talk of, know nothing of them.
Culture can be totally different in one race or community.
I have already highlighted this, SOME can not even read or write SOME never went to school, SOME care nothing for respect.
Anti here is the very heart, very guts of this matter, as you said the doors close every time.
Few want to look and see the changes taking place, in relation ships.
I gave women control in my home total of some things, but took back if asked things they wanted to give me.
No woman ever complained.
But I saw great acts of , can not say it here, from both sex's and always told them head on what I thought.
However, if we can not be open, honest, in debating this subject we are in for hurt.
How can we convict men for a crime we are hearing women do not commit but see the impacts of it every morning?
Life on the North Shore of Sydney is far different than a council high rise in Redfern.

Dear Belly,

I think that you have misunderstood totally - what I was trying
to say. All I can suggest is that you go back and re-read
my posts on this thread.

BTW - respect is something that can be taught in any family
home - regardless of where people live. I grew up
in the Western suburbs of Sydney.

Lexi, the problem is that research has to be based on questions and if certain questions are simply excluded from being asked, then the research that is done never answers them.

A great deal of the so-called research is simply not worth the paper it's written on, since the people doing it are mostly advocates rather than serious thinkers on a difficult subject. As a result, they only publish results that "assist the cause". Erin Pizzey discovered what happens when you try to discuss the real causes of domestic violence and what happened to her is one of the enduring disgraces of feminism. It shows what happens when you threaten an established dogmatic position, whether in a religious setting (Luther, Galileo, et al), or in a quasi-religious ideologically-based one.

As a result, the dominant dogma is paid lip-service by anyone who wants an easy life and goes largely unchallenged on the basis that "I'm OK, why not go along with it".

I'm hopeful that the moderates within the feminist "religion" will prevail, just as they did in the Catholic one. With luck it won't take as long as it took the Catholics...

Respect Lexi CAN be as you say, but can you enforce it.
How about those who have none.
I read every thing you write always, even in that last post I see maybe wrongly, an inability to under stand no absolutes exist in male female relationship.
I have seen the blood smelt it, it smells you know.
Seen the knife still in the chest of a dead husband, young dead man.
I would be a lunatic, not to understand, both sides commit dreadful acts against the other.
But in looking for answers I must confront the big difference in education attitude reasons, including mental health issues.
I TOO have to consider the changing relationship in Some male female interactions.
SOME WOMEN do control hit, hurt men, if that is not true then I am mad.

Dear Antiseptic,

The first step when discussing the problems of
objectivity is to recognise that subjectivity and
objectivity are not two neat and separate categories,
they are really matters of degree. By exercising
scrupulous caution researchers can attempt to be
as objective as possible. This caution involves
a deliberate effort to be conscious of one's own
biases so that they can be kept out of the process
of research and interpretation.

The ethical code of the discipline requires that
researchers be intellectually honest - that they
attempt to be aware of their own values and not allow
these values to distort their work; that they
relentlessly hunt down the relevant facts and not ignore
those that are inconvenient for their pet theories;
that they not manipulate data to prove a point; and that
they not use research to suppress or misuse knowledge.

Moreover, it is the norm that the community does not have
to rely entirely on the integrity of the individual to
ensure that objectivity is strived for. When research is
published, other researchers can assess the findings
and attempt to verify them by repeating the research to see
if it yields the same results. This procedure provides an
extremely effective check against bias and other distortions.

I believe in education for all as the key. If parents,
and - our children's
teachers challenge the next generation to higher standards of
ethics - there is hope.

Teachers can counter the prejudices of some
parents who themselves have not had the schooling to break
the (generally ignorant) cultural inheritance of their parents.

We have to instill in our children an
inquiring mind. From Socrates we obtain the dictum, "the
examined life," is the only life worth living. Socrates
asked us to question everything. It is never rude for a
young pupil to ask - why. And schooling that does not
encourage the exploration of, "why this, why not that,"
does not deserve to be called education.

Dear Belly,

I do not have a problem what what you've written.