The Future Debate

Announcer standing in the middle of the dimly lit, stage, three people sitting, one woman, one man, and one androgynous creature between the two, with pad and pen in hand. The announcer (can be to the gender of your preference) smiles and quietly states.

“Good evening and welcome viewers. This is an amazing discussion we are about to witness, for with the magic of science and technology, we have been able to acquire DNA from Carolyn Merchant and Susan Bordo to create Suslyn Merdo, and Paul Gross and Norman Levitt, to create Norual Groman. This spectacular achievement in itself is cause for great discussion, however we would like to narrow the discussion to the difference in their perspectives regarding the contribution of science and the effect of male domination of the issue. I’ll now turn this over to our host, Pat.

Thanks to both of you for being here this evening; I know you have tremendously busy with you work. We have drawn numbers, lowest number to speak first, in order to avoid the “women first…age before beauty debate, and Suslyn you have won. Please begin.



Suslyn: Males have dominated science, raped “Mother Earth’s” offering, used witch-hunts to eliminate independent women, and forced us to live under Capitalism. They’ve used science to accomplish this, and have destroyed Natures opulence in the process. People are forced into labors they do not desire because of industrial over-consumption and rely on disputable scientific babble to continue this charade, which merely allows males to run the show, and dominate women.

Norul: Suslyn, you forgot to invent new vocabulary to totally misrepresent the true nature of science, which leads me to believe you have failed to even attempt to understand the nature of that which you despise. You seem to desire a return to the Medieval times…have your truly considered the absurd nature of the thought? For Capitalism, when practiced in the true Libertarian ideal of John Locke, doesn’t it allow for individuals, including women, to live whatever way they choose?

Suslyn: Capitalism imprisons people in meaningless work, destroys Nature and alienates people. During Medieval times, we had the proper organic vision of Nature and took steps to care for it. People used renewable wood for heating and cooking; there was a wonderful respect for nature…this was before men used machines to reorder the world to their pleasure, and concentrate their power, and force the world into submission, and you even have the gall to try to manage Nature, which should not be tampered with.

Norul: I believe woman’s suffrage came to being under Capitalism, and now you have achieved prominence under this system you deplore so greatly, and that is admirable, but to assert life was better when, sorcery, alchemy and the lowest of classes bore the brunt of work, taxes and fighting for the richest of the rich is just plain silly. Imagine being a peasant girl of then, working in the fields, no reading or writing skills, using superstition to combat the plague, eating probably nothing but bread for sustenance and having no control over your destiny; for being a peasant, that’s where you remained. I wonder whom your father would have married you to, with so little choice to make.

Suslyn: You men still, totally ignore the plight of the ecosystems; you are destroying Nature itself. Your bases for truth is in error, look at all of the mistakes Descartes made in Meditations.
Norul: My dear Suslyn, not too many scientists ever took these thoughts to be held as dogma, for if science becomes dogma, it is of no use to human existence; this is why we continually test and retest for verification. I truly believe your anger towards science is misdirected. The issue you speak of is originated in the Book of Genesis, in the following sentence, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” The book was stacked against you from the beginning, not as the result of the science, which allowed freedom to the masses. Maybe you have a grip for making men physically stronger than women.

The camera focuses on the announcer:
This issue will not be solved any time soon. Both side have valid points, however, neither is totally correct, and neither seems willing to compromise, for we are mortal, fallible beings in search of answers we cannot seem to find, and even if we find such answers, we may not be able to comprehend them.