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%BEING PERSONAL OR OBJECTIVE 800601
Taboos often force us into the dichotomous choice of
being either personal or being objective; a case of an
excluded middle. Taboos often prohibit us from being both
personal and objective.
Suppose a professional acquaintance makes a personal
advance towards us in a manner which we perceive to be so
non-objective that we feel a taboo threaten us. Yet we may
be sexually interested in developing the sexual
possibilities of the personal relationship. On the other,
hand, professional standards demand that we remain
objective about our relationship with the other person in
order that we may be able to perceive it without bias and
make proper decisions to obey legalistic laws regarding
what should be our response to the advance. Meanwhile,
our emotions are responding in a way which violates our
professional standards; our body is not under our full
professional control. We seem unable to fully control
what our body does---how it feels about a personal
relationship and its possibilities, especially sexual
possibilities. Yet, our professional standards demand we
be objective and control all objects, including our body
and its sexuality.
Usually when we are trapped between mutually
exclusive value demands, we end up choosing one or the
other of the value demands. Rarely do we transcend the
exclusivity of the value demands and affirm both in spite
of their exclusivity; i.e., affirm the values without
inclusion of the exclusivity. In the described situation
most people choose to be sexual or to be objective; i.e.,
they choose to be personal or to be objective. It is rare
that people can transcend the exclusivity of values and
simultaneously affirm the personal-sexual and the
professional-objective possibilities of a situation.
Physical scientists tend to be males, and most of the
males tend to be heterosexuals who are most likely to be
sexually stimulated by females. Thus physical scientists
are most likely to experience the tension indicated above
in situations involving females. Mature males find
females particularly stimulating sexually, especially when
the males are middle aged and both well established
professionally and sexually bored in a marital
relationship. Given such conditions physical scientists
usually must choose between being personally sexual or
professionally objective---and they usually choose to be
professionally objective, and take steps to minimize
opportunities for sexual stimulation---by minimizing
contacts with females. The latter is accomplished by
minimizing personal associations between physical
scientists and sexually attractive females---through
subtle forms of sexual discrimination which discourages
such females from pursuing careers in physical sciences or
pursuing physical scientists.
If there is any merit in the above speculations they
obviously have great importance and relevance to the
elimination of sexual discrimination in institutions of
higher educations where science departments are dominated
by male scientists. Legalistic, moralistic, and ethical
"solutions" will not get to the roots of the problems
suggested above. Systematic procedures will not solve the
problems, in fact they may mask the problems and obscure
their nature. The very people who are systematically
excluded from the science departments in higher education
are the ones most likely to have the speculative insights
which might point the way to resolve the human conflicts
at hand.
Of course scientists (mostly males) will easily
protect themselves against the import of the above by
behaving very professionally: they will point out that it
is all speculation which is not supported by reliable
evidence. It is all mere opinion. There are no
measurements, no equations, no quantitative analyses. The
writing has not met the professional standards of a
reputable scientific journal dedicated to normative
science---to the systematic development of accepted
paradigms. Such professional behavior will of course be
highly respected by all who respect authoritative
standards, professional ethics, and moral guidelines; for
such are basically conservative in nature, rather than
personally dedicated to promoting uninhibited dialogue. So
long as respected scientists all behave professionally in
traditional terms, so long will scientists be alienated.
Alienation is the essence of evil.
(c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in
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