Intellectual honesty
Intellectual honesty is an academic method for the presentation of information in an unbiased and honest way.
This requires that...
- Facts are presented in an unbiased manner.
- Facts are not omitted even when they may contradict the writers preconceived ideas.
- Personal beliefs are not allowed to interfere with the pursuit of truth.
- References are cited where possible.
- The presentation of information not be skewed to support the writers personal agenda.
Harvard ethicist Louis M. Guenin describes the "kernel" of intellectual honesty to be...
"a virtuous disposition to eschew deception when given an incentive for deception."
I felt moved to post this due to the large number of opinion pieces published on-line that are presented as fact that are plainly bias, that omit inconvenient facts, that are vehicles for people's personal beliefs, that cite no credible reference and that skew information to support a personal agenda.
There is nothing wrong with people posting personal opinion, I often do so myself. What is wrong is to disguise personal agenda as 'scholarly' writing. I know that it happens all the time; that however doesn't make it right or acceptable.
I hope that it's clear when I state opinion, where I state fact I believe I can back it up and where I quote I cite sources.
Further reading
General statements regarding intellectual honesty in reasearch and writing are given in the policies of all British universities. For those not in the UK I include example references of two Universities one in the USA and one in Canada.
- On intellectual honesty (University of California ~ Irvine)
- K.1 Statement of Intellectual Honesty (University of Calgary)
Louis M. Guenin is quoted from Synthese, Vol. 145, No. 2, Candor in Science (Pub: Springer 2005)
Self taught
Often online I see people advised to go and get tuition, especially when it comes to suspension. This is a perfectly reasonable piece of advice; and yet people argue against it with such phrases as 'so and so was self taught and they're good'.
OK that's a point of view but for the most part those that are 'self taught' are those that didn't have access to competent teachers. They had to learn by trial thought and unfortunately on occasion error. Just because it's possible to learn that way it doesn't mean it's an ideal way of learning and certainly doesn't recommend it as a preferable path.
I have something of an issue with the phrase 'self taught' in any case. I have learned from many people, most of whom have not 'taught' me at all but who I've learned from by observation. Technically you can say I taught myself but in reality some my knowledge was derived from theirs. I have built on this knowledge, drawn my own conclusions, made my own explorations too. It is this that allows us to develop, be individual, make our own contributions.
This is true to some extent for everyone. Nobody, even those held up as examples of the self taught live in a vacuum. From the moment you become aware of the work of others you cannot help but be informed by it.
We are all inspired by, learn from, our contemporaries and those that went before. In this world of mass communication, the internet, video and books, we are never truly isolated from information. With easy international travel we are no longer isolated from the best teachers even if they are on the other side of the world.
It depends.
People often ask questions in relation to bondage that are impossible to answer.
- How long is too long
- How long is tingling acceptable for
- How long can someone stay in this
- How many wraps do you need
- How heavy is too heavy
- etc...
These questions broadly all have the same answer... it depends.
This is because every situation, bondage, model, tie and every day is different. How long you can do anything with bondage for is dependent on a multitude of factors. Obvious one might think but still people want an answer that they can apply ‘roughly’; even rough answers are highly subjective.
Person A may have good circulation, be a healthy weight and have good muscle tone. Person B may have poor circulation, be morbidly obese and have no muscle tone. This is an extreme example but it must be obvious that the answer to “Roughly how long can someone hang in this suspension” will depend massively on the person being tied. It will also depend on how tired, hydrated, fed... etc. etc. the person is. It will also depend on how they’re tied, how tight, with what rope... etc. etc. the bondage is done with. It will also depend on how hot or cold... etc. etc. the place where the bondage takes place is. And on what else you’re doing, have done... etc. etc. during play or the day. Also psychological effects play a large role in how people react to stressful bondage. So if someone is pissed off, sad, depressed, happy... etc. etc. It effects the answer to these questions.
Sometimes I think the most disturbing thing about these questions is the fact that even people that aren’t exactly new to bondage seem to not know why they’re unanswerable in any very useful form. Even giving a general estimate is going to be a liability if someone is going to take that estimate as some kind of reasonable working figure and watch the clock rather than actually understanding what’s actually going on.
So what is the answer?
The real answer is not always a popular one. The real answer is that you have to develop judgement. This means learning about a variety of things over time, and that means developing experience and judgement. And that means hard work, observation, study, practice, not expecting everything to come at once, and... not expecting easy pat answers.
Lizard brain leftovers
I can’t help thinking that there is a duality in humanity between the ‘civilised’ lives we lead and the primal urges lurking beneath the surface. I think that this duality of humanity is of great relevance and interest in terms of BDSM where we create a framework within which we can exploit, play with and enjoy our fundamental desires consensually.
Typically we build sophisticated structures to exploit and extract these urges. We use language, visual imagery, clothing, even technology to enhance the experience. Often something ritualistic surrounds these practices.
I think that as humans we can’t help but use, or if you like pervert the practices of everyday modern life into instruments of pleasure and pleasurable pain. A massager is turned into vibrating genital stimulator, cooking implements into impact toys, and of course, rope into an instrument of bondage and domination.
With every advance in technology comes an advance in human pleasure, Tesla coils power violet wands originally intended for health purposes for electrical stimulation and torture. Tens units invented for muscular rehabilitation for the torture of the helpless twitching ‘victim’.
All this to serve our most base instincts. And yet this is not a runaway process. We do not generally let ourselves run over into actual abuse. We require consent, even for the theoretically non-consensual aspects of our play. Sometimes this sounds convoluted and illogical. And yet we cannot deny that this is the case.
This then is the duality that causes a struggle. Our evolution makes us a tool using, reasoning, social creature but also we remain the animal, the primal lust filled beast.
Perhaps it’s a wonderful achievement is the satisfaction of both of these in kink. We control our primal lusts, fencing them around with ritual and social custom even where the normal social customs did not reach. We make our partners satisfaction part of the satisfaction or our own by seeking out complimentary partners. In the triumph of our social selves, the control of the primal, and yet the satisfaction of it too without descending into abuse we find again that which is unique about humanity.
I think that this makes us more human not less.
Tied
Running it through my hands,
feeling its texture.
Not looking at it.
Looking at you.
Images run through my mind,
how you will look,
what I will do.
Laying it on your skin,
binding,
restricting,
ornamenting.
Making you helpless.
Hitch, weave, cinch, tension, turn.
Beautiful, and beautiful.
Helpless but held.
Tied
To refute, or not to refute, that is the question.
Sometimes people make posts on forums that are just crazy, full of misinformation, logically flawed, full of false assumptions or just plain wrong.
So what do you do?
Do you ignore these posts; or do you refute them?
Generally I have chosen to refute them believing that if you don't then there's a chance that people especially those starting out may believe them and have their time wasted finding out that they've been steered wrong.
This just, well it's exhausting, it just annoys the me and makes me feel tired. I'm not the internet policeman, I'm not the bondage policeman. However I feel that if you're engaged in a 'community' and want to see it advance you do be being part of that community have take on an implicit responsibility to oppose something that you see as detrimental to that community. And I think that misinformation falls into that category.
I've come to dislike doing this however for a few reasons.
Firstly the person who posted may simply be mistaken in their belief and though you try it's hard to effectively tell them they're 'mistaken' in a way that they are able to accept. People naturally in some cases become somewhat defensive even though the intention was never to attack them.
Secondly some people repeatedly jump on the same hobby horse time after time and have a kind of tunnel vision about what they think is right and wrong and cannot consider any other approach or the possibility of their error. Saying anything to someone like that is just a thankless task in any case because they will never be persuaded by argument, fact or in extreme cases even sanity.
Thirdly and very importantly I start to feel like all I ever post for is to argue. That's not fun. It sucks up energy that could be used for something useful.
A further thought is that there are many topics and posts that occur to me that I don't post because I can well see that if I do I'm going to have to dedicate quite a bit of time to responding to replies that either, didn't read the OP, didn't understand the OP or plain just posted something unrelated. Also you may get one of the afore mentioned hobby horsests who will use any opportunity to push their agenda especially if you post something not in tune with their personal world view.
It seems unavoidable and is tiring. Yet you shouldn't let things go past that you really think are wrong.
Be gentle with yourself.
Go placidly amid the noise & haste, & remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons.
Speak you truth quietly & clearly; and listen to others, even the dull & ignorant; they too have their story.
Avoid loud & aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit. If you compare yourself to others you may become vain & bitter; for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs; for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals; and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself. Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is perennial as the grass.
Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue & loneliness.
With all it's sham and drudgery & broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be Cheerful!
Strive to be happy!!
Max Erhman original poem 'Desiderata' (edited slightly for sense with apologies to the author WD)