{"id":25,"date":"2004-10-09T13:04:10","date_gmt":"2004-10-09T18:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.polyamorousmisanthrope.com\/?p=25"},"modified":"2004-10-09T13:04:10","modified_gmt":"2004-10-09T18:04:10","slug":"a-public-service-announcement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/polyamorousmisanthrope.com\/wordpress\/2004\/10\/09\/a-public-service-announcement\/","title":{"rendered":"A Public Service Announcement"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Originally published at<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>http:\/\/www.polyfamilies.com\/misanthrope20041009.html<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Gather ye round little poly chillun, &#8217;cause Mama Java has about had it up to \t\t\t\t\ther eyeballs wit da nonsense.<\/p>\n<p>Polyamory is not about:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li> \t\t\t\t\t\tNudism<\/li>\n<li> \t\t\t\t\t\tTantra<\/li>\n<li> \t\t\t\t\t\tReligion<\/li>\n<li> \t\t\t\t\t\tHeinlein<\/li>\n<li> \t\t\t\t\t\tPolitics<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Let&#8217;s start with nudism. \u00a0 Yeah, yeah, yeah, I understand that          a lot of people who are really hard core nudists\/naturists feel that liking          to run around in the altogether is a freeing experience. \u00a0 Fine.          \u00a0 Enjoy. \u00a0 Just don&#8217;t try to link it with polyamory, &#8216;kay? \u00a0          Mama Java likes her salwar kameezes and isn&#8217;t stripping down around non-intimates.          \u00a0 Mama Java doesn&#8217;t <strong> want <\/strong> to consider all the world her intimates,          either. \u00a0 She thinks the general run of humanity is worthy of kindness,          yes. \u00a0 Respect and dignity, certainly. \u00a0 Only her intimates          get to see her boobies. \u00a0 &#8216;Nuff said. \u00a0 Doesn&#8217;t make her any          less poly.<\/p>\n<p>How about Tantra? \u00a0 Friends, Tantra is not about having more or          even better sex. \u00a0 It is a spiritual practice for which you do not,          I repeat do <strong> not <\/strong> have to be polyamorous. \u00a0 Many, many monogamous          people practice Tantra. \u00a0 It is about honoring your partner and making          a spiritual connection. \u00a0Certainly one <strong>can<\/strong> practice Tantra          and making connections as a poly person as well as a monogamous person.          This does not mean that one has to be either to practice it.<\/p>\n<p>In fact,          no spiritual practice is necessary at all to be poly. Polyamory is not          about Wicca, or any other form of neo-paganism! \u00a0 Yes, I&#8217;m          a Heathen, myself, but polyamorous people come from all sorts of religious          paths. \u00a0 I personally know Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists,          Wiccans, and Atheists who are poly. \u00a0 Early Gnostic Christians were          poly (yes they had spouses in common, look it up), the Old Norse weren&#8217;t.          \u00a0 Don&#8217;t hang poly on your religion, kiddies, and don&#8217;t try to hang          your religions or spiritual practices on poly. \u00a0 They&#8217;re not one          in the same.<\/p>\n<p>Heinlein&#8230; \u00a0 I should have put this particular peeve first as          it is one of my strongest. \u00a0 Most of the people who try to base their          philosophy of polyamory on Heinlein have read <strong> one <\/strong> book by the          man &#8212; <em> Stranger in a Strange Land. \u00a0 <\/em> Was it a brilliant          book? \u00a0 Oh my word, yes! \u00a0 But it seems to me that most people          who try to base their idea of polyamory on the book just plain didn&#8217;t          <strong> understand <\/strong> it or what Heinlein was getting at in general with          his work, according to letters he had published about the subject. \u00a0          Heinlein wrote over forty books, and his philosophy clearly had evolved          over a career lasting nearly half a century. \u00a0 It is also necessary          to remember that Mr. Heinlein himself commented that his first objective          in any fiction he wrote was to entertain. \u00a0 While many people, including          myself, found his work philosophically profound, he himself was horrified          at <strong> anyone <\/strong> trying to live according to his fiction. &#8220;I was not giving answers. I was trying to shake the reader loose from some preconceptions and induce him to think for himself, along new and fresh lines. In consequence, each reader gets something different out of that book because he himself supplies the answers . . . . It is an invitation to think &#8212; not to believe.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Polyamory is not about any specific political movement, either. \u00a0          I&#8217;m a pretty hard core Libertarian and I live in what is essentially a          commune, and I am politically active. \u00a0 The only thing this has to          do with poly is trying to get marriage and family law expanded to the          point where there are more options available to poly people. \u00a0But,          I don&#8217;t assume that a poly person shares my political views. \u00a0I&#8217;ve          dated Socialists, and know plenty of poly pacifists, as well as some militant          sorts I just plain wouldn&#8217;t wanna cross. \u00a0 Believe it or not, there          are plenty of politically conservative polyamorists, just as there are          plenty of politically conservative monogamists. \u00a0 Honey, polyamory          is not the answer to World Peace, and isn&#8217;t going to make people stop          fighting each other. \u00a0 It doesn&#8217;t make people stop acting like <strong>          people! <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>What polyamory is, or should be, is about being able to love more than          one person sexually or romantically. \u00a0 That&#8217;s it. \u00a0 Not complex.          \u00a0 Not saving the world, no incense (though I could <strong> do <\/strong> with          some good sandalwood right now!), you don&#8217;t have to take your clothes          off, and nobody has to live in a nest where we&#8217;re all water-brothers.          \u00a0 You get to pick your own path.<\/p>\n<p>Just don&#8217;t be trying to tell me I oughta be walking with ya to be poly, &#8216;kay?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Originally published at http:\/\/www.polyfamilies.com\/misanthrope20041009.html Gather ye round little poly chillun, &#8217;cause Mama Java has about had it up to her eyeballs wit da nonsense. Polyamory is not about: Nudism Tantra Religion Heinlein Politics Let&#8217;s start with nudism. \u00a0 Yeah, yeah, yeah, I understand that a lot of people who are really hard core nudists\/naturists feel&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-polyamory-community"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/polyamorousmisanthrope.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/polyamorousmisanthrope.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/polyamorousmisanthrope.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/polyamorousmisanthrope.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/polyamorousmisanthrope.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/polyamorousmisanthrope.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/polyamorousmisanthrope.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/polyamorousmisanthrope.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/polyamorousmisanthrope.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}