I just wanted to comment on this piece over at stuff.co.nz: Internet Dater found not guilty of sexual assault.
I’ll leave all the complex social analysis to social commentator Krishna-kirti. I don’t agree with everything that he writes, but his social analysis is from the same playbook as mine.
Let me give a brief commentary inspired by the lyrics of some hardcore band, the exact origins of which escape my memory right now:
She uses sex for love, he uses love for sex.
The lady in this situation was looking for a long term partner because she was lonely. The man was looking for a random sexual encounter. Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus. Because she is “a professional lady in her 40s” she is expected to look after herself and be accountable for her actions, so the court has found the man not guilty.
The very fabric of the social structure around her has left her completely unprotected. There is no-one to look after her. No-one to be concerned about her loneliness. No-one to shield her natural vulnerability. She has been left to try to deal with that as best she can. In isolation she reaches out to try to make contact with someone, and is brutally taken advantage of.
Living enmeshed in a complex world of frustration and insatiable desire, this man has been driven to perform a despicable act which has brought shame upon him and upon this woman.
This is not an isolated incident, but a massively increasing wave across the world.
Our mission is to create authentic community. To bring people together, with Krishna in the center, to experience authentic community. To answer that primal need within so many people today who are alone in a crowd, isolated, alienated.
Our mission is to provide protection to those who cannot protect themselves, by strengthening the social fabric. To create strong bonds of support and sustenance. To create a vibrant culture that nourishes the body, mind, and spirit.
Our mission is to help protect people from themselves by educating them and giving them a higher taste, allowing them to act as they see fit, while helping them to see clearly.
Our mission is to mold our daily lives in such a way that these aims are realized.
This is not the work of a day, it is not the work of a year, it is not the work even of a lifetime. We should not expect victory, nor should we accept defeat in this life, or the next, or the following. Our mission, as Srila Prabhupada put it to Tamal Krishna Goswami is “to be recorded in the annals of history as having saved the world in its darkest hour.”
That hour is approaching.
