Hello.
This is all from a retired intactivist, so I am not going to be involved heavily in this with you, but I am presumptuous enough to imagine that I might have some idea of how this battle should be waged if it is to be won. An idea that I thought I would share.
If you are so inclined then feel free to distribute this verbatim to whoever or wherever you deem necessary.
Core
Doctors
Parents
Society
Conclusion:
This is all from a retired intactivist, so I am not going to be involved heavily in this with you, but I am presumptuous enough to imagine that I might have some idea of how this battle should be waged if it is to be won. An idea that I thought I would share.
If you are so inclined then feel free to distribute this verbatim to whoever or wherever you deem necessary.
Core
- This manifesto asserts that the tool we must use above all is our reason.
- Rationality must never be rejected for it is that which informs our efforts and makes our case valid on anything over the emotional level.
- An emotional response is utterly understandable but nearly impossible to convey to those that do not share it. Using reason you can construct a case that can not be dismissed out of hand without being ignored point blank. These constructs have gotten us far and must not be discontinued.
- A reasoned case is the ideal for this and all other attempts at social reform.
- Science is nothing more than the application of human reason to reality. It must not be spurned but embraced by us, for if we are unwilling to use it then others with less true legitimacy will do, as they have done. It is on our side.
- The secular case for circumcision of unconsenting parties is based around bad research, shoddy reasoning and pseudo-scientific drivel. It is only in possession of a mimicry of reason, a mockery of true sense. Rise above this.
- To sound shrill is to set back our cause. The reactionaries promoting circumcision are dependent upon defaming us as the arguments made can not be defeated. Give them other material to work with and they will. Remember that they are out of options, while you have rationality. To rob yourself of this untouchable advantage is to sheath your sword while fighting a boxer.
- Consider your views sceptically from time to time. Deliberate over your exact views, consider the possibility that you are wrong and then convince yourself that you are not using logic. This will allow you to relate to the position of those you encounter with ease.
- Ignore any who tell you not to think. Impulse and whim is what keeps this nasty habit alive, along with ignorance. We can amend the latter and would do well not to emulate the former.
- We find circumcision repulsive. Others do not and without reasoning common to both parties there will never be a meeting. We must be calm, rational and above all reasoned.
- Cynicism is not the ally of our movement. Cynicism will not assist us. Cynicism assists nothing save degeneration. Cynicism results in passivity which results in the acceptance of the intolerable. There is an ocean of difference between scepticism, the foundation-stone of science, and cynicism, the foundation-stone of nihilism. Sceptically considering circumcision will lead to the rejection of it, cynically considering the society that allows it will lead to despair. Things can be changed, but we must make them.
Doctors
- Doctors are not to be deemed our foes. They are indeed the perpetrators and largely the most influential advocates of this ongoing atrocity but they are not to be demonised.
- Why would a profit-hungry beast elect to take a profession where the risk of a lawsuit and financial ruination hovers constantly overhead? Why would you devote yourself to seven years of training when being a stock market merchant will bring far higher dividends with far less preparation? They are largely people interested in helping, with some profiteers and exploiters but by no means a majority. The healthcare system of America is mangled but this is largely the fault of insurance companies rather than medical professionals. If you want change in this regard then campaign for a creation of universal healthcare along with the end of circumcision. Remember that in Britain the National Health Service's introduction was the largest factor in our astounding annual drop from almost 50% to barely past 0.
- The depiction of them as callous opportunists damages our cause more than their reputation. Rather than assail their character and malign their intent it must be accepted that doctors, like most professionals, accept received orthodoxies. This is not a consequence of them being profit-seeking monsters but of them being human.
- Accordingly they must be treated as they are: ignorant and misinformed. This is the same state as the standard parent, indeed the two categories of parent and doctor have been known to overlap.
- To convince doctors of the case against is one of the most vital tasks before us, one which serious resources {especially time} must be devoted to the achievement of. For every doctor which shifts their view the majority of their patients which depend upon them for medical information will follow. This could easily ensure that hundreds of infants are saved by a single person changing their mind. This makes them a vital target for our efforts.
Parents
- As parents are the ones that give their consent under the present system they are an obvious target for intactivism. Any pregnant woman {ultra-scans have been known to make errors, often to the cost of our movement} should not remain ignorant of the true facts concerning this issue.
- Although this is the case the use of 'Shock Tactics' is highly unwise. There are indeed elements of the procedure that are inherently shocking but to attempt to use this either exclusively or predominantly as a means of convincing is not an approach which is useful to the progression of our agenda. This instead will largely result in “Shut down”: as the operation is so broadly accepted anyone criticising it in entirely inflammatory terms is likely to be seen as an aberration and their views disregarded, irrespective of reasoning. Although arguably of use throughout the early years this strategy has served its purpose.
- Many parents will not accept utterly open condemnation in the harsh terms commonly used, especially those who already have had boys {a substantial majority} or those who are men or have husbands who have undergone it {in America an overwhelming majority}. To see those closest to you, or worse still to see yourself, as “Mutilated” is something that the majority will always reject and to behave as if this is not the case is to act against reality and ensure that we retain our present niche status.
- Instead it should be ensured that obscure but harmful parts of the procedure not known to most parents {the standard lack of even analgesic, the damage of forceful retraction and the use of metal penetrative implements to pursue this} are made clear but that this is not the focal point of efforts made. If such language is to be used then “An act of disfigurement” seems a suitable degree of severity.
- The worth of what is lost rather than the horror of the manner in which this absence is achieved is worth stressing. Most in America are unaware that the prepuce is an erogenous zone and that it is must be stressed, with testimony from intact men utilised.
- It is perfectly possible for an intactivist to convince a pair of parents not to circumcise their newborn and cause more harm for good. If those parents continue to regularly retract as part of his washing routine their intact child he is consequentially far more likely to require a later circumcision which will be more traumatic and also serve as one of those scare story anecdotes for all around him. This sets our cause back far more than his few years of mercy advance it. Whenever intactivising we must ensure that those you have convinced ensure that they know the basics.
- If a parent is overwhelmed with guilt and contrition for “their” decision after they learn what they have had done to their child then that is an appropriate reaction. It is not appropriate for us to attempt to conjure that reaction in those where it is not forthcoming.
Society
- The approach of intactivising upon encountering parents-to-be and then only is inherently doomed to failure. Without convincing the culture of America that this is a practice which is outmoded, cruel and destructive we shall always struggle with those who hear nothing but negative words upon the topic of foreskin until they encounter us.
- This struggle, therefore, can not be one staged entirely with those who are still viable to have children of their own. We must strive to create a society which is tolerant of the intact penis and this is a work far broader than that of simply attempting to convert those who are already pregnant or have partners who are.
- The exact methods of this are rather more problematic than the reasoning behind why it is a superior approach. I suggest rampant opportunism. If you are part of any social group, any at all, that does not share {either through cultural default or having been informed. Or both.} the basic stance of our movement then make efforts to inform them. If these fail then at least do your best to at least reduce the level to which they see disfigurement of the newly born as vital.
- This element of the fight requires those that are part of the movement to be entirely shameless. Only through frank distribution of the issue through any means necessary will the cultural shift from foreskin being seen as a harbinger of pestilence fit only for removal be reversed. Talk up the worth of the prepuce wherever possible and mention the violation and removal of this value by circumcision to any and all you know who you suspect may not be aware of these facts already. This need not be persistent or constant, simply raising it upon one occasion should be sufficient unless they require or request further discussions.
- This can be anything from social groups in coffee bars to collective meetings of the institutional variety to internet forums. The aim is to destroy the negative perception of foreskin that exists within American society and thus undercut any desire to annihilate it, along with stressing the harm inflicted in the procedure required to do so.
- This renders everyone from the elderly to the infertile of importance, regardless of their inability to have children of their own. They provide a background in which this decision is made, they are who the context consists of.
- Some will learn by comparison of America to other nations. The Scandinavians are not toppling over upon the street in vast swathes owing to foreskin-induced penis infections. Remind them of this, inform them of this. Others may only accept examples from within their own culture, in which case use the model of positive deviancy.
- Culture is what must be converted, for if it is not we risk much of our gains sliding and slipping away and making a mockery of the time devoted to their achievement.
Conclusion:
- Parents offer us direct damage to the national habit but greater gains will occur if indirect methods are used in tandem with the parentally focused approach. Spread the word wide, bury the message broad. Think. Always think.
