modesty in Judaism

Can the demand for modesty be understood secularly: of course.
The world is real, the laws are given for real reasons to avoid
real suffering. Children suffer badly, for the rest of their lives,
if the parents are not behaving as trustworthy adults who know what
they are doing and who stay together no matter what. When especially
women are commanded to dress with modesty, that works to make secure
marriages. When women deceive men with their looks, then the risk is
high that will produce children that will suffer greatly every day
of their lives, and even these parents will not really become happy,
thus making the children even more unhappy. The command of modesty is
heavier on women, because women are usually less affected by how men
dress up or not, therefore it works more effective from the women side.

It seems obvious that no persons can really "know what they are doing"
in this failed society, particularly a failed economy. Because of the
improper law and economic system, you can either choose to be a victim,
or be a perpetrator of economic violence. If you are in a position
of high income, you are directly or indirectly exploiting and abusing
people on a low income. If you are in a position of a low income, even
then will you be abusing people in other parts of the world where many
of the products are being made you use and buy more cheaply then they
should be on a fair wage for the producers. If you are at the true
bottom, then you are greatly abused as a loan slave. That is also not
good. Hence there is no place in society where an adult person could
be at peace with its position and knowing what he/she is doing. This
causes people to be like wreckage on the waves, in a way it prevents
people from being real adults. In a way everyone in the world is a
little child today. This negatively affects children, compounding
the problem, which is then compounded through the generations.

Because of this negative condition of society the only possible thing
to do is to work to set up a good society. That is the only way to be
a good person in a world that forces everyone to become a bad person
and a child. Setting up a good society simply means nothing more then a
society in which people are happy, which ends suffering. It is natural
behavior of all beings to seek out happiness, or rather to seek out
behavior that they believe will bring happiness to them. That is the
problem of humans: lack of knowledge on how to set up a society that
produces happiness for everyone. A second problem is that humanity
is in transition between being an animal and needing to be violent,
to being a technical creature. This is the source of the famous
"evil inclination." Understanding why the "evil inclination" is
obsolete holds the promise that it will erase itself, because the
source of power for the "evil inclination" is the belief in humanity
that it is in fact "good" and even essential for long term survival
of the species. http://www.jhwh.be/~joshb/technical_darwinism.html

With a somewhat better understanding of human natural evolution
it should be clear that human evolution at present has only one
goal: to become peaceful. Being beautiful can only be a distraction
for that pressing evolutionary goal. In that light the command of
modesty in dress and conduct clearly pressures (the Jew) toward
peace, both by promoting peaceful/modest conduct, and by demoting
superficial attraction methods like beautiful clothes. Every time
a marriage occurs for the sake of peace is a step toward having the
human species survive its own technology and therefore potentially
living forever in the Universe. Every time a marriage occurs for
the sake of beautiful clothes and lip stick is a step toward a more
beautiful humanity. But humanity is still too violent to make it
through the point where technology becomes an all powerful force on
the planet. With all the beauty in the world, how does a person look
after an atomic blast ? With all the lip stick and face powder money
can buy, how beautiful is a life as a slave plugged in in a high tech
factory on threat of imminent death, handled like cattle ?

There you can see that these laws on modesty - arbitrary as they may
seem to people who don't know - are not empty laws, but these laws
are essential to the short term survival of the human species. Once
humanity is peaceful, then there is all the time in the Universe to
become beautiful. The "beautiful" attraction method is often rooted
in "the evil inclination," because why would a certain shape be
considered beautiful ? Presumably because the (ancient) instincts
of the body tell it that those shapes are helpful for survival. But
the body is not yet tuned in to our new technology, the ancient
instincts still think we are apes in the trees, or maybe cavemen.
And therefore shapes like strong muscles, a rough character, for
certain people even criminal and vandalizing tendencies are conceived
as attractive, an ability to deceive, as these would promote survival
for wild animals. Technical ability and pure dedication to Justice and
Peace or usually not high on the list of these ancient instincts, but
only because these instincts have not yet caught up with contemporary
thoroughly technical reality. In time the instincts will change, so
that peaceful people would automatically be attractive, and violent
people would be repulsive, however which way they looked. But human
technical progresses at break neck speed, our bodies are uniquely
suited for this: two free 5 fingered hands, two legs, a head that
can easily watch our hands, and our size is perfect for technology as
well. We are practically build to make technology, and do it fast. It
can therefore not really be a surprise that certain instincts are
lagging behind. This has to be overcome before our technology reaches
a certain point of sophistication. That point is today. It is now
that we embrace peace, or we better hope we will all be destroyed
instead of living in a high tech hell that our lingering violence
irrationally desires.

Therefore, when a Rabbi tells someone to dress modestly, he is
practically saving your life, even that of all humanity. It is the
scientific truth, it is proven with mathematical precision, (see
link above). HaShem does not have these commandments because HaShem
has a peculiar taste, perhaps. HaShem wants happiness for everyone,
but the difference is that HaShem Torah knows, where people are
blind. Hard sceptical science offers nothing but proof of Judaism,
if you do it correctly at least (IMHO).
--
_ _ /_\ _ _ http://www.jhwh.be sign petition for Democratic
\ /v`vvv\ / Authorities Ventures Investments Demarcations
/_\_#_#_/_\ constitution today: http://www.jhwh.be/petition
\ / #106 http://www.xs4all.nl/~joshb/no-id-theft.html
.

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