All this talk about bliss and its consequences has stirred up quite a little firestorm in this little corner of the Blogosphere. A post here, another one there and even one over here someplace that may or may not be the spark of the whole thing. Whatever it is, it is free thinking, and nothing irritates the More-moral-than-thou bunch than individuality and free thinking. Deep down inside, they would like us all to be the same. The sames would stay with the sames, and the differents would ... well, they would be ostracized to some island where they couldn't influence the sames and make them realize that they were cheap imitations of themselves.Ostracized is an interesting word. Without doing research (something I gave up after I graduated college) I would say that it has its roots in the Ostrich, who reacts to the different by sticking its head in the ground. The sames would probably do that, if they could get their head out of their ass long enough to put it in the ground.
Free thinking is the enemy of many things, religion among them. After all, if God had meant us to think for ourselves, he would have given us free will and a brain...
So, the sames go along, trying as hard as they can to be like themselves. It gets harder every day, because the differents are so interesting that the sames can't help but watch. Sort of like a rail crash or a really good movie sex scene. They are disgusted by it, yet they cannot turn away. The part of them that wants to watch is the part that they would like to ostracize. They do, by making the differents feel like they should be ashamed of their behavior. This empowers the sames and makes them do their little superior dance, where they spin in circles and spout their same-old tired blather about how God will punish the differents and make them burn in Hellfire until their eye sockets melt like that guy in the Indiana Jones movie who looked at the Ark of the Covenant.
It's an odd thing, though, to say that you preach peace and love while you go around making people feel like they are wrong for believing what they believe and acting in an independent fashion. It is contradictory, and I for one, have no time for anyone who wants to tell me how to feel, act or spin in a circle - if that's what I want to do.
The other thing they preach is that whole "turn the other cheek" jazz. It is supposed to be one of their main beliefs, but they cannot turn the other cheek when one of the differents is acting different. Instead, the differents turn a cheek to the sames and allow them to go about their little holier-than-thou ritual. Ironic, isn't it? The same people who are supposed to be forgiving and tolerant turn out to be the people who want to tell us how to live and what to think.
I choose to turn the other cheek.
4 comments:
Add one more bliss post to your list. This one's really good. Inspiring even.
Another great post, Anthony. This one really gets down to the heart of the matter. If we would all simply conform, swallow our bliss, and accept the stockholm syndrome that is shoved down our throats, the world would be just fine. Right?
Wrong. Different is beautiful. And it's what makes the world interesting.
For you anthony, and you too Pam...
"A salient feature-probably the most salient feature-of our culture is a near absolute intolerance for and hatred of diversity. Oh, I'm not talking about a phony diversity where we put up with people with different colour skin or different sexual orientations (so long as the people are still White) though often we do not even put up with these variations. I'm not talking about putting up with little brown boys, so long as they wear expensive shoes made by little brown girls hired on the cheap by female managers wearing men's clothing and bumping their heads on glass ceilings of corporations overseen by white males for the purpose of making profits for themselves and their shareholders...All of this is tolerated. None of it is diversity.
...Real diversity is a flock of passenger pigeons so large it darkened the sky for days at a time, and it is polar bears in Maine. Diversity is wood bison in Pennsylvania, and an ancient forest in New York City. Diversity is the capacity for a community of humans to confront trees, or fish, or human beings with no thought of how to best use them, how to turn them to profit. Diversity is a life lived with no concern for production, but, instead, lived with attention paid to the particular moments that pass, one by one, each bringing new beauties and carrying us at the same time that much closer to death." -Derrick Jensen, The Culture of Make Believe
Ummmm....Hmmmm....
amen brother amen. Those that are the ones who should be quoting "thou shall not judge lest ye be judged" are always the most judgemental
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