On my way back from fencing just now I was thinking about meditation and religion in general, which caused my thoughts to wander to ecology, and furthermore to styrafoam(tm). My question to myself was one of degrees. If I am to say that I follow a spiritual path that reveres the earth (not that I am yet saying such, but if I were), would it be bad that I still consume like every other American, using styrafoam cups and plastic boxes and plasticware and plastic bottles? Most all religions do this to some extent — they sacrifice “raw” religious laws in order to adapt to society. God says don’t wear threads of different animals, but people understand that with today’s manufactured products that is a bit tough. For women to lock themselves away for a week every month during menstruation and not touch or see anyone or anything would be to follow the word of God in the JudeoChristianIslamic doctrine, but it would not be convenient. So I use styrafoam.
All of this made me recall a very interesting thought that I read in something of Neal Stephenson, probably The Diamond Age. The meme was basically that as values shift it becomes increasingly difficult for individuals and societies to agree on what is “right,” and without a common moral ground for everyone to be sufficiently outraged, the only real way to criticize is to expose hypocrisy. I might not believe what you’re saying, but you are the one saying it and for you to act differently then you preach is for you to be bad. That makes it a lot easier.
Every individual, no matter how pure, has some hypocrisy in them, and this is unavoidable. My quest is simply to stay pure enough so that I am satisfied. Do as thou wilt shall be the whole of the law. Figure that one out.
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what happened to the "harming none" part of the law?
See, that is what we are trying to figure out…
"God says don’t wear threads of different animals, but people understand that with today’s manufactured products that is a bit tough. For women to lock themselves away for a week every month during menstruation and not touch or see anyone or anything would be to follow the word of God in the JudeoChristianIslamic doctrine, but it would not be convenient. So I use styrafoam. "
The reason people don’t follow these is because it’s STUPID to restrict yourself in these manners and people know it. As to using styrofoam and cardbox boxes, if you think it’s wrong for society on the whole to use these things, minimize their use in your life. This doesn’t mean you have to refuse to use them, just try to keep the levels down and you’ll be doing your part. Under no circumstances can you use "well everyone else is doing it so even though I think it’s wrong I’m going to do it anyway" excuse. You actually have a choice to use styrofoam and plasticware and it isn’t terribly inconvienent to not use them or purchase them. Everyone does have some hypocrisy in them, but that doesn’t give you the moral justification to be happy about it and continue to do it guilt free.
–Gnuyen
has nothing to do with thread
when do we get a new quotable? that made me laugh. i like to laugh.
I figured I’d update it whenever I heard or read something funny. For the few days before I put it up I was hearing great things every couple hours, I was worried they would change too frequently. Since I put that one up, my quotable-radar has been getting nothing. Soon, though. 🙂
:::sigh:::
hrm. i’ve always wanted to be an activist
*gets out the protest signs*
I WANT A NEW QUOTE!!