My own judge and jury.
I wasn't going to post about kt tonight. But I wanted to address a comment left on his site by Yolie recently:
In reference to the "clean house" thing, my reply was meant to indicate that I take responsibilty for my own actions. If I do not have the energy to clean my house just then (to continue your analogy), then the house does not get cleaned. It can wait, or perhaps it wasn't as dirty as I thought it was to begin with. I do not just whip out the yellow pages and find the nearest person I can pay to do it for me. In this, I am passing "judgment" you might say, on those who would hire someone to do their "dirty work" for them. They need to let go of their need to have that "house" cleaned and move on. Or, if they want it cleaned that badly, then they should get the 409 and washcloth out and deal with it themselves, the cowards. And deal with the consequences for their actions as a result.
That said, there are always exceptions. There are instances where the death penalty really ought to be applied. There are some people beyond help, for some reason inexplicable to me. I wish I could deny it, but I try not to hide my head entirely in the sand. I keep rubbing at it though. Boy does my scalp itch sometimes. Those who would murder people in a slow and brutal fashion, for example. Those who would kill innocent children. I have no tolerance for those people. Similar, yet in a different sense, to the soldiers who choose a risky path (as I mentioned in my comment on kt's blog), those people have made a choice too - they've chosen to commit a terrible crime. They've chosen poorly. And they should have to deal with the reprecussions of that choice, just as any soldier who is sent into a conflict has to deal with the possibility that they could be killed.
I do judge myself. Constantly. In fact I'm often told I am rather harsh when doing so. I hold myself to a higher standard. I may not stop for every stranded motorist, but I'm the type of person who runs after someone because they dropped a dollar bill on the grocer's floor. I'll talk to the lonely little old lady who asks me to get something down off the top shelf for her, because I know she a) can't reach it, and b) is lonely. We discard our elderly these days. They have so much wisdom to give us and we huddle them together in "retirement communities" and the like, where we forget about them until they waste away from being forgotten.
I judge myself on the standards of those who came before me. I judge myself on the standards I hope my child will grow to have. I judge myself on the standards of my perfectionist mother, even though she is no longer alive to be critical of me anymore. I judge myself on what I wish the world would be. How can I ever expect the rest of the world to care if I don't start caring first.
As for the question of whether or not my moral standing on the issue of murder is "moral" to others - I will say again that the majority has spoken. Look at the law books. Look at the religious texts. I am not alone in saying murder is wrong. The jury has spoken. And, if I wasn't already making the choice that murder is wrong. I have chosen to live in this country and try to follow its laws. So has kt. That doesn't mean we have to believe in the laws, but we aren't supposed to go around blatantly breaking them either.
Just don't get me started on traffic laws. Then the whole country would be against me. Except, perhaps, for the ones that decide the speed limits.
Oh, and I now have to go get a blogroll once I post this. In one of Yolie's posts, she sold me with the following line:
I think it was the "Meep"s that got me really. You'll be first to go up on the blogroll for that one, Yolie!
"
See? That's what I'm talking about. I was speaking metaphorically, not saying that YOU have someone clean your house. It was used as a comparative analysis (got my college background out of the way).
When we play judge and jury to someone based on what they do, we should also take a look at our way of living and doing. Are we that inline with what someone might define as a "good" life?
What's a question of morality for you, may not be for others. If you agree with the death penalty, doesn't that speak to your morals and values? Death is death. Whether it be at the hands of a hit man or a licensed doctor administering a lethal injection."
In reference to the "clean house" thing, my reply was meant to indicate that I take responsibilty for my own actions. If I do not have the energy to clean my house just then (to continue your analogy), then the house does not get cleaned. It can wait, or perhaps it wasn't as dirty as I thought it was to begin with. I do not just whip out the yellow pages and find the nearest person I can pay to do it for me. In this, I am passing "judgment" you might say, on those who would hire someone to do their "dirty work" for them. They need to let go of their need to have that "house" cleaned and move on. Or, if they want it cleaned that badly, then they should get the 409 and washcloth out and deal with it themselves, the cowards. And deal with the consequences for their actions as a result.
That said, there are always exceptions. There are instances where the death penalty really ought to be applied. There are some people beyond help, for some reason inexplicable to me. I wish I could deny it, but I try not to hide my head entirely in the sand. I keep rubbing at it though. Boy does my scalp itch sometimes. Those who would murder people in a slow and brutal fashion, for example. Those who would kill innocent children. I have no tolerance for those people. Similar, yet in a different sense, to the soldiers who choose a risky path (as I mentioned in my comment on kt's blog), those people have made a choice too - they've chosen to commit a terrible crime. They've chosen poorly. And they should have to deal with the reprecussions of that choice, just as any soldier who is sent into a conflict has to deal with the possibility that they could be killed.
I do judge myself. Constantly. In fact I'm often told I am rather harsh when doing so. I hold myself to a higher standard. I may not stop for every stranded motorist, but I'm the type of person who runs after someone because they dropped a dollar bill on the grocer's floor. I'll talk to the lonely little old lady who asks me to get something down off the top shelf for her, because I know she a) can't reach it, and b) is lonely. We discard our elderly these days. They have so much wisdom to give us and we huddle them together in "retirement communities" and the like, where we forget about them until they waste away from being forgotten.
I judge myself on the standards of those who came before me. I judge myself on the standards I hope my child will grow to have. I judge myself on the standards of my perfectionist mother, even though she is no longer alive to be critical of me anymore. I judge myself on what I wish the world would be. How can I ever expect the rest of the world to care if I don't start caring first.
As for the question of whether or not my moral standing on the issue of murder is "moral" to others - I will say again that the majority has spoken. Look at the law books. Look at the religious texts. I am not alone in saying murder is wrong. The jury has spoken. And, if I wasn't already making the choice that murder is wrong. I have chosen to live in this country and try to follow its laws. So has kt. That doesn't mean we have to believe in the laws, but we aren't supposed to go around blatantly breaking them either.
Just don't get me started on traffic laws. Then the whole country would be against me. Except, perhaps, for the ones that decide the speed limits.
Oh, and I now have to go get a blogroll once I post this. In one of Yolie's posts, she sold me with the following line:
"If you’re still confused, I’ll be happy to arrange you a ride on the short bus. Meep. Meep."
I think it was the "Meep"s that got me really. You'll be first to go up on the blogroll for that one, Yolie!
posted by RaynDragon at 1:44 AM
1 Comments:
WGB, it's great that you judge yourself. And guess what? So do I. I judge me because it helps to make me less judgmental of others. We can scream 'til we're blue in the face, but not everybody is going to change their coats to our favorite colors.
Yeah, there are some things we should kick ass about, but there are others not worth the time. It's one of those "pick battles small enough to win, big enough to matter" scenarios. So, I choose to pick mine carefully, and I ensure that they are meaningful in some way. That way my fight is concentrated on what's important to me, my energy is directed not scattered on what's important to me.
This isn't something I dreamed up over night. It's been a learning process. I've been where you are, wanting to make everybody do right. You can't save everybody and you can't help everybody if your agenda is too widespread. While you're concentrating on trying to change kt, who won't change unless he wants to, try concentrating that fiery (and that is a compliment) energy on something you can change.
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