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Sep. 27th, 2010 09:47 am
reasonableness
Okay, yes, I went back to Hooters again last weekend. Don’t judge me! They have a Korbel champagne and chicken wings meal deal! If you can resist the appeal of that, you’re not the sort of person I want to associate with anyway.
I’d really like to go to the Rally to Restore Sanity at the end of the month. Because honestly, being reasonable and leaving each other the hell alone are two things I feel fairly passionate about. The people who’ve been controlling the discourse in this country for. . . well, pretty much since World War II, seem to be almost entirely motivated by fear, and fear is the root of irrational behavior.
My personal prejudices lead me to see the majority of that fear manifesting on the right, but the reality of it is that most people who scream and shout about politics in general are crippled by fear. People who bring guns to protests and draw Hitler mustaches on people who aren’t Hitler are cowards. People who think other people’s sexual orientation is their business are craven fools. Individuals who sling accusations of fascism or communism at the slightest provocation are dickless wimps. If you are one of these people, I feel sorry for you, because you’ve allowed fear to control you. You’ve sacrificed your humanity on the altar of your cowardice.
Being rational requires a level of courage that has been in short supply for much of human history. Superstition, when it functions properly, offers people a means by which they can simulate that courage, but all too often it serves instead to magnify fear and justify hatred. Racism, homophobia, the abuse of women and children; these are the ugliest results of that kind of fear.
To live quietly; to love your neighbors regardless of race or sexual orientation (and more importantly to not judge them based on those criteria); to raise your children to treat others with respect; to think carefully about what you’re going to say before you say it; to accept responsibility for all that happens to you, good and bad; to understand the consequences of your actions. All of that is courage and humanity, and it is appropriate (and long past due) for someone to finally have a rally to recognize that.
Anyway, I want to go, but I can’t because the fascists in the IRS took all my money, and the Tea Party psychos will probably bomb the goddamn thing anyway.
I’d really like to go to the Rally to Restore Sanity at the end of the month. Because honestly, being reasonable and leaving each other the hell alone are two things I feel fairly passionate about. The people who’ve been controlling the discourse in this country for. . . well, pretty much since World War II, seem to be almost entirely motivated by fear, and fear is the root of irrational behavior.
My personal prejudices lead me to see the majority of that fear manifesting on the right, but the reality of it is that most people who scream and shout about politics in general are crippled by fear. People who bring guns to protests and draw Hitler mustaches on people who aren’t Hitler are cowards. People who think other people’s sexual orientation is their business are craven fools. Individuals who sling accusations of fascism or communism at the slightest provocation are dickless wimps. If you are one of these people, I feel sorry for you, because you’ve allowed fear to control you. You’ve sacrificed your humanity on the altar of your cowardice.
Being rational requires a level of courage that has been in short supply for much of human history. Superstition, when it functions properly, offers people a means by which they can simulate that courage, but all too often it serves instead to magnify fear and justify hatred. Racism, homophobia, the abuse of women and children; these are the ugliest results of that kind of fear.
To live quietly; to love your neighbors regardless of race or sexual orientation (and more importantly to not judge them based on those criteria); to raise your children to treat others with respect; to think carefully about what you’re going to say before you say it; to accept responsibility for all that happens to you, good and bad; to understand the consequences of your actions. All of that is courage and humanity, and it is appropriate (and long past due) for someone to finally have a rally to recognize that.
Anyway, I want to go, but I can’t because the fascists in the IRS took all my money, and the Tea Party psychos will probably bomb the goddamn thing anyway.