Theory 9: Casting The Gazillionth Stone
If this is the first Book of Mark entry that you have ever read, let me just start by apologizing. This one is more crass than usual. I didn’t mean for it to be, it just turned out that way.
Furthermore, if you were to ask me which of my theories that I do the worst job of actually following in real life, it would probably be this one. I’m working on it.
Theory 8 talked about how we are best fit to judge ourselves. This logically begs the question of how fit we are to judge others.
I recently learned something interesting about cats. They like to lick their own asses. Not only that, but if two very special cats get along very well, they don’t mind licking each other’s asses.
Having witnessed this several times in the presence of various different non-feline humans, I have learned that we all react the same way when we watch cats lick each others’ asses. We laugh, and we say “That’s disgusting”. The owner is often embarrassed and puts a stop to it.
While I don’t begrudge anyone else their own personal tastes, I am not one of those people who enjoy the idea of licking asses. Most Crohns’ disease sufferers don’t. At least I assume we don’t, I have never gone to a meeting or anything, and even if I did there is no guarantee it would come up.
For the sake of argument, let’s pretend that I was reincarnated as a cat, and I didn’t like to lick my own ass, nor would I lick the asses of other cats. Further imagine for a moment that I was aware of how humans would perceive this and I myself still saw the world as a human would. I would think the idea is disgusting.
After about a week, Mark the cat would smell like ass. (Some of you might think this resembles Mark the human). We all know that cats have some special SUPER-SALIVA comprised of some combination of CLR and Liquid Lustre that allows them to lick themselves clean without actually getting sick. They lick their own asses not for the naughty, forbidden pleasure of self-ass licking but simply to keep clean. Mark the cat would not be clean, and everyone would say ``That `s disgusting.`` Mark the cat, by trying to be less disgusting in the eyes of humans, would fail and become more disgusting.
People are different from cats, and when we form basic opinions about cats licking their own asses, using all of our most well-meaning judgmentalism ©, we can only reference our only experiences and perceptions to form our opinions. We don’t understand the natural instincts of cats and it is silly for us to judge a cat through a human’s values.
As much as it may seem I just love the term ‘ass-licking’, I am assuming that by now you see my razor-thin point. Humans are all different from each other too - so much so that we are often intimidated by the differences between us. We have our own insecurities and we don’t like seeing things that are out of our comfort zone, so we put down things that are different for us. All of our judgments are, naturally, created using our own personal opinions. Our opinions are derived through our experiences and, more importantly, our perceptions. We have only our perceptions to rely on, and I am gradually learning the world is so big that I can’t really get a good look at it all. The depth of my perceptions is limited, so my judgments are limited.
Some people have logical minds, and they use their logic to weigh options and make considered decisions. Others are intuitive and work with gut feel. Some won’t eat pork, some wear capes, some wear formal headwear, some wear gold chains. We all have different upbringings and experiences, and these are all we have to draw from when we make our decisions. We judge others through our own eyes without having the benefit of the perceptions of others. When we see something we can’t relate to, we dismiss it as inferior.
On the flip side, let’s be practical for a moment. I am not pretending that all judgment is wrong. We can’t all wander the planet and accept everything that people do because we’re afraid to draw a line. If we are all going to accept the radical idea that we should cram together in civilized existences, we need to agree that there are some acts that no society should forgive: acts like pedophilia (how did ancient Greece miss this one?); murder (unless you are challenged to a duel); or theft (which rules out any practical application of communism.) I am not saying that we should never judge. We HAVE to judge. I am just saying that we are NOT FIT to judge.
How do we reconcile that?
I give you Theory 9 in the Book of Mark: Don’t judge people unless you absolutely have to. The world is more complicated than we like to think, and there is more than one way to skin an ass-licking cat.
Furthermore, if you were to ask me which of my theories that I do the worst job of actually following in real life, it would probably be this one. I’m working on it.
Theory 8 talked about how we are best fit to judge ourselves. This logically begs the question of how fit we are to judge others.
I recently learned something interesting about cats. They like to lick their own asses. Not only that, but if two very special cats get along very well, they don’t mind licking each other’s asses.
Having witnessed this several times in the presence of various different non-feline humans, I have learned that we all react the same way when we watch cats lick each others’ asses. We laugh, and we say “That’s disgusting”. The owner is often embarrassed and puts a stop to it.
While I don’t begrudge anyone else their own personal tastes, I am not one of those people who enjoy the idea of licking asses. Most Crohns’ disease sufferers don’t. At least I assume we don’t, I have never gone to a meeting or anything, and even if I did there is no guarantee it would come up.
For the sake of argument, let’s pretend that I was reincarnated as a cat, and I didn’t like to lick my own ass, nor would I lick the asses of other cats. Further imagine for a moment that I was aware of how humans would perceive this and I myself still saw the world as a human would. I would think the idea is disgusting.
After about a week, Mark the cat would smell like ass. (Some of you might think this resembles Mark the human). We all know that cats have some special SUPER-SALIVA comprised of some combination of CLR and Liquid Lustre that allows them to lick themselves clean without actually getting sick. They lick their own asses not for the naughty, forbidden pleasure of self-ass licking but simply to keep clean. Mark the cat would not be clean, and everyone would say ``That `s disgusting.`` Mark the cat, by trying to be less disgusting in the eyes of humans, would fail and become more disgusting.
People are different from cats, and when we form basic opinions about cats licking their own asses, using all of our most well-meaning judgmentalism ©, we can only reference our only experiences and perceptions to form our opinions. We don’t understand the natural instincts of cats and it is silly for us to judge a cat through a human’s values.
As much as it may seem I just love the term ‘ass-licking’, I am assuming that by now you see my razor-thin point. Humans are all different from each other too - so much so that we are often intimidated by the differences between us. We have our own insecurities and we don’t like seeing things that are out of our comfort zone, so we put down things that are different for us. All of our judgments are, naturally, created using our own personal opinions. Our opinions are derived through our experiences and, more importantly, our perceptions. We have only our perceptions to rely on, and I am gradually learning the world is so big that I can’t really get a good look at it all. The depth of my perceptions is limited, so my judgments are limited.
Some people have logical minds, and they use their logic to weigh options and make considered decisions. Others are intuitive and work with gut feel. Some won’t eat pork, some wear capes, some wear formal headwear, some wear gold chains. We all have different upbringings and experiences, and these are all we have to draw from when we make our decisions. We judge others through our own eyes without having the benefit of the perceptions of others. When we see something we can’t relate to, we dismiss it as inferior.
On the flip side, let’s be practical for a moment. I am not pretending that all judgment is wrong. We can’t all wander the planet and accept everything that people do because we’re afraid to draw a line. If we are all going to accept the radical idea that we should cram together in civilized existences, we need to agree that there are some acts that no society should forgive: acts like pedophilia (how did ancient Greece miss this one?); murder (unless you are challenged to a duel); or theft (which rules out any practical application of communism.) I am not saying that we should never judge. We HAVE to judge. I am just saying that we are NOT FIT to judge.
How do we reconcile that?
I give you Theory 9 in the Book of Mark: Don’t judge people unless you absolutely have to. The world is more complicated than we like to think, and there is more than one way to skin an ass-licking cat.
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1 Comments:
Probably the weakest post of the bunch. You have just dismissed the fact of communication without so much as a "cat's fart" of consideration. Yeah at the end of the day we all need to humbly admit that there is a subjectiveness to our impressions of external ("objective") realities but that doesn't mean we can't go along way to sharing and understanding of our perceptions and struggling towards a better common understanding of reality that we can use as the basis of judgement. That is precisely why we can universally condemn pedophilia (though as I remember this from our philosophy of law class, the societal debate was when pedophilia occurs i.e. the correct age of consent), murder (though where does military action, abortion, and euthanasia fit?) etc. If your only answer is "judge when you have to" rather than lending your voice to debate about what the best manner of judging is (which in fact I think you have done despite your supposed loathing to do so), then I judge you haven't taken this line of thought anywhere particularly helpful. Something you rarely do. Maybe there is more to come though, remember I am still trying to catch up.
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