“I used to be
offended, but now I’m just amused.” Elvis Costello, The Angels Want to Wear My
Red Shoes
“Whatever you
say, someone will take offense. And to that I say, offense is taken, not given.
It’s up to you whether you’re offended. And I’ll add one more thing: Just
because you’re offended, doesn’t mean you’re right.” Ricky Gervais
What offends me
today:
1. We elected as Vice President Spiro Agnew who once said, “With all it faults, the Unites States is still the greatest nation
in the country.” - which doesn’t offend so much as dismay. What’s offensive is
that it’s just now that the UN Global Commission on Elections, Democracy and Security has noticed that the election system in
the US “have left it struggling to
restore the public's confidence in its elected officials to act in their
interest”
2. Local protestors,
offended by a billboard recently forced its removal. The offending commercial
message was from an eyeglass store, and it said, “We want to sit on your face”.
So much for American respect for free speech. The billboard was replaced by one
saying “Happiness is Coming”. So much for having the last laugh.
3. Some people cheat at Rubik's Cube by painting each face of the cube a solid color, and some people think that all mind-altering drugs are bad, although in fairness, probably not the same people.
4. Idiots,
e.g.: humorless people who confuse humor with insult; people who are as
oblivious about the concept of cause and effect as a four-year-old sticking a
fork in a toaster; people with the initiative of a pan of bacon grease left on
the stove to congeal; people with the maturity of a powder blue prom tuxedo
with 6” wide lapels; people with the mental clarity of a pan of bacon grease
left on the stove to congeal; people who flush their pet alligators down the
toilet; people who confuse election of the candidate they oppose with the end
of the world as we know it
5. People who buy alligators as pets
2 comments:
Years ago, when I was worried about how to raise ethical children (mission accomplished, so no worries!), I got into Lawrence Kohlberg's theory of moral development. Check it out on Wikipedia; it's interesting. Anyway, he posited that individuals and even entire cultures can get stuck at a "primitive level of moral development." All the excesses of repugnant, overly judgmental, over-reacting, horse-blindered, inconsistent, childish idiocy to which you allude fall into this category. He said that "cognitive dissonance" when something we always thought was right no longer feels right or seems so simple is what spurs us to grow morally. So my question is: how does killing a lot of innocent people because they insulted your religion NOT cause cognitive dissonance?
Wait! I should have said "because someone else insulted your religion....
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