23 February 2007
Credit where due
I really like reading The Brainsturbator. Very aptly named. This latest post is relevant to the evanescent theme of this blog.
Blaming bad or malicious behavior on the devil is a cop-out. Superstitious people can't take credit for their own evil. There's more to the article than that, so go read it.
I might add that thanking god for one's own fortune, or that of others isn't very fair either. You can feign humility by delegating the source of your prowess to some mythical, magical ghost. But calling the result of, say, years of medical training and experience of a team of doctors a miracle would be a slap in the face. Most people take it in stride. Such is the power of The Dominant Myth and the culture that it floats upon.
...It was basically a waking, lucid nightmare and the first time it happened, there was nothing I wanted more than to deny that the imagery I was seeing came from within me. I really, really wanted to believe in Satan, in an external force of evil that was responsible for the unspeakably nasty shit I was watching. I really wanted to have a God to turn to, to protect and shelter me from the horror and the depravity.
Fortunately, I'm way too arrogant for that. I eventually came to terms with the fact that my imagination is capable of literally anything, and that despite anything and everything I'd like to believe about Who I Am, I still possess the capacity to be another Jeffery Dahmer - in fact a far worse creature than Dahmer, because Jeff was frankly a very stupid little man. It would be really nice to chalk all that up to a battle between cosmic forces I have no control over, but the fact is, keeping that monster under control is my responsibility and mine alone.
Blaming bad or malicious behavior on the devil is a cop-out. Superstitious people can't take credit for their own evil. There's more to the article than that, so go read it.
I might add that thanking god for one's own fortune, or that of others isn't very fair either. You can feign humility by delegating the source of your prowess to some mythical, magical ghost. But calling the result of, say, years of medical training and experience of a team of doctors a miracle would be a slap in the face. Most people take it in stride. Such is the power of The Dominant Myth and the culture that it floats upon.
// posted by Parge @ 2:46 PM
