benlehman

Lovely conversation with Ion and Dana tonight, which spawned the following thought.

I am often called a wildly judgemental person. This is true -- I have a tendency to make snap decisions about people and to continue to make decisions based on wildly innaccurate data. I will, if invited, be able to tell most people exactly what I think that they should do with their lives, because I have been thinking hard about just that. I have learned to shut my mouth about this unless asked, but do not doubt that it is a learned skill. I think that certain actions are "wrong" in that they are harmful to oneself or others, and I think that other actions are "wrong" in a purely moral sense. I judge.

But the question that then comes up is "what makes you different?" There are two ways to resolve this -- one is to locate the very heart of the wrongness, and see whether or not you carry it. The other is to say "I am not different, but that does not mean I do not judge." I use both of these strategies, but which one I use will effect my reactions to the person and the deed.

And, of course, it comes back, as it always does for me, to Daiethion. Somehow, I encoded every philosophical and moral quandrary of mine into that story, even ones that I did not know that I would face.

"What makes you different from the rocks that are ground to dust beneath cruel feet?"
"What makes you different from the animals that only live and never die?"
"What makes you different from the living that suffer in their own desires?"

If you are clever, you can find an answer. But if you truly understand, you know that there can be no answer, for you are nothing more than life, animals, rock.