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roadnotes: I can admire the Boddhisattva's vow, but I am a human--which is to say, an animal living in time [1], with finite resources and thus with priorities.
I am trying not to hate. But there's a wide space between "I will not hate you" and "I will let you call me inferior or enemy and still treat you as a friend."
[1] There's a footnote here to Always Coming Home, as I wonder again what it might be like to not be Man and not live in time. [Added after posting the comment: as it is, history is a nighmare from which we cannot awaken.]
A comment tocalanthe_b, in response to her post about David Hume, Samuel Johnson, and feeling trapped in other people's belief systems:
That particular brand of [for want of a better term] self-satisfied believer attitude toward nonbelievers doesn't make sense to me.
Seriously. As a nonbeliever, I consider it entirely possible that I will regret my death, if I see it coming, simply because I like living. But there is, literally, nothing for me to fear: I'll leave fear for those who believe in hell. As for shame, well, who would I be ashamed to be seen by? My loved ones? I hope not, and no more so at that time than at any other.
I understand that believers think I'm wrong, as I think they're wrong. If they're right, we'll all find out in our own good time; if I'm right, they may never know it.
#std.disclaimer.h [I hope unnecessary]: I recognize that not all believers are self-satisfied, and for that matter that not all theists believe in that particular god.
In one ofginmar's comment threads, to someone who said that "the trick is not to be a victim in anything":
Not being a victim isn't a trick: it's a combination of skills, existing conditions (inherited money, for example, can make a big difference), and luck (for example, lots of people have taken jobs in restaurants; some of those who took jobs at Windows on the World died there).
Responding to a commenthadiya posted in roadnotes's journal:
There's nothing wrong with having a color, just as there's nothing wrong with having a gender or a hair color. But there are times I'd like it if it were no more obvious/defining of people that you're black than that I'm not. (Yes, it's probably obvious to anyone who looks at my userpic that I'm not black--and I can only recall one instance in my 41 years where someone was surprised that I'm not--but I'm not likely to be identified as "non-black" because that's not a category most Americans use.) I have at least one friend who deliberately obscures zir gender online: that's noteworthy enough to be mentioned in zir LiveJournal userinfo, whereas glossing over race is not. And that, I think, is in large part because there's a default race to a greater extent than there is a default gender.
The tricky part of this--and I don't know how we get away from this--is that, at least in the US, that wish to minimize if not eliminate race generally is read, and is often meant, as "it would be so nice if everyone were white and middle class."
To
roadnotes: I can admire the Boddhisattva's vow, but I am a human--which is to say, an animal living in time [1], with finite resources and thus with priorities.I am trying not to hate. But there's a wide space between "I will not hate you" and "I will let you call me inferior or enemy and still treat you as a friend."
[1] There's a footnote here to Always Coming Home, as I wonder again what it might be like to not be Man and not live in time. [Added after posting the comment: as it is, history is a nighmare from which we cannot awaken.]
A comment to
calanthe_b, in response to her post about David Hume, Samuel Johnson, and feeling trapped in other people's belief systems:That particular brand of [for want of a better term] self-satisfied believer attitude toward nonbelievers doesn't make sense to me.
Seriously. As a nonbeliever, I consider it entirely possible that I will regret my death, if I see it coming, simply because I like living. But there is, literally, nothing for me to fear: I'll leave fear for those who believe in hell. As for shame, well, who would I be ashamed to be seen by? My loved ones? I hope not, and no more so at that time than at any other.
I understand that believers think I'm wrong, as I think they're wrong. If they're right, we'll all find out in our own good time; if I'm right, they may never know it.
#std.disclaimer.h [I hope unnecessary]: I recognize that not all believers are self-satisfied, and for that matter that not all theists believe in that particular god.
In one of
ginmar's comment threads, to someone who said that "the trick is not to be a victim in anything": Not being a victim isn't a trick: it's a combination of skills, existing conditions (inherited money, for example, can make a big difference), and luck (for example, lots of people have taken jobs in restaurants; some of those who took jobs at Windows on the World died there).
Responding to a comment
hadiya posted in roadnotes's journal:There's nothing wrong with having a color, just as there's nothing wrong with having a gender or a hair color. But there are times I'd like it if it were no more obvious/defining of people that you're black than that I'm not. (Yes, it's probably obvious to anyone who looks at my userpic that I'm not black--and I can only recall one instance in my 41 years where someone was surprised that I'm not--but I'm not likely to be identified as "non-black" because that's not a category most Americans use.) I have at least one friend who deliberately obscures zir gender online: that's noteworthy enough to be mentioned in zir LiveJournal userinfo, whereas glossing over race is not. And that, I think, is in large part because there's a default race to a greater extent than there is a default gender.
The tricky part of this--and I don't know how we get away from this--is that, at least in the US, that wish to minimize if not eliminate race generally is read, and is often meant, as "it would be so nice if everyone were white and middle class."