The Gross National Debt

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Whither parity?



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If the vast majority of people where held accountable to the same set of rules they want applied to everyone else, much screaming would ensue, plenty of blood would be shed and most of those fighting and screaming would be saying "THAT'S NOT WHAT I MEANT!"

(I drop into second person here to put some flesh on these bones. Please, take it personally if you will.)

Then, pray tell, what the hell did you mean?

Never mind. I know what you meant.

You want the rule to apply to them and not to you.

"I do not!" you complain at me.

Then why are you screaming when the that rule is applied to you? Never mind, we're just going to get into a tautology with the core of it being you didn't bother to think.

Ok, done with second person.

In addition to apply equally, parity also means taking the time to understand as many and as much of the consequences as reasonably possible. Failure to follow through like this can lead to disaster.

I am reminded of a D&D session I GM'ed one day. One of the players was being attacked pretty severely. Another player had a Wish. He cast his Wish - something along the lines that he wished the other person would not be attacked, hurt, suffer, etc.

So, I killed the character. Just. Like. That.

It met every requirement of the Wish, but was certainly NOT what they had in mind. Think about that next time you demand something, a new law, a new rule or want to restrict someone's rights.

I regularly run across people who think the media should be muzzled. IOW, there are things, they say, which media should not discuss. What they refuse to accept is any prohibition on media also applies to them.

They refuse to wrap their minds around the concept.

But that's the failing here anyway. Very few people want parity. They want superiority. They want to dictate the rules, but not have those rules apply to them,

Me? I want parity. I want the rules I apply to everyone else applied to me. I even want the rules other people apply to others applied to them. I'm even willing to let someone else pick most of the rules. G'head.

Just make sure whatever rule is picked, it's applied with parity. (Second person warning.)

Chances are really good, you won't like what happens when things swing around to you. No, you won't.
I calls 'em like they are.

And speaking of parity, I direct your attention to this story. Ain't pickin' on Catholics. This just happened to be in my newsfeed today. The hypocrisy here can be found pretty much everywhere. Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist, Pagan, Atheist, Buddist, Hindu, Democracy, Totalitarian, Muslim. Pick anything where people are grouped together.

On one hand the Catholic Church has denied a boy access to a ritual because he publicly expresses a belief which is in contradiction to Catholic teachings. Yet other people who also go against Catholic teachings are not excluded.

What's the difference? I ain't figgered that one out yet. I am one of those people who has been excluded from participating in certain religious activities for the things I say and do. Perhaps it could be that my sin, being different from theirs, is unacceptable. We must be reading different Bibles.

Anyway, I ask again: Whither parity? Most people say they want it, but most people become liars when equal application is applied.

1 comment:

  1. I support the Church for defending their beliefs, I really do. If your "deeply held beliefs" tell you one thing, then you should indeed support them...even when it makes you look like an idiot or bigot. I still find this bizarre concept of "traditional marriage" that these people follow mind blowing. Modern marriage is absolutely nothing like the marriages portrayed in their holiest of books. Hell marriage from 60, 100 etc years ago is nothing like modern "traditional marriage." 30 years ago tradition dictated that it was illegal to marry my wife because she was Black and I was white. 100 years ago it was alright for a 50 year old man to marry a 13 year old girl. (Oddly enough the exact opposite wasn't true, go figure.) People keeping citing traditions that aren't traditional. Funny, that/

    ReplyDelete

Hi. I welcome lively debate. Attack the argument. Go after a person in the thread, your comments will not be posted.