I was thinking about Colin's post that spawned from the discussion about Joni
and her smoking as well as Kakki's observations on the hypocritical
"enforcement" by zealots.
I grew up in an outstandingly apathetic family, (okay, we would get pretty
self righteous about who got the last slice of Taylor's Ham, but that's
another story), and now live in an outstandingly activist town. If there's
one group staging a sit-in about animal rights, there's another group holding
a protest march about affirmative action as well as many groups in between
with pros and cons.
And I see this:
For every study and every passion, there's going to be a "down" side. Into
being a vegan and eschewing animal products? Who is going to stand up for the
rights of the migrant workers who pick your cotton and produce your fiber/non
leather products in developing countries and live in substandard conditions?
Into maintaining the old growth forests? Who is going to stand up for loggers
and their families who have no other means of support and need retraining and
a new economy?
For every study on the perils of second hand smoke and nicotine addiction,
there are going to be people outside the bell curve who live to a healthy old
age. For every study that shows people lose weight and live longer on high
protein, low carbohydrate diets, you'll find many who do the same thing on
low protein, high carbohydrate diets. Heck, you'll even find some people
living large and healthy on a diet of Ring Dings and applesauce.
For every person you can find who will stand on one side and cheer loudly for
a cause, you can find their opposite in passion for the other viewpoint as
well as their companion in apathy.
I believe that this means that we all need to pick our passions and our
poisons with the understanding that it is a wide, wide world out there with
many different views and reactions. I believe that this means it's important
to stand up for our rights and our viewpoints with integrity and courtesy.
There's nothing wrong with firmly believing that you are correct, there's
everything not so right about putting others down because of an opposing view
point.
And even with that sentiment, there are points that exist way outside the
bell curve.
Okey doke, now I'm late and outta here.
MG
