|
epitome of incomprehensibility
|
I came to a conclusion yesterday: I don't want to offend people for no reason.
Now, when there's a reason that trumps possible offensiveness, that's different.
It's just that I had a line in a poem, one of the two new ones that I read on Tuesday night (there's this monthly poetry thing they do once) - "If you don't like abortion, don't marry one" - and a couple of people groaned like they found that stupid. Weeks before, I wrote on not_quite_truisms "If you don't like attention, don't marry one," but here abortion seemed more apropos because I was talking about eggs. It didn't make sense. It wasn't supposed to make sense.
But it seemed gross, as if someone would literally marry a blob of dead potential-human tissue, and so too much like... I dunno, Family Guy? But now I'm being a snob, pointing my upturned nose over and above what's lowbrow - so many face metaphors, I can't see eye to eye with them... Anyway. It's just that it seemed like I sounded offensive without a reason, and I don't want to do that.
And for something not_me: while I've definite cartoonist_sympathy, it seems to me a bit misguided to mock Islamic terrorists by drawing Muhammed. A bit of research tells me it became a Muslim custom not to draw Muhammed not because he's too sacred to draw, but because people didn't want him being idolized or worshiped (unlike in Christianity, where the major prophet is considered a part of God, Muhammed isn't, not in the sense of being divine). So saying, "Ha! I will draw Muhammed to show that NOTHING IS SACRED!" kind of misses the point. Besides, mockery is more potent when it's pointed. Make fun of the terrorists in particular, not what religion they might or might not belong to.
On the other hand, you could come at it from the perspective of, "I'm an atheist (etc.) and don't feel bound to follow any religious rules, so here's my statement," and I think the not-following-inapplicable-rules part makes sense. But there's context and courtesy.
It's like swearing, maybe. There's places where it makes sense to swear, other places where it doesn't.
Gah. I just remembered how, as a summer camp counselor, I told kids (9-12) not to swear because swearing was "rude"; then to teenagers I said more what I really thought, that it depends on the context. Did I think kids couldn't think? Why do we oversimplify things for children? But that's a whole other issue.
|
150122
|
