When gays or lesbians or bisexuals are simply permitted to be
comfortable with their sexual orientation in an accepting society free
of stigma or defamation, isolation, pressure to hide or repress this (or
as in Muslim countries, murder or public execution) - that is a matter
of human rights. That's it. I'm hetero, my sons and daughters all are
as well. So? And I've always conveyed to them the inalienable
recognition of human rights, whomever it addresses.
When, however, everything becomes glaringly, invasively, redundantly, unavoidably about the sexual orientation of Ls, Gs, Bs, Ts - and that they are somehow all "wonderful" for it - and YOU are sexist, homophobic and "white male"-fascist (wherever that one came from!) for even suggesting that you are perhaps becoming more than fed up with having a cartoony Rainbow ceaselessly shoved down your throat: this is Ideology. And, as I've often asserted and cannot stress enough: all good things turn rancid when they hit Ideology. Dogma kills, it deadens with the slow blows of a cudgel.
Fundamentalist or Fascist, Communist or Capitalist or Collectivist, Right or Left: it dries up all life with the same dumbing-down demand for compliance and obedience.
Are Jews "special" because there was a Holocaust or we all loved "Fiddler On The Roof"? No. They are Jews.
Are African-Americans "special" because of their forced immigration to serve "The Peculiar Institution" and enduring a century of Jim Crow? No. They are African-Americans.
Are gays and lesbians "special" because the overweening trend says so? No.
All three examples are human beings who have endured persecution and worse.
All three have also contributed vastly to our culture with their creativity.
Ideology is dictatorship over the mind, above all. It dictates what you may or may not think, what is "permitted" and what not - it is a "one-size-fits-all" dogma which holds you to a brain-sucking "political-correctness" and goads or intimidates or punishes you with propaganda and character assassination if you don't behave and get in line.
To introduce being gay as The New Norm would be like making Jewish or Black the "preferred" norm. If I run for office or am in some other public position, should I make being hetero the hallmark of my character or accomplishment? Why then must I know of someone's non-hetero sexual orientation as if that has anything to do with his/her actual values, judgement, competence, character, stability, suitability; am I homophobic for still considering the bedroom a private matter?
Here's another way of formulating this:
Ask a Jew what makes him/her "Jewish." You'll get a whole variety of possible responses, from biblical to philosophical to banal to humanistic, history and heritage, values and community. I'd wager that at the bottom of the list, if at all, you might hear circumcision or diet.
Ask a Muslim the same question, you get "no pork." That's it. A pork-abstinent Jew doesn't count, a vegetarian (from the Planet Vegan) doesn't count; only Muslims count, and without knowing squat really, most will give you as Number One Criteria: no pork. All else follows.
So I may get myself placed among the racists, sexists, homophobix, Islamophobix - please add antisemites - because the Ideologues and Lobbyists for the Cult and Culture of Political Correctness so dictate.
Still, I will maintain to my last dying breath at the ripe age of 150:
that every human being is to be treated with dignity and respect, kindness and empathy. Because s/he is Human. Not because s/he is special. No one is. But every One is divine in origin - no exceptions.
And that is what I pass on to the kids.
When, however, everything becomes glaringly, invasively, redundantly, unavoidably about the sexual orientation of Ls, Gs, Bs, Ts - and that they are somehow all "wonderful" for it - and YOU are sexist, homophobic and "white male"-fascist (wherever that one came from!) for even suggesting that you are perhaps becoming more than fed up with having a cartoony Rainbow ceaselessly shoved down your throat: this is Ideology. And, as I've often asserted and cannot stress enough: all good things turn rancid when they hit Ideology. Dogma kills, it deadens with the slow blows of a cudgel.
Fundamentalist or Fascist, Communist or Capitalist or Collectivist, Right or Left: it dries up all life with the same dumbing-down demand for compliance and obedience.
Are Jews "special" because there was a Holocaust or we all loved "Fiddler On The Roof"? No. They are Jews.
Are African-Americans "special" because of their forced immigration to serve "The Peculiar Institution" and enduring a century of Jim Crow? No. They are African-Americans.
Are gays and lesbians "special" because the overweening trend says so? No.
All three examples are human beings who have endured persecution and worse.
All three have also contributed vastly to our culture with their creativity.
Ideology is dictatorship over the mind, above all. It dictates what you may or may not think, what is "permitted" and what not - it is a "one-size-fits-all" dogma which holds you to a brain-sucking "political-correctness" and goads or intimidates or punishes you with propaganda and character assassination if you don't behave and get in line.
To introduce being gay as The New Norm would be like making Jewish or Black the "preferred" norm. If I run for office or am in some other public position, should I make being hetero the hallmark of my character or accomplishment? Why then must I know of someone's non-hetero sexual orientation as if that has anything to do with his/her actual values, judgement, competence, character, stability, suitability; am I homophobic for still considering the bedroom a private matter?
Here's another way of formulating this:
Ask a Jew what makes him/her "Jewish." You'll get a whole variety of possible responses, from biblical to philosophical to banal to humanistic, history and heritage, values and community. I'd wager that at the bottom of the list, if at all, you might hear circumcision or diet.
Ask a Muslim the same question, you get "no pork." That's it. A pork-abstinent Jew doesn't count, a vegetarian (from the Planet Vegan) doesn't count; only Muslims count, and without knowing squat really, most will give you as Number One Criteria: no pork. All else follows.
So I may get myself placed among the racists, sexists, homophobix, Islamophobix - please add antisemites - because the Ideologues and Lobbyists for the Cult and Culture of Political Correctness so dictate.
Still, I will maintain to my last dying breath at the ripe age of 150:
that every human being is to be treated with dignity and respect, kindness and empathy. Because s/he is Human. Not because s/he is special. No one is. But every One is divine in origin - no exceptions.
And that is what I pass on to the kids.
http://samuelinayatchisti.blogspot.de/2014/04/a-critical-look-if-one-still-may-at.html
http://samuelinayatchisti.blogspot.de/2014/05/reactions-to-my-lgtb-critique.html
http://samuelinayatchisti.blogspot.de/2014/05/reactions-to-my-lgtb-critique.html
No comments:
Post a Comment