Theology Worse
As with so many discussions, it began with a facebook meme. “If your theology doesn’t lead you to love people more, you should question your theology.” The graphics leave room for improvement.
I would leave the word “your” out of that sentence ~ Other people’s ideologies don’t lead me to do anything. ~ they lead other people ~ Right.. so this would be addressed to them as well. ~ Your is often confused for you’re. One is a second person possessive. One is a contraction of you are. It is good to keep theology, if you must deal with it, as your theology, and not you’re theology. ~ It is so good that I’ve never seen it done. ~ Will I see you at the potluck? ~ I hope so. ~ Substitute the name of an religion that encourages extremism for the word theology in my sentence above
Very few people would use the phrase “my theology.” They would say “my faith,” “my religion,” or something else. As religion has become a dirty word, people are substituting faith. If enough people are hurt by the faith of others, then that too will be seen as a dirty word. Theology stands above the battlefield, which is probably just as well.
One of the philosophical side roads of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is the concept of mythos vs. logos. The idea is that when people see a contradiction between a legend (mythos) and knowledge (logos,) they will usually choose the legend.
Theology is basically a combination of theo, or G-d, and logos. Is this the contradictory combination of mythos and logos? Or is Theo the caretaker brother of Vincent Van Gogh? Should believers cut an ear off if they hear something that offends them?
In America, we tend to see theology in Christian terms. One of the fundamental beliefs of this affair is the concept that the bible is “the word of G-d.” A spin off of this belief is an abundant interest in semantics. Saved or not, the obsession with what words mean is tough to get away from.
Too much food for thought can lead to mental indigestion. Or is that spiritual diarrhea? Maybe this chat should end at this point. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
How Do You Take Your Coffee?
It was a saturday. They are different when you work the rest of the week. Between laundry, buying stuff, unclogging pipes, and writing bad poetry, PG found time to take two internet quizzes.
The first one, The How Gay Are You Test, was an artificial joke. “Put your fabulousness on test and find out just how gay you are by answering those few questions! We dare you! Cher is… Who? ~ Goddess of Pop ~ Meh!” (Spell check suggestion: fabulousness – nebulousness, fatuousness)
The designers of this test might have been on drugs. When you click on the possible answer, it dances around, and blinks off and on. You have to click it several times to select, and then half the time it doesn’t take. When you try to get your results, the test makes you fill in the missing questions. You click on it a few more times, and eventually it is selected.
The gayness test can be copied in it’s entirety, unlike the other test, Which Punk Icon Are You? Punk icon is a buzzfeed thing. It has snappy graphics, and is mostly uncopiable. You do have the thrilling option of selecting buzzfeed as an answer to the question, “What’s the least punk thing you can think of?” The questions are in all caps, which PG finds vaguely immoral.
This is going to be a short post. The text averse can go ahead and skip to the pictures from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”. One result was “13% gay! This makes you not really gay. We’re sorry… In any case, you can get yourself a Gay Pack and develop your gayness further! ” The other was Patti Smith.
Which David Bowie Are You?
Zimbio is yet another entertainment websites. Marshall McLuhan is rolling over in his grave over the message medium mix. The eyeball snatcher on the screen now is a quiz, Which David Bowie Are You? The affair is sponsored by an ad for “Brain on Fire, My month of madness,” a book. If you are lucky, you can “win 10 FREE copies for your book club!”
PG has written about David Bowie before. To find that link, he used google advanced search. The logo for google today is winter athletes, against a rainbow background. Good grief.
The first question is “What causes you the most anxiety? ~ Societal decay. ~ Americans. ~ Fear of losing control. ~ Love, or the lack thereof. ~ My job. ~ Nothing. I sleep very well. ” Multiple choice queries are easy to score. They also force the test taker to choose the least bad answer. Now, PG does sleep well, which is not the same as saying that day to day living does not fill him with anxiety. Between I 285, jesus run amok, commercial exploitation of amateur athletics, and not having a book club to give 10 free copies to, life can be downright challenging.
“Pick a breakfast food” and “How much time, on average, do you spend on your hair?” were good excuses for subliminal advertising, making the digital world go round. Then we come to a real head scratcher, “What’s your relationship with reality?” PG is more or less detoxed from substances, which should leave reality. It doesn’t always work that way. One of the happiest moments of life was the blissful discovery that a person could be a degenerate, without alcohol. Maybe it is best to just move on to “Do you consider yourself popular?”
Each question is illustated with a pupop popup ad. For “You’re involved in a major scandal. How do you handle it?,” the sponsor is Charmin toilet paper. For “Spandex: How does it make you feel?,” Charlie the tuna promotes Star Kist gourmet tuna fillets. Are you in good taste, or do you taste good?
The answer was “Thin White Duke.” This was druggie Bowie. After the tour, he moved to Berlin, and Enooodled with electronics. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Union soldiers, from the War Between the States, did not take an internet quiz sponsored by Charmin toilet paper.
The Doe Family
A doe is a female deer. There is also a human Doe family.
John Doe is rather slow. Not much is known about him.
How does a man without an face get in wikipedia?
Sha Dow is a mysterious figure. Why he changed his name, no one knows.
Jane Doe is the ex wife of Sha Dow. She is having an identity crisis.
Juan Doe is undocumented.
Bro Doe is on the down Low.
TaeKwonDoh is the asian of the family. She will kick your ass.
Do Si Doe likes to dance. She thinks being called square as a compliment.
According to science and legend, there was once a bird, the Dodo.
This is doe-doe, not doo doo.
Which will bring us back to Doe.
This is a repost. Pictures are from The Library of Congress.
Jesus Gets A New Nickname
There is a video making the rounds now. The title involves Jesus, and a certain racial slur, delicately known as the N word. The video is embedded above. You can feel the magic for yourself.
Here is a story about the song, with the edgy language bleeped. “One pastor is trying to spread the word of God with an edgy rap song. The rapping pastor and his wife claim they have “Christian swag” while tossing around the n-word. … The video of the rapping pastor was recently uploaded to YouTube but it’s not clear when it was filmed. It was taken at a church in Iowa which closed in 2004.” Another helpful interneter has the lyrics.
In case you didn’t know, Pastor Jim Colerick, and Mrs Mary-Sue Colerick, are melanin deficient. They are, as Bette Midler once said about Karen Carpenter, so white they are invisible. It is not considered good manners for Caucasians to use this word, with or without salvation.
There is another angle to this equation. Many Jesus worshipers see not using cusswords as a sign of righteousness. As a result, many Jesus worshipers use the words G-d, and Jesus Christ, as tools of their anger. This violates the third commandment. Now, this use of a sacred name, as profanity, is being extended to using a sacred name as a racial slur. Someone is always ready to manipulate language to serve an agenda.
When you call a book “the word of G-d”, you give certain words too much power. When you designate the lazy way of saying black as a super duper naughty word, you give those six letters way too much power. Now, we see the convergence of these two taboos. Let the party begin.
Pictures of Pastor and Mrs. Colerick are taken from the video. The other images are from The Library of Congress. This is a repost.
Snowjam Blame Racism
It could have been predicted. Atlanta made the national news this week, and did not look good. We all know this, and many have opinions as to the nature of the problem. Now, Slate magazine has their hypothesis, What Does Racism Have to Do With Gridlock?
Now, in this part of the world, race usually has something to do with just about anything. The lack of preparation, the skepticism about the warnings, and the disaster that ensued are all, to this author, subordinate to “the question of race.” The rest of America is amused.
“Exhibit A” is the failure of the T-SPLOST referendum. What the author fails to mention is that T-SPLOST was opposed by the local NAACP. They were upset because there were no plans for a rail line to South DeKalb county. T-SPLOST was opposed by many people, with a wide variety of labels.
T-SPLOST was a horribly flawed proposal. Two weeks before the referendum, the staff of Atlanta mayor Kasim Reed objected to being blamed for the problems with T-SPLOST, and wrote a tacky newspaper article. Wednesday morning, as Atlanta struggled to recover, Mr. Reed was widely quoted as saying “I’m not going to get into the blame game.”
Black people are a part of the political power structure, especially on the local and county level. Thirty percent of the voters statewide are Black, with majorities in many local areas. If the Black community does not work together with the White community, there are going to be problems. Whose fault is this? There is plenty of blame to go around for everyone.
The story quotes another piece on income inequality, saying that Atlanta leads the nation in this problem. Here is a case where you make your statistics tell whatever story you want them to tell. It says that this is the City of Atlanta, which has less than ten percent of the metro population. It also does not mention the large, affluent Black middle class. Black is no longer synonymous with poor.
To repeat the obvious, yes race was involved. But to *blame* this disaster on racism is not going to help. Finger pointing, and refusal to accept responsibility, is not going to accomplish anything. This is a time to work together. Blaming a disaster on racism is not going to help. Pictures are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
Advice From Britney Spears
Twitter superstar @tejucole is on a roll. His 140 character droppings have been seen before. Earlier this morning, PG found a gutbomb in the archive. “The White Savior Industrial Complex is not about justice. It is about having a big emotional experience that validates privilege.”
The subject today is the culture of inspirational quotes. PG is in the choir loft for the sermon.
@tejucole Area Man Wins Irony Prize for Battling Quote Culture With Quotable Tweets
@tejucole Sentimentality culture is inspirational quotes, solutionism, white saviorism, un-intersectional feminism and, yes, the Global War on Terror.
@tejucole The mistake is to separate inspirational quotes mania from the ideological conditions that confine people in sentimentality culture.
@tejucole But (I warn myself): so much social critique comes down to “my consolations are superior to yours.” Why begrudge people their pleasures?
@tejucole Britney Spears and the Department of Defense: the reactionary, nonsensical aspects of quotation-madness are obvious.
@tejucole America itself becomes a quote-only zone. The politician’s “misspeak.” The president’s fine sentence in a speech. While the drones drone on.
@tejucole But none of us can resist the lure of these stupid aphorisms. Writing them, sharing them. Sugary calories in 140-character servings.
@tejucole Everything I feared and hated about “inspirational quote” culture came to pass here @tejucole To write less straight, more queer.
@tejucole Thinking about unquotability, irreducibility, downworthiness. About how the consolation of the quotation can short-circuit justice.
@tejucole It is a truth universally acknowledged that analysis, no matter how torturous, will be reduced to its most “inspirational” quote.
@tejucole There will be more photography of this weekend’s Super Bowl than there has been in a decade of a massively destructive War on Terror.
@tejucole “Never doubt yourself. Never change who you are. Don’t care what people think and just go for it.” Britney Spears
As much as PG enjoys Mr. Cole, he does not believe everything he reads on twitter. The BS quote required a bit of investigation. This gem appears in the embedded video at the 4:46 point. The interviewer asks three female entertainers if they have any advice for young people.
The next person to speak, after Miss Spears, was Mary J. Blidge. Her suggestion was to finish high school, put G-d first and final, and listen to your mother. Perhaps this is the quote that should be tweeted. Pictures are from The Library of Congress.
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