Kind of a rant.
I will begin by saying I am not irritated by anyone's choices when it comes to politics, religion, or personal matters. There is room in the world for all of us, even those you may not like or not agree with.
On Facebook yesterday someone posted an 'end of the world' scare video that was about as obnoxious as anything I've seen in a long time. It begins with that reading of the first few verses of Genesis, spoken by that guy on the Apollo mission back in the late 60s. The video continues, saying 'six thousand years later', then they show flashes of earthquake victims, hurricanes and floods, violence, and, of course, Nine-Eleven, since, as we all know, if anything bad happens here in America it is a sign that the end of the entire world is fast approaching.
If these people think their random sample pictures of recent disasters are a picture of the end of the world, what do you think they would have made of the eruption of Krakatoa in 1883, or Timbura in 1815, which put so much dust in the upper atmosphere that the next year was called Eighteen-hundred-and-froze-to-Death, with frosts every month that year, including August, as far south as Alabama?
And as for 9-11, I agree the deaths and property damage amount to a terrible crime and a tragedy, but if you want to see a city on fire, buildings collapsing, massive civilian casualties, women and children by the hundreds maimed or killed, look back at Beruit in 1982. (by the way, who was responsible for that?) Just one example out of the many I could name. And warfare today? Go back ninety years, to Europe. Trench warfare makes the stuff we're doing in Iraq and Afghanistan look like a trip to the park. (A park in a high crime area, but still a park.)
The video winds up with some guy preaching to a congregation about how that day is coming, oh how that day is coming, we don't know the exact hour, or minute, or second - POW - the preacher and most of the congregation vanish, leaving those few remaining wailing and gnashing their teeth. (Oh, and the POW, let me just say here how cheap and annoying it is, these videos that end with something jumping out at you.)
I am not a malcontent. Nothing irritates me about people being religious, spiritual, or whatever they want to call it. The problem is when people believe that them and theirs are exclusively right, and everyone else is wrong, crazy, stupid, and condemned to an eternity of anguish and torture for disagreeing on a point that is a matter of faith and not proof. Regardless if you believe in Jesus, Allah, Shiva, Zeus, Ishtar, or the Flying Spaghetti Monster, don't insult me right to my face by saying I'm going to Hell for not agreeing with you, or even disagreement on one or two points of it.
People are expected to maintain a certain level of respect and decorum in public, and especially in the workplace. I know a man who lost his job for lecturing about how wrong he thinks interracial marriage is, and another who lost his for an offhand comment on the subject. They should have kept their attitudes and opinions to themselves. My point here is that if we as a society are going to penalize people for expressing an arrogant assumption of superiority, shouldn't it include all forms of it, not just race, and not just in the workplace, but in every place, among all people? It shouldn't be something to be enforced, it should just be a matter of common courtesy.
On Facebook yesterday someone posted an 'end of the world' scare video that was about as obnoxious as anything I've seen in a long time. It begins with that reading of the first few verses of Genesis, spoken by that guy on the Apollo mission back in the late 60s. The video continues, saying 'six thousand years later', then they show flashes of earthquake victims, hurricanes and floods, violence, and, of course, Nine-Eleven, since, as we all know, if anything bad happens here in America it is a sign that the end of the entire world is fast approaching.
If these people think their random sample pictures of recent disasters are a picture of the end of the world, what do you think they would have made of the eruption of Krakatoa in 1883, or Timbura in 1815, which put so much dust in the upper atmosphere that the next year was called Eighteen-hundred-and-froze-to-Death, with frosts every month that year, including August, as far south as Alabama?
And as for 9-11, I agree the deaths and property damage amount to a terrible crime and a tragedy, but if you want to see a city on fire, buildings collapsing, massive civilian casualties, women and children by the hundreds maimed or killed, look back at Beruit in 1982. (by the way, who was responsible for that?) Just one example out of the many I could name. And warfare today? Go back ninety years, to Europe. Trench warfare makes the stuff we're doing in Iraq and Afghanistan look like a trip to the park. (A park in a high crime area, but still a park.)
The video winds up with some guy preaching to a congregation about how that day is coming, oh how that day is coming, we don't know the exact hour, or minute, or second - POW - the preacher and most of the congregation vanish, leaving those few remaining wailing and gnashing their teeth. (Oh, and the POW, let me just say here how cheap and annoying it is, these videos that end with something jumping out at you.)
I am not a malcontent. Nothing irritates me about people being religious, spiritual, or whatever they want to call it. The problem is when people believe that them and theirs are exclusively right, and everyone else is wrong, crazy, stupid, and condemned to an eternity of anguish and torture for disagreeing on a point that is a matter of faith and not proof. Regardless if you believe in Jesus, Allah, Shiva, Zeus, Ishtar, or the Flying Spaghetti Monster, don't insult me right to my face by saying I'm going to Hell for not agreeing with you, or even disagreement on one or two points of it.
People are expected to maintain a certain level of respect and decorum in public, and especially in the workplace. I know a man who lost his job for lecturing about how wrong he thinks interracial marriage is, and another who lost his for an offhand comment on the subject. They should have kept their attitudes and opinions to themselves. My point here is that if we as a society are going to penalize people for expressing an arrogant assumption of superiority, shouldn't it include all forms of it, not just race, and not just in the workplace, but in every place, among all people? It shouldn't be something to be enforced, it should just be a matter of common courtesy.