Christopher Hitchens - Waking Spirals

Hypothetical (or Not So) Lifestyles of the Intolerant and Hypocritical

“I learned that very often the most intolerant and narrow-minded people are the ones who congratulate themselves on their tolerance and open-mindedness.”
— Christopher Hitchens

Let’s talk hypothetically for a moment. Let’s make it two moments as I give two hypothetical cases:
A) A gay couple go into a bakery and order a cake for their wedding. The owner refuses to serve them. A large ruckus results that includes people calling up the baker with death threats and boycotts. The baker tries to protest that he has the right to refuse service to anyone including those who do not live according to his beliefs. Eventually he is fined for discrimination. Justice has won the day according to most people.
B) A right wing politician whom many consider bordering on fascist enters a restaurant. The owner refuses to serve him. The restauranteur states that he has the right to refuse service to anyone including those who do not live according to his beliefs. The politician leaves followed by a crowd of people jeering at him and threatening violence in protest. Justice has won the day according to most people.
I have a serious problem reconciling the two ideas of justice portrayed in the two situations above and yet both situations resemble real world happenings.
This has little to do with my own political leanings except that either business owners have the right to refuse service at their discretion or they don’t.
I disagree with both restaurant owners and find their refusal in both cases to be ridiculously narrow-minded and shortsighted. Did the baker fear that the lord would strike down his bakery if he helped make something beautiful for two people in love. Did the restauranteur fear that if the politician started talking, people would immediately be spell-bound, put on jackboots and start walking down the street hitting minorities with truncheons? Then again I have never feared ideas or lifestyles that were different than my own and I detest the idea of letting fear control my actions.

Blessings, G

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Star Games by G A Rosenberg

Spatial Extremities by G A Rosenberg

Mortis by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – January 23 2013

“The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks.”
― Christopher Hitchens

Why do so many of us desire to have answers to questions spoon-fed to us as opposed to actually putting thought into not only what the question is but how we can apply it to ourselves and our life. Case in point (an example from a friend of mine)

AN EXERCISE ON THE CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF ANY GIVEN TOPIC:

Step 1. BRAINSTORMING (Otherwise known as ‘Listing the Possibilities).

The importance of this step is so that we can have a variety of possible explanations before we can even go onto step 2 – to decide WHICH of the possible explanations are more likely.

First, an analogy for discussion:

“At a Yoga Retreat, at the very end of being taught a Kriya technique, it was question time.. and after a while an Australian girl piped up nonchalantly… “So, what does it all mean, really?”

She asked it as if in passing… as if it didn’t matter so much.

And the teacher replied to her, “What you just asked is the ‘WHO AM I?” question… and you have to increase in INTENSITY for that question… until nothing else matters, before you are even in the STATE OF MIND to HEAR the answer.”

Now upon hearing this story, a woman I know got incensed that the guru would play what she saw as head games and impose his ‘trip’ on her, No matter how I tried to get her to see the story as an exercise in ‘thinking’ about and through the question rather than avoiding thinking by criticizing the teacher’s method, she refused getting more and more incensed. Now this woman I respect a lot and the amount of energy and vehemence she put into avoiding thinking about why the teacher may give that instruction to the girl tho thinking the question through brought out at least 5 different possibilities each of which I could apply to how I learn things…

NOW – What possible explanations are there for what happened in this analogy?

POSSIBILITY No 1. IMPOSING. “it leans into the dogma of “you don’t understand unless you are on my plane of understanding…to me, this is a form of mental masturbation …. You have to be at my “level of intensity”..how preposterous!!”

POSSIBILITY No 2. SPOON FEEDING. She was a blind girl buying whatever she can get from any so-called teacher.

POSSIBILITY No.3. ENGAGEMENT. He was trying to get her to engage.

POSSIBILITY No.4. AVOIDANCE. “That is not your own understanding, you just gave some story about some guru, I want to hear your understanding.”

POSSIBILITY No.5. POINTLESSNESS. “There is every other option..we could go on to infinity with creating “the end of the story” or “The point to the story” but what does that accomplish?”

What other possibilities are there?

The above has made me wonder at a trend I see a lot. People unwilling to engage and learn from situations and stories that enter their lives. I have benefited so much from actually thinking about what people are saying to me that this puzzles me greatly
Blessings, G

Click on image to see full-size

Night Skywatch by G A Rosenberg

Simply Red Mandala by G A Rosenberg

“I learned that very often the most intolerant and narrow-minded people are the ones who congratulate themselves on their tolerance and open-mindedness.” — Christopher Hitchens