I told Mr. Zaft I would respond to his questions about my post-modern relativism so here goes.
Seriously, though. How can one claim to accept the teachings of the Bible (for example, the 10 Commandments) if they are situationally interpreted? Is murder wrong for some people but not others?
This is a hard one for me. If you take this commandment literally - thou shall not kill, then what about the following types of people:
1) law enforcement people like police - are they murderers because they sometimes have to kill people in the course of their duty? I for one, am very grateful that the police do exist? But if you interpret the commandment of "Thou shall not kill", then all law enforcement persons are murderers. If the police are considered murderers, what does one call a serial killer or a person who makes a career out of killing?
2) military personnel - you know, the people who defend our country. These pepole must also kill in the line of duty. Are they murderers? I know it's not politically correct to say, where I live, but I happen to appreciate the military and what they do to protect our country. And yes, sometimes to protect our country they have to kill. What about the soldiers who fought in world war 1 and 2? Are they murderers?
3) the founding fathers of our country - those american revolutionaries. There was much blood shed in the creation of the United States of America. Were these people, to whom we owe a debt of gratitude for creating our country, murderers?
4) member of juries or judges who sentence people to die - are these people murderers? True, they did not commit the actual crime, but they decided that a person should die. In intent, juries and judges are as guilty as the person who flips the switch or administers the injection.
5) the jail personnel who administer capital punishment - are they murderers too? They kill people, sometimes it's their job. Are they murderers as well?
6) The president of our country/the congress - he is the commander and chief of the country's military. It is on the president's orders, that the military kills. Or our congress. Congress can declare war, and the last time I checked, war involved murder on a massive scale. We are deciding to go to war with Iraq. Does this mean we shouldn't go because well, we'll be approving the murder of the Iraqi people and whoever else happens to be there at the time the planes are dropping the bombs.
7) Those people in states that have capital punishment? Are they murderers, because well they did approve the murder of people who commit crimes?
Do you see my dilemma? Do you see why sometimes post-modern relativisim is not such a bad thing? Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote in "The Scarlett Letter", that when people start a town, the yfirst create two things, a church and a jail. Our whole notion of law and justice is based on punishment and enforcement. For societies to exist, we've had to create a system of law enforcement, so a community of people can live together in relative peace. If we condemn those that punish and enforce, then what happens to society and community?
Personally, I do believe that killing another person is a sin, yet I find it hard to condemn those who would kill to protect others or who would kill because it is part of their job. I have a hard time with capital punishment, because for me, it means we as a community approve of murder. If you can help me with my moral dilemma, please let me know.
Thursday, September 19, 2002
Bad news at work today. Our VP of operations, who was in charge of our west coast office and my boss, went on an extended leave of absence. His wife died tragically of breast cancer, and the poor man needs time to grieve. The move was sudden and unexpected, and our whole office is like really wigging out. What does this mean for our office? I called my ex-boss, and he said I will probably report back to him in our VP's absence.
I hate unstable work situations, not that this job has been very stable, but today's news is the worst. I don't blame my VP. He needs time to grieve, and he was getting very depressed since the death of his wife. But still.
I've spent all morning, reevaluating my expenses. I'm preparing for a worst case scenario, which is they hire someone new and he starts reorging the whole office. The one good thing about my new eating plan is I don't spend very much money on food, drinking or eating out anymore. Those kinds of expenses are already at a minimum, and since I plan to eat this way till the end of January, I don't have to face a cut in food expenses.
I've decided to stop buying clothes, which I was thinking about anyway, until I'm at the weight where I want to be. I love buying clothes and jewelry, and it is quite an expensive habit since I have very expensive tastes. This will save me at least $200 a month. I just don't know how people can wear the same thing month and month out, but I guess I'll find out. Since I'm losing weight, some of my other clothes are starting to fit again, so in a sense it's sort of like having new things to wear.
I've decided to not spend money on any concerts and other entertainment events for awhile, but will still attend movies. Movies are so much cheaper than Broadway type plays anyway, plus there's always a bargain matinee.
I've got to put more money away into my savings and pay off more debt, so I'm in a better financial position if I do get laid off and have to go on unemployment. If worse comes to worse, I have my IRA and a long term savings account I can tap into. But I'll only do that as a last resort. One of these days, I'll need money to retire, and one of these days I'll have enough money for a down payment on a place. My retirement and long term savings account are definitely only a last resort option.
If the economy weren't so bad, I wouldn't be worried. It's never taken me that long to get a job in the past. But not now. I know people who have been unemployed since last year, and they still haven't found a job. It's a tough job market out there. I think it's going to get better by the end of the year, but the end of the year seems like such a long way away.
I hate unstable work situations, not that this job has been very stable, but today's news is the worst. I don't blame my VP. He needs time to grieve, and he was getting very depressed since the death of his wife. But still.
I've spent all morning, reevaluating my expenses. I'm preparing for a worst case scenario, which is they hire someone new and he starts reorging the whole office. The one good thing about my new eating plan is I don't spend very much money on food, drinking or eating out anymore. Those kinds of expenses are already at a minimum, and since I plan to eat this way till the end of January, I don't have to face a cut in food expenses.
I've decided to stop buying clothes, which I was thinking about anyway, until I'm at the weight where I want to be. I love buying clothes and jewelry, and it is quite an expensive habit since I have very expensive tastes. This will save me at least $200 a month. I just don't know how people can wear the same thing month and month out, but I guess I'll find out. Since I'm losing weight, some of my other clothes are starting to fit again, so in a sense it's sort of like having new things to wear.
I've decided to not spend money on any concerts and other entertainment events for awhile, but will still attend movies. Movies are so much cheaper than Broadway type plays anyway, plus there's always a bargain matinee.
I've got to put more money away into my savings and pay off more debt, so I'm in a better financial position if I do get laid off and have to go on unemployment. If worse comes to worse, I have my IRA and a long term savings account I can tap into. But I'll only do that as a last resort. One of these days, I'll need money to retire, and one of these days I'll have enough money for a down payment on a place. My retirement and long term savings account are definitely only a last resort option.
If the economy weren't so bad, I wouldn't be worried. It's never taken me that long to get a job in the past. But not now. I know people who have been unemployed since last year, and they still haven't found a job. It's a tough job market out there. I think it's going to get better by the end of the year, but the end of the year seems like such a long way away.
Wednesday, September 18, 2002
In my bible study class tonight my minister called me a "post modernist" thinker, after I told him that I though a person's interpretation of the bible can change depending on where they are in their life. I had to look up a definition of post modernist thinking on Google, since I hadn't heard that phrase in a long time and didn't quite remember what it meant.
When I looked up definitions for post-modernism, I realized he was right about me. I do believe that beliefs needs to be understood in context. You have to know the history of the belief, because we don't experience life in a vacuum. It's six degrees of Star Wars. Remember when Obiwan Kanobi tells Luke that your understanding depends on your point of view, so he could say from a certain point of view that Darth Vader killed Anakin Skywalker. It all comes back to Star Wars.
But I think I've been a situationalist since I was a kid. I remember sometime in grade school, I'm thinking 4th grade but I'm not sure, a teacher asking the glass what we would do if someone were to break into our house, and there was a gun near by. Would we shoot the person in self defense and be justified? Would we not shoot the person because killing is wrong? Was there such a thing as absolute law. She then went around and asked everyone in class what they would do and why. This is the kind of exercises you get in class when you're taught by ex-hippie liberals.
I don't remember what anyone else said, but I do remember very distinctly what I said. I told her that there was no such thing as absolutely right or bad, that it all depended on the situation, that there was no such thing as black and white and life was all different shades of gray. I remember my teaching looking at me, and telling me that I was a situationalist.
How I became a situationalist is a mystery to me. When I look over at my education, I was definitely taught from a very young age to always question authority, to never take anything at face value, to always study and learn before making any kind of judgement. That it was my responsibility as an educated person, to use my mind and my intellect to navigate my way through life. Strange huh? Were other people taught this? That education was valuable, that learning was life long process and that one should never stop learning. Blame my idealist, ex-hippie teachers for this.
What I learned in college only reinforced the kind of education I received in school, and I went to public school all my life. College taught me 1) always use primary source documents; 2) question all secondary documents because it's interpretative - like the media; 3) if possible read primary source documents in the original language, and if you can't be very sure you understand the motivation and philosophy behind the translation; 4) never believe anything you read or hear until you can research the facts for yourself; 5) everyone has an agenda in any form of communication - find out what the agenda is; 6) when studying any issue, you need to read all the literature on the issue, so you know what other people have said and where you fit in; 7) if you don't understand history, you're bound to repeat it, everything happens in context; 8) it is your civic responsibility to study the issues that affect your life and your community; 9) life is a participatory act, you have to participate, you have to vote, you have to contribute to the conversation, otherwise you're not living a life and you might as well be dead; 10) ideology without humanity and practicality is a bad idea.
I'm sure there were more, but that's all I can't think of right now. I've never really thought about all the things I learned in college like this before. I'm like wow! Very, very interesting!
When I looked up definitions for post-modernism, I realized he was right about me. I do believe that beliefs needs to be understood in context. You have to know the history of the belief, because we don't experience life in a vacuum. It's six degrees of Star Wars. Remember when Obiwan Kanobi tells Luke that your understanding depends on your point of view, so he could say from a certain point of view that Darth Vader killed Anakin Skywalker. It all comes back to Star Wars.
But I think I've been a situationalist since I was a kid. I remember sometime in grade school, I'm thinking 4th grade but I'm not sure, a teacher asking the glass what we would do if someone were to break into our house, and there was a gun near by. Would we shoot the person in self defense and be justified? Would we not shoot the person because killing is wrong? Was there such a thing as absolute law. She then went around and asked everyone in class what they would do and why. This is the kind of exercises you get in class when you're taught by ex-hippie liberals.
I don't remember what anyone else said, but I do remember very distinctly what I said. I told her that there was no such thing as absolutely right or bad, that it all depended on the situation, that there was no such thing as black and white and life was all different shades of gray. I remember my teaching looking at me, and telling me that I was a situationalist.
How I became a situationalist is a mystery to me. When I look over at my education, I was definitely taught from a very young age to always question authority, to never take anything at face value, to always study and learn before making any kind of judgement. That it was my responsibility as an educated person, to use my mind and my intellect to navigate my way through life. Strange huh? Were other people taught this? That education was valuable, that learning was life long process and that one should never stop learning. Blame my idealist, ex-hippie teachers for this.
What I learned in college only reinforced the kind of education I received in school, and I went to public school all my life. College taught me 1) always use primary source documents; 2) question all secondary documents because it's interpretative - like the media; 3) if possible read primary source documents in the original language, and if you can't be very sure you understand the motivation and philosophy behind the translation; 4) never believe anything you read or hear until you can research the facts for yourself; 5) everyone has an agenda in any form of communication - find out what the agenda is; 6) when studying any issue, you need to read all the literature on the issue, so you know what other people have said and where you fit in; 7) if you don't understand history, you're bound to repeat it, everything happens in context; 8) it is your civic responsibility to study the issues that affect your life and your community; 9) life is a participatory act, you have to participate, you have to vote, you have to contribute to the conversation, otherwise you're not living a life and you might as well be dead; 10) ideology without humanity and practicality is a bad idea.
I'm sure there were more, but that's all I can't think of right now. I've never really thought about all the things I learned in college like this before. I'm like wow! Very, very interesting!
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