Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Baby on Board, Part 2

Sensitivity, it's the latest thing, hipper than Selfie sticks and Yoga pants -- but wait, can a truly sensitive, aware and totally hip person wear them?  I wouldn't bet on it, at least not on a University campus where everyone's skin is more sensitive than a Canadian after a long day on a Florida beach.

A yoga class at the University of Ottawa has run into trouble, even though you'd think otherwise, it being a class designed to benefit disabled students.  Yoga you see belongs to a victimized culture, one that has  like countless others

"experienced oppression, cultural genocide and diasporas due to colonialism and western supremacy,"   

Now I know better than to predict by extrapolation, but this isn't an isolated thing.  Everyone on campus at least is searching for protection from something,  Everyone assumes the right never to feel uncomfortable, a right never to feel a lack of warm, cuddly and maternal protection from the slings and arrows of  freedom of the press, freedom of speech and apparently freedom of religion -- and yes, Yoga is a religion and as such no one should espouse any teachings from it if they're not victims of British colonialism.  No, don't ask me to explain because then I'd have to explain a lot of  Liberal Shibboleths that make just as little sense. Just accept that the copyright on truth belongs to the victims  and aren't we all?

Now if I can't practice yoga because India was a British colony over 60 years ago, I certainly can't espouse anything I like about Christianity because Christians have been persecuted victims, at least to hear them tell it. So sorry, I can no longer celebrate Christmas.  I can't even be a thug because Thugee is an Indian religion. I can't be a Pundit for the same reason.  I can't carry a 20 dollar bill because Andrew Jackson was a racist and I can't tolerate a building at Princeton named for Woodrow Wilson because he was also a racist and I'd just feel uncomfortable, you know, attending that racist school.  If anything makes me uncomfortable, I have the right to be protected from it, don't I? In this safest and most comfortable world?

I have a right to demand the press doesn't cover my protests. I have a right to demand satisfaction if I hear lyrics that make me uncomfortable on a jukebox or radio. No that isn't hyperbole, it's a true story nor am I indulging in unfair reductio.  This thing started out absurd -- as absurd as the presumed right to be protected from the unpleasantness of the truth, of history or other people's version of the truth. It's kind of the the ugly stepchild of  Stand Your Ground laws because if your interpretation, your methodology, your opinion varies from mine, I have the right to attack you with all the authority victimhood confers.

Ridiculous?  Of course but, the momentum is large and we have a whole lot of pretend Liberals who will support such claims to inviolable protective custody -- so, as the saying goes, if you can't lick 'em, join 'em.   Here's my manifesto:   I don't want to see any Churches or Crosses or hear any talk of "Christ."  Too many people have been victims of Christian aggression and persecution.  I have the right to be protected from words like "old" and "Senior" for obvious reasons. That goes for many other epithets as well,  It makes me feel marginalized.  What about the names of States and Cities taken, like the land itself, from indigenous peoples?  Indiana?  That's racist!  Washington?  He was a RACIST!

I demand racist signatures  be deleted from any and all US documents and laws including the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution..  I demand that the US flag be removed and banned since it's flown over so many atrocious acts and conditions.  I demand that the Ten Commandments and any references to Hebrew prophets and practices be removed from all churches and writings and from Sunday schools:  cultural genocide, actual genocide, oppression and diasporas, don't you know.  The racist teachings of Martin Luther must be banned and Catholic Churches of all sorts make me feel uncomfortable and have to go.  You might want to get a snack or something, This is going to be a very long list.

But really, you have to agree on my inherent right to suppress, to expunge, to ban, to inhibit and deny any and all things, all records, all personages, all artifacts, all opinions and certainly all of  history if it in any way lowers my self esteem and makes me feel uncomfortable, don't I?  I have a right to be protected!

9 comments:

  1. This entire post made me uncomfortable because it brought up my recently suppressed feelings of anxiety and worthlessness that stem from my not understanding anymore the country in which I live.

    Therefore, I demand you delete the offending words at once. You may, however, retain the definite and indefinite articles, the conjunctions, prepositions, and demonstrative adjectives, as well as all the punctuation marks, since they don't trigger in me overwhelming apprehension and fear -- yet.

    Thank you. And have a nice day.

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    1. What??? DId I hear you say you're blaming the victim here? You must be a racist/chauvinist/.fascist and you're taking away my feeling of safety and self worth -- and what do you mean by "demonstrative?" Are you objecting to my right to demonstrate?

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    2. Yes. And I think so.

      May all your turkeys be wild and stuffings be filled with oysters.

      Delete
  2. My Constitutional freedoms are hardwired into all of my electronic appliances … my cell phone, my TV, my laptop, and my (o)PAD. You see, they all come with a volume control so I can turn up sounds that are pleasing and turn down sounds that are … well … objectionable. My devices even come with an on/off switch. That’s called “freedom of choice.” Unfortunately, human beings are not similarly equipped. No volume control. And no on/off switch. Must be some kind of design flaw.

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    1. Unfortunately, my phone rings whether I want it to or not, unless I want to risk not getting important calls. Three quarters of my calls are solicitations, nearly all illegal, many fraudulent. My right to be left alone is trumped by someones "right" to try to cheat me, steal from me and sell me stuff I didn't ask for.

      I'm beginning t o understand the people who think their freedom is hard wired into their firearms.

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  3. hmmmm....Yoga pants?! I live adjacent to the University I attended, an alumni,if you will. Course, Alumni is a Latin word....and we all know that Latin folks have been persecuted for years. In fact, most Latins were forced to move to South American,which is why we call some hunks of that continent Latin America,even though they speak a Spanishness kind of language that no Latin would recognize and I heard the donuts down there are not so good anyways. AND....speaking of anyways....I go do to the University,which,by the way,anyways, is in Medieval Latin, ūniversitās,merely to read the NY Times,the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and other newspapers I can no longer afford. And, let me tell you....there are WOMEN there wearing Yoga pants who have no business wearing them. Sausage casings would be more appropriate. And those women wouldn't know a Yogi from a Yoga.....so....in conclusion,which I suspect could very well might be a Latin word....fuck the Latins and screw the Yogas! as that great baseball player, Yogi Ursa,said, "I usually take a two hour nap between one and four"...so I best start drinking now, cause Happy Hour starts at three.

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    1. Don't get me wrong, there are women who look wonderful in Yoga pants, but not as many who think they do but don't. But of course it's none of my business and no woman needs to dress to please me, or so I'm told. It's the conformity of American life I can't stand which suggests that freedom scares us and we'd rather conform to customs, rules and the wishes of industry.

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  4. Course, he also said, "when you come to the fork in the road, stick it in the turkey"
    Happy Pagan Holiday....go GREEN BAY Packers! (that is a football team founded by a Latin Missionary who got lost on his way to South America.

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  5. I just read a news item about a wild turkey found trying to get into a church. There was some speculation about a lost soul looking for refuge or absolution or something, but the pastor said, it was his gift from God and he was going to kill him and eat him.

    I may have Yogurt for Thanksgiving. . .

    ReplyDelete

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