Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site usfbobo.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!mcnc!duke!ucf-cs!usfbobo!brunson From: brunson@usfbobo.UUCP (David Brunson) Newsgroups: net.religion Subject: Re: "Gay Rights": A conflict of values Message-ID: <213@usfbobo.UUCP> Date: Tue, 6-Nov-84 04:18:27 EST Article-I.D.: usfbobo.213 Posted: Tue Nov 6 04:18:27 1984 Date-Received: Thu, 8-Nov-84 03:22:38 EST References: <209@usfbobo.UUCP>, <45700023@convex.UUCP> Organization: Univ. of South Florida, Tampa Lines: 85 [] >From: ahearn@convex.UUCP >Subject: Re: "Gay Rights": A conflict of values >Message-ID: <45700023@convex.UUCP> Normally I would ignore an article that is so totally off the subject but I am beginning to get tired of this sort of thing. >Alcoholism is "Type 0 wrongness"? Alcoholism hurts noone but the alcoholic? >Anyone who has enough intelligence to even switch on a television set knows >differently. You may think a glass of Cabernet is a harmless luxury, Mr. >Brunson. Unfortunately, there are millions of people around the world >suffering from the *disease* of alcoholism for whom a simple glass of wine >is an invitation to disaster. The only clue I have as to how the writer got off onto such a tangent is the phrase "enough intelligence to even switch on a television set". This MUST be the result of years of Lou Grant style indoctrination. This seems to be happening frequently in the responses. Basically the indoctrinees have me all figured out according to some diligently learned script that they carefully meditate on night after night. I am a KKK type. I am a racist (I MUST be, right? After all, I'm against hiring homos, right?). I have a permanent ugly scowl on my face. A prunish, chalk-white, Puritan- uptight countenance. I hate little children and say ugly things to them about how they are naturally evil. I go to church because I think I have to or I'll go to hell. My life is drab, my favorite colors are grey and black. Every time I meet someone I try to figure out what kind of sinner he is and then tell him he's going to hell. This gives me my only scrooge-like moments of pleasure in an otherwise tasteless existence. Years and years of this sort of training yields much of the banality we see every day in this group. The trainees see some code word or term that they have been trained to respond to. Their minds go racing off into what- ever happened next in that episode of Lou Grant or whatever and they just HAVE to *speak their mind* (it's only one mind). Next thing you know they are regurgitating something that only remotely resembles the original discussion. Most of the time I am able to reconstruct the thought processes that lead to these exercises in buzz word reinforcement. This is a tough one. I recommend that you adopt enough intelligence to turn OFF your television set and learn how to read and how to follow a discussion. I'll take a wild guess. The key words/terms are "alcoholism", "a [as in one and one only] glass of Cabernet". The enraged mind of the trainee jumps back in time to a made-for-TV-movie designed to (Ahem) *educate* the public on the "*disease* of alcoholism" (it is important to call it a *disease* so that nasty sinner-haters won't think bad thoughts about alcoholics and alcoholics won't have guilt feelings about being drunkards). The trainee learned an important (ahem) *fact*: alcoholics are alcoholics for life and must continually remind themselves of this *fact* because if they ever for one moment think that they aren't alcoholics then they might imagine it safe to have just "a [as in one and one only] glass of Cabernet" which will immediately plunge them into a nightmarish hell. A person who is an alcoholic but not a "practising alcoholic" got off onto roughly the same tangent by Email. I felt compassion for him and so explained that his understanding is deficient and told him how to correct his understanding so that he would no longer be "obsessed" (his word) with alcohol. He, like most people, prefers banality to wisdom and answered with a typically off-the-subject note: something about how alcoholics need to feel acceptance. Well they probably do, but what does that have to do with anything? And so it's the same with most net articles. Most people don't give a damn about the truth. If you know someone who used to be an alcoholic but is now completely free from it, that is, he can take or leave a glass of wine/whatever as he pleases, they don't want to hear it. They want to be reinforced in their own world view even if it means continuing in misery and all they want the Man of Compassion to do about it is utter pleasant banalities like, "It's okay to be a drunkard/homosexual/sinner", "I don't condemn you", "You can still be a productive human being". Well I refuse to go along with the plan. If you send me Email full of confusion and bad understanding then I will feel free to correct you or not as I please. If you wander into net.religion (which I happen to subscribe to) spouting nonsense about "Gay Rights" then I will challenge you. If you don't want to be corrected then don't say anything. Now can we stop this whining about nothing and get back to the subject? -- David Brunson Why look for gray areas when there's so much that's black and white?