Saturday, June 14, 2014

On Labels, Parties and Isms

People like labels it gathers allows groups of similar beliefs to group together and it allows other groups who have different beliefs to focus their hate easier. So we have isms that tell us what we are and how we should think if we want to stay in the club. Convienient. More recently we have gone into acronyms which amuse me a lot. I have to search on what they mean because there are so many of them and they are so specific we are almost at the point of being able to have one each*. I've never got on with the idea of this kind of tribalism. After 2 visits to the Cubs 50 years ago it was suggested that it was not for me. I guess I don't play well with others.

This puts me in a good position to observe. Dogmatism is hilarious. You should all try standing outside looking in one day. Shed the beliefs imposed on you by others and think. It is very liberating. It might mean that you can't call on higher authority to support your beliefs and you have to defend them yourself, but it will do you good.

I'm not trying to say that coming together for a common cause is not a good thing. I belong to the Knife Axe and Tomahawk Throwing Association. And the Surrey and Sussex Coppice Group. As soon as either of them tell me what to think I will be an ex-member.

I'm not sure what label you would like to stick on me... I choose not to label myself.

Maybe I do have an ism - individualism.




*We only need 7 letters to service all of the 7,000,000,000 or so people on the planet. Let's call it 10 because working in X, Z and J into your acronym is a bit tricky. Get in quick and register yours here. I'm sorry, SPAZ, MONG and CUNT are already taken.