Standards, Judgements...

...and pretensiousness. I once had to give a sermon. That's right. Meager, shy and galactically stupid me gave a sermon. I don't remember the biblical verse it was based on. I do remember what I said, though, but I'll get to that in a minute. It was an outdoor mass, in the tradition of the late seventies when the catholic church was trying to make itself attractive to the younger generation. And after it was over I was inundated with all sorts of comments, from 'that's what I've been thinking for years', to 'where did you get those muscles'. To the latter all I could answer was I rigged textile machines in the summer, and to the former all I could say was, 'of course it is'.

Being of the philosophical bend of mind, I can pick up on bullshit in a heartbeat. What got me thinking about this was a blogger that recently posted about men and gotees. I would link the comment here, but I'm too damned lazy this morning. Be that as it may, she proceeded to denegrate any man that wore one. As if they were some sort of low-life cretin that wasn't worth walking on the same planet as she. That, boys and girls, is pretensious. I could give a rats ass how much money you make, how good loking you are nor what your pedigree is. Her denigration of said goteed men is a matter of PREFERENCE. There's a big difference. We live by standards and they vary by society's and culture. Women in Europe don't shave their body hair. Women in the USA do. That's an example of a standards. We all have them. They are personal and have no bearing on the scheme of things.

Judgements. Ahhh, we all make them, but based on what? Standards. See how this plays out? You are judging me on standards YOU have. How does that work? You are but a speck in the universal scheme of things, so what makes you think that you have some sort of inside info that the rest of us don't have? How could someone base their decision on whom they would date based on facial hair? A pretentious one, because she can't see past her own standards. They are sacrosanct. Which is fine. She lives with them, but we don't have to.

Which brings me to the sermon. What I basically said was that we have no right to judge others based on our own personal beliefs. If there are higher powers that bestow upon us certain standards by which we should abide, then that's another story, and one we are engaged in as a country at the moment. But personal standards should never be used to determine anothers worth.

And for those out there of pretense, well fuck you. And if Jodi Marks isn't busy tonight, I'd like to have dinner.