ethics
Contemporary paganism
Sunday, 01Sep2019 Filed in: quotes & thinkums
I use pictures available on the web. I don't mess with consent forms. I don't show photos of sex. I don't show photos of naked kids.
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The universe has a sense of humor
Friday, 29Mar2019 Filed in: quotes & thinkums
“Science commits suicide when it adopts a creed.”
Care less
Tuesday, 02Oct2018 Filed in: quotes & thinkums
NeoNote — Good and evil
❝Obviously I am not heathen, but I question that phrase "forces of darkness." Our World has both light and darkness, both are necessary for life, death, growth and renewal.
Perhaps it is just me, but I have issues with assigning good to light and evil to darkness. I probably have issues with the dualistic ideas of good and evil too. Sometimes what is "evil" for one group is "good" for another. If they are anything like the ones I've argued with, your "extreme right ideologies" probably see inclusiveness as very evil and damaging. I disagree, but it is their "evil."
Ah, now that is an interesting bit.
Bonewits pointed out that dualism, especially religious dualism, quickly shifts things to IS and IS NOT. If something IS NOT on the approved list, it is evil because the definitions and underlying assumptions don't allow any other possibility.
Long story short, without monotheism, the meaning of good and evil aren't so clear cut. It tends to be more in the nature of "this HELPS my tribe/city/nation" and "this HURTS my tribe/city/nation." It becomes relative and based on cost/benefit. It depends more on individual judgement and less on an Official List of "THOU SHALT NOTS."
But, since Bonewits is on the Disapproved List, this is just academic, right? An accused sexual predator and pedophile couldn't possibly have had good ideas…
I disagree.
I agree that unrestrained greed and unrestrained tribalism are bad. But so is unrestrained sex, unrestrained pacifism, unrestrained sugar, unrestrained sunbathing, unrestrained hair dyeing, unrestrained television, and unrestrained concrete. A little goes a long way, or as the old saying goes, moderation in all things.
Competition keeps us honest and is one big reason why we try to make things better.
*grins* I may bring the philosophy bit out. I enjoy it, I practice it, and I encourage it.
I was thinking about the Greeks and some of the philosophy of the Golden Mean, although the Buddhist version applies too.
Specifically I was thinking about self-discipline and responsibility. The Ethic of Reciprocity is usually associated with Christianity but predates Christianity and exists independently in other cultures. One of my party tricks is showing how people can build an entire social, ethical, and legal system using the EoR and without depending on authority granted from an Official Religion. And that brings us to unrestrained.
If we are talking about ethical restraints, those restraints have to be self-imposed. It's not really ethical otherwise. If a choice is imposed by force, it's not really a choice, is it?
Self-restraint goes right back to the EoR. If I want to be treated right, it's in my best interest to treat others right. We expect others to act morally and honorably. That gets into defining the Other which is a long subject. I'm going to skip that for our discussion here.
Every morning I have a glass of citrus juice with my breakfast. But it's a water glass, not a juice glass. Is that excessive? Some might say so. But it's my breakfast and my choice. As long as I am not depriving or harming others, then how is it anyone else's business?
That brings us to greed. If I want to continue having OJ, somehow I have to do something that someone else wants and is willing to pay for. With the division of labor, that becomes the free market. Voluntary exchanges between mutually consenting adults. To get what I want, I have to provide something they want.
Competition brings the second keystone of the free market: I can do better than that! Most fail, but the successes change everything.
You're absolutely right pointing out that competition doesn't mean destroying the other (odd how that word keeps cropping up). But the free market means that a company or person has to offer at least as much value as those around them, or someone else will sell.
It's not just buying and selling. Most people reading this site chose paganism or an alternative religion because that religion offered something that they couldn't get elsewhere.
One of the things I recently added to my lexicon, the two most important phrases in human history (www DOT neowayland DOT com SLASH lexicon SLASH tt SLASH #two)
“Let me help.”
“I can do better than that!”
And yes, I gave credit to Star Trek for the first.❞
NeoNotes are the selected comments that I made on other boards, in email, or in response to articles where I could not respond directly.
If this were a horror movie
Wednesday, 10Jan2018 Filed in: quotes & thinkums
“We're more popular than Jesus now; I don't know which will go first-rock 'n' roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me.”
Journal 21Apr2017
Friday, 21Apr2017 Filed in: thinking by blogging⭐︎ sex
☿ Mercury retrograde ☯ waning crescent moon breezy early morning
I've got my tree-planting spot picked out for next Friday. It's a good one this year and less than half a day's drive.It's pretty obvious that sex has been on my mind this week. Part of it is me missing my companion who moved (yes, even though the other one is still here), but a bigger part of it is dealing with the fallout from the Klein verdict. It happens every time there's a sex scandal with pagans. I didn't plan to become a pagan sex advisor on ethics, but looking at my writings on sex, that's exactly what I have become.
I wonder if I could take the trade out in actual sex.
It looks like I'm going to be looking closely at the "in your face" paganism again. I'm not exactly comfortable with that, but I suspect that Someone has nudged again. We'll see how it works out.
Speaking of companions, my local one called me early Thursday morning laughing. "He has your mustache!" She was talking about Adam The Woo, a video blogger we sometimes enjoy with a morning cuddle. He got a haircut.
A very nice lady asked me about the "slice of life" thing again. This blog is more personal than anything else. Yes, I talk about the pagan stuff, but that is only part of who I am. That came up in an online converstation the other day too.
❝I’m not the pagan guy who lives down the lane, I’m a man who happens to be pagan. Also libertarian, straight, a bit of a mutt, and a passionate bibliophile. Those things are aspects of me, but they don’t define the face I show the World. Mostly those things don’t come into play unless someone demands their beliefs trump mine.❞
I didn't talk about masks. Maybe I should have. Sometimes it's still hard for me to know when to filter, espeically when I am not looking at their face.
Today I mail out the invites to my Welcome to Summer feast. It's looking like shish-kabobs this year. And of course the highlight is my bi-annual Hair of the Bear.
Wednesday I was checking on Mom and we got to talking about my malichite bear. She's the one who gave it to me although she doesn't understand what my pendants mean to me. I know she doesn't understand what my relationship with Bear, Coyote & Raven, but she knows I like bears and bear art.
Speaking of Coyote, my current bathroom book is Coyote America: A Natural and Supernatural History by Dan Flores and I am really enjoying it.
Blessings and ethics
Tuesday, 08Aug2006 Filed in: practicals⭐︎ manifest
Facing the True Believer™
Monday, 12Sep2005 Filed in: modern adult pagans
