Learned something about myself...
I like it when I'm able to pinpoint self-truisms that help me characterize myself. When I'm able to articulate something specific about a way of being or a way of conduct or a way of behavior that holds together under scrutiny. When I can say, "this is how I am." Being able to do that gives me power over my instincts. It helps me be authentic more often. It helps me help others understand me because I can put into words the things that make me tick.
This evening, I experienced one such 'breakthrough' about myself: I don't like rules, policies, processes or philosophies that become absurd when tested at their limits.
As long as a rule (or whatever) has some mechanism of control built into it to keep it from becoming absurd, then it's OK. Here are a couple of examples that come to mind:
- Hyphenating kids names. When does it end? I don't take issue with couples wanting to keep their nacent last names, but why make your kid take them both? What are they going to do when they have kids? Add another? What if they marry someone who also has a double last name? Make it four?
- Inherited religious practices. Among very Orthodox Jews, it's custom (read: law ) that you inherit your father's customs AND you practice the most observant option that ensures you don't trip up at some point and cross a custom that might accidently embarrass or offend anyone who might also have a similar custom. So if your father refrained from doing something on the Sabbath because it was associated with non-Sabbath-worthy activity, you would live your Sabbaths the same way. Even if you didn't have the associated conduct and you had no other reason to behave in that way. Where does that end? Conceivably, some kid in five generations would have to live in a bubble because at some point every elder before him accumulated some prohibited activity associated with non-Sabbath conduct.
- Zero-tolerance policies. I'm not the first person to point out how ridiculous most so-called "zero-tolerance" policies are. But at last, I'm able to pin down why they grate me so hard at my core... beyond the mere intellectual dishonesty of them; beyond the fact that most such policies are rackets to eliminate their implementors from having to use real thought and demonstrate leadership. Zero-tolerance, at its limit, doesn't have the capability to deal with the volume that would result if it could ever be properly implemented. The net result is that the easy (and overwhelmingly erroneous) targets of accusations are 'prosecuted' and the true offenders are ignored.
There are many other examples. I won't detail them here, but I'll list a couple more with brief takes for grins:
- Vegan &/or Vegetarianism for humanitarian reasons. Let's see... how many field, orchard, and prairy animals are killed incedental to the harvesting and supply chain of non-animal products? How much leather and other hides are used somewhere in the supply chain of these products? What about the diets of the workers who're a part of that supply chain? (Absurd? That's the point!)
- Political/religious extremism on either side. Do extreme Liberals or extreme Conservatives actually believe it's plausible 100% of the population could live life in their ideal view? Do Muslim extremists, for example, actually believe they can get the rest of the world to become Muslim extremists?
This evening, I experienced one such 'breakthrough' about myself: I don't like rules, policies, processes or philosophies that become absurd when tested at their limits.
As long as a rule (or whatever) has some mechanism of control built into it to keep it from becoming absurd, then it's OK. Here are a couple of examples that come to mind:
- Hyphenating kids names. When does it end? I don't take issue with couples wanting to keep their nacent last names, but why make your kid take them both? What are they going to do when they have kids? Add another? What if they marry someone who also has a double last name? Make it four?
- Inherited religious practices. Among very Orthodox Jews, it's custom (read: law ) that you inherit your father's customs AND you practice the most observant option that ensures you don't trip up at some point and cross a custom that might accidently embarrass or offend anyone who might also have a similar custom. So if your father refrained from doing something on the Sabbath because it was associated with non-Sabbath-worthy activity, you would live your Sabbaths the same way. Even if you didn't have the associated conduct and you had no other reason to behave in that way. Where does that end? Conceivably, some kid in five generations would have to live in a bubble because at some point every elder before him accumulated some prohibited activity associated with non-Sabbath conduct.
- Zero-tolerance policies. I'm not the first person to point out how ridiculous most so-called "zero-tolerance" policies are. But at last, I'm able to pin down why they grate me so hard at my core... beyond the mere intellectual dishonesty of them; beyond the fact that most such policies are rackets to eliminate their implementors from having to use real thought and demonstrate leadership. Zero-tolerance, at its limit, doesn't have the capability to deal with the volume that would result if it could ever be properly implemented. The net result is that the easy (and overwhelmingly erroneous) targets of accusations are 'prosecuted' and the true offenders are ignored.
There are many other examples. I won't detail them here, but I'll list a couple more with brief takes for grins:
- Vegan &/or Vegetarianism for humanitarian reasons. Let's see... how many field, orchard, and prairy animals are killed incedental to the harvesting and supply chain of non-animal products? How much leather and other hides are used somewhere in the supply chain of these products? What about the diets of the workers who're a part of that supply chain? (Absurd? That's the point!)
- Political/religious extremism on either side. Do extreme Liberals or extreme Conservatives actually believe it's plausible 100% of the population could live life in their ideal view? Do Muslim extremists, for example, actually believe they can get the rest of the world to become Muslim extremists?
posted by Hillel at
21:35
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