Escape Pod Dreams - 47
Created | Updated Dec 23, 2003
Fearless horror
Never share a foxhole with anyone braver than yourself. (Or smarter)
Those of you who have read some of my previous ramblings are aware of my general and congenital cluelessness when it comes to some of the finer points on how the world works.
Other's will have noted my general cluelessness with regard to manners and respectfulness.
Them should just go on about their business, because this will be more of the same.
I don't know if it is just forgetfulness or Repetitive Stupidity Disorder,
but I am occasionally once again amazed at the manner in which
humanity will spend any amount writing and publishing books and reams of laws and rules
and then turn right around and waste just as much or more getting around or ignoring them.
Childish idiot that I am, I believe that the rules exist for a reason.
If they don't, then why go to the trouble of making sure that people are aware of them?
Interpretation of the rules is one of the things that confuses me.
Rules were designed in reaction to normal human behaviour.
Normal human behaviour consists of looking for reasons to do what you want. Rules tell you what to do, whether you want to or not.
Interpreting the rules is the adult equivalent of the old playground legalism: 'Let's not and say that we did.'
There is another conundrum: 'Ignorance of the law is no excuse'.
Despite my feelings that it should actually say: 'The ignorance of the lawmakers should not be excused',
I feel that that phrase is patently ridiculous. Since the laws are based on a knowledge of basic human tendencies and one of the most basic human tendencies is to want to have the rules stated in simple terms,
then making laws that are not based on common sense and everyday logic is a waste of time
and part of the reason why there are so many lawyers running around self-perpetuating their own profession instead of working to make sure that some day they will never be needed again....
And uh, one, two, three, four...
Then there are those who are not happy with making rules the old-fashioned way, getting drunk in a smoke-filled room and defacing cocktail napkins, who will walk up to you and tell you with a straight face that their rules came straight from the mouth of God, or Allah, or Barney or their pet Manchester Retriever, Spudly...
Their fearlessness in being willing to take the mantle of authority from a being greater than themselves can be absolutely horrifying.
If you don't follow their rules, then you are going to Hell or Bournemouth. No two ways about it. You toe the line or it's the end of the line. No ifs, ands, or buts.
Yet, if you join them in their pursuit of Nirvana (or Queens of the Stone Age), you soon find out that there are several caveats to the rules. Some of them don't apply to certain people, who have dispensations from God or Allah or Spudly. Ach! So there are loopholes?
'No!',
Thunder the faithful.
'Some are chosen to perform various tasks to prepare the way for the guiding deity and because of their faith and the deity's grace, they follow a different path! Where you not weak in your faith, you would not ask these questions!'
Oops!
Maybe the guiding deity is guiding me down a different path... toward the exit.
'NO! NO BACKSLIDING! ONCE YOU HAVE LEARNED THE TRUTH YOU CAN NEVER GO BACK! IN FACT, YOUR TRANGRESSSIONS ARE DOUBLED IF YOU...'
SLAM!
Oops! Sorry! Automatic door closer!
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil...
for I have met the righteous,
and
THEY SCARE ME A LOT MORE!
