Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Something about filters and perspective.

Filters in faucet heads keep water clean. Filters in people do the same in the waters of human contact, but they’re not uniform---not mass produced. Although everybody agrees we need filters for ourselves, people don’t agree on what needs filtering. Some people allow into the pool of public interaction what other people filter out---there is no one size fits all filter.

A friend recently told me my filter has big holes in it. She said I have privacies that need preservation which I’m willing to advertise on billboards. I do have an inherit dislike of hiding the forbidden and secretive. I generally want to expose, not hide. I want to talk about subjects not usually discussed. I want out in the open honesty. Still, some matters I fully intend to keep secret.

Filters have something to do with perspective. When you look at a wood finish from one perspective, the color and shade look dark---from a different perspective it can look way light. The same finish when looked at from different places appears different.

Democrats are inclined to favor the poor. That doesn’t mean they can’t run a business or feel the importance of profit. Republicans are inclined to cut and limit taxes. That does not mean they don’t give to charity. But both have different filters. The Democrat won’t agree to cut Social Security payments to balance the budget---that doesn’t get past his filter. It does get past the Republican’s filter because his perspective is fixed on cutting taxes. Perspective and filters are part of the way  ethereal flows to the substance that's unique to us.

What happens when WHAT many people filter out is dropped into the pool of consideration?  Usually discord I’d say. Contention. Disagreement. Unkind remarks. It’s too different. Too odd. It wants to have a discussion about sex---but that can't happen. Most people filter the subject out and feel everybody else should do the same. If you don’t--- you’re considered a troublemaker. Argument ensues over the admissibility of the subject. It’s “Inappropriate.” “Not fit for discussion.” [Back and forth]  “Why isn’t it?” “No censoring.”  Argument and tempers flare.

Before the Judeo-Christian world view replaced the pagan world view---sex and love were openly celebrated. Venus, the Roman goddess of love, had a public festival held every April 1st called the Venus Verticordia.

My theory is two thousand years of Western culture tempered into the minds of even modern man an unconscious bias against sex. Sex is not considered a fit topic for discussion by many, if not by most, even in a secular internet forum consisting mostly of baby-boomers.

If you introduce such a topic, you will spark a nasty argument between those who feel it's inappropriate and those who feel it's appropriate. Even though it made sense to introduce the topic and though you may believe in Freedom of Speech, doing so will stir up a hornet’s nest that accomplishes nothing but to confirm the inability of people to talk about the subject in a rational manner.





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