After reading Ch 8 (“Tell the Truth, or At Least Don’t Lie”) of Jordan Peterson’s “12 Rules for Life”, I thought of someone who does its best (better to leave gender alone in these times) to harass me on Facebook with a plethora of static ideological biases, followed by quotes from someone with no business as an authority on a subject far removed from any credentials.
I asked this person to Unfriend me and it says, “Do it yourself.” I decided to have fun disagreeing with it and say so as objectively and playfully as I can, knowing that hackles are raised and no logic given or perceived will make any difference to its opinions.
The quotes came from Kurt Vonnegut, an author who attempted to point out Christian hypocrisy, saying that Christians get their panties in a knot (I paraphrase) when someone wants to remove the Ten Commandments from a public place. He says they were given by Moses who is insignificant to Jesus, who gave us the Beatitudes, and the Beatitudes should take the Ten Cs place. KV describes himself as a Jesus-loving atheist, but his subject is far removed from his credentials. He loves criticizing hypocrisy and the fickle, self-destructive nature of human society. He has no background in Theology. Why anyone would celebrate his mutterings is beyond me.
It’s the same with Hollywood types. Would I listen to Jimmy Kimmel lecture on Theology, Chemistry, or Psychology, Meryl Streep on plumbing, Wynette Barton on pouring concrete? Then why take a Kurt V. quote seriously enough to make it part of his/her/its life’s ideology? Besides, KV is theologically wrong.According to the Bible, the spoken Word (Jesus) of God (the Father) gave the Ten Commandments through Moses. (John, Ch 1). This is deep stuff and KV is out of his element on the subject.
Peterson’s book is about people who have decided they know all they need to know, so new information is filtered by their fixed ideology. All objectivity is lost - like those who believe Climate Change is fact (remember the Biden gaff: “we deal in truth, not facts”), and there will be NO MORE DISCUSSION. I like to consider myself as one whose opinions change as new information is received, in contrast to the Facebook person who says, “Kurt Vonnegut is right because I say he’s right.” End of discussion.
OK, Hollywood: Why does anyone give attention to their opinions on anything other than how to say lines others have written? They are artists, not politicians, and have higher moral standards anyway, so why do they pollute themselves by schmoozing with the prevaricating political crowd? The Right makes fun of liberal actors’ Leftist opinions but accepts opinions of Right wing actors. It seems that characters played by actors get confused with the character of the actors. That’s called fantasy and too many haven’t bothered to divide the two .
Polonius (of “Hamlet”) said to his son Laertes, “To thine own self be true, and as the night follows the day thou canst not then be false to any man.” Be sure of the truth first; don’t accept as true just because a famous name said it ... Hey, wait, did I just do that?
