A lot of things have malfunctioned in the last 24 hours. Machines - there's no living with them, and no living without them. It reminded me of all that is irritating in the world. And then, nobody is writing blogs these days. So here is this tag, where you write about things that piss you off, and the reason in brief. No rants, they only make you more miserable. This will let you let it out in a civilized manner. And please, not things like terrorism, politics, poverty or moral policing - spare me those. Write about small, mainly personal things, things that you directly and often come across during the day. Remember, your blog is about you. And make sure no individual human beings are disrespected during the activity. If the need is felt, they'll be disrespected in a separate tag. So,
Things that piss me off -
1. Political correctness - Irritating, right? Why only politically correct? Why not just correct? Being only politically correct is doubly wrong, because you end up deluding yourself too, into believing that you're ok, when you're not. It's vicious. Example - heard somewhere - "These days it's not us, but the scheduled cast people who are casteist." Political correctness gives you lighter sounding words which are as prejudiced, but which you use without reluctance.
2. Judging by comparing with the extreme - Let's say there's a movie X, not the greatest, and not the worst. I could make it look good by saying - "You know, X is not one of those cheap dramas where people just run around trees. It's deep." And I could make it look bad by saying - "You know, they should watch Pulp Fiction to learn what good dialog is." In both cases I am comparing an innocent little movie with the extremes, either the worst or the best, to support what I've already made up my mind to say. Goes for things other than movies. Uncool. Tell me what something is worth in itself, as much as possible.
3. The god debate - For god's sake, haven't we had enough of it? If you want to believe, believe, and if not, don't. How does it help to persuade others to do the same, when both believing and not believing helps people, and both believing and not believing has made people do bad things to each other? This debate becomes dirty when we claim god to be the warlord of our own religion. Anyway, I think most of us believe in god on a need-to-believe basis, so why not relax?
4. Notwithstanding the aforementioned - WTF is that? Tempting as this might be, I'm sure there are better ways of putting the idea. Jargon pisses me off. The only time I can forgive it is when it's in a report or a paper, when you know nobody will suffer it, nobody that matters anyway, or when it's used for humor. In humor, it can really come out well. Jargon is somewhat like political correctness, tiresome, and often dangerous when used to hide dark ideas.
5. Learn to read at 1000 words per minute! - Well, why read at all, why not just wait for the movie? Seriously, why would you want to read something which you can read at 1000 wpm and still understand? Maybe they don't really mean "read", or maybe it's just that I'm a specially slow reader.
6. That I'm not supposed to criticize - I've done or tried all the things I've written above. And that's a big reason why they piss me off. If I'd been untouched by them, I wouldn't have bothered. I've never been irritated, for example, by some people's obsessive desire to decorate themselves, not to point out any particular gender, because I've rarely felt like doing it myself. And then it hasn't been much use when I've done it so anyway, the point is, I can and will criticize something only when there's at least some of it in myself. So asking me not criticize something because I'm not above it is a little ironical. So "you're no different, you know" is not a perfect answer to criticism.
I sure feel lighter! Now your turn to get back at those pesky things. I tag -
These are the chosen few who I think could do with a little letting out. Of course, anyone who wants can take it up.
Labels: Tag
I wish life was kind enough to repeat what we missed out because of the noise and unrest
Posted by
Divesh |
Monday, November 16, 2009 3:41:00 PM
cést la vie monsieur!
Posted by
ak |
Friday, November 20, 2009 12:58:00 PM
Really beautiful words.
Posted by
Phoenix |
Thursday, December 03, 2009 3:36:00 PM