by of Evils Specific and General
Am I obliged? Considering the current state of social discourse, especially in my country but throughout the world now, it seems prudent that a publisher/writer/content creator ought to preemptively declare noteworthy disavowals. I suppose I oblige myself.
It is my intention to present the truth as I understand it, both about myself and about phenomena as I perceive them. I entertain myself with words, supposing some readers may also be entertained, but do not mistake genuine lightheartedness as a ruse to insinuate covert agenda. In other words, I aint lying.
My public disavowal is intimately tied to a concept I refer to as first principles — a topic that requires its own dedicated entry. It means that I disavow based on my own fundamental, moral convictions, accepting no other attributions. This page does not represent a definitive list of disavowals. Disavowed topics listed here I selected specifically to preemptively refute certain common attack vectors.
The Immutable Characteristics
I define race as immutable characteristics of an individual’s genetic code, determined by biological lineage. Races are differentiated by human classification systems into groups of people, typically identified by gross oversimplification of perceived physical appearance. However, there are racial classifications of lineage defined by the scientific nomenclature and in the mathematics of DNA. Ethnicity is a designation independent of but not unrelated to race, referring to heritage of culture — language, family, geography, nationality, religion. Defined by biological hardware, race is undeniably every individual’s immutable inheritance. Ethnicity instead exists only in the entirely mutable context of human culture, but is immutable in the fact of one’s own, individualized and unbidden origin.
Disavowal of Racism
I hold no views that any given “race” (or racial heritage so identified) possesses as a group superior or inferior qualities among humans. This position of disavowal extends to include attributes of moral character, of general human competency, of blessings divine and apocryphal destinies. By logical extension, it follows then that I disavow ideologies, political movements, groups, and individuals that promote agendas of racial or ethnic purity and/or segregation.
Wherever and whenever racial groups are targeted for oppression, wherever and whenever racism is codified and institutionalized, evil is afoot. It must be countered and condemned.
How the meaning of the term racism has been distorted, misused, and abused in public discourse in recent times is a matter too involved for this discussion — though surely warranting many discussions. I do not see a sinister racism hydra snaking throughout American society. When an individual disavows racism, I believe them. I still doubt that I represent an ordinary person, but speaking for myself I can attest that I never considered nor gave credence to racist thoughts or ideas. I do not suggest that I am so divinely virtuous to have never made ignorant assumptions, more about ethnicity than race I think. As a youth I engaged in various forms of absurdly insensitive, edgy dark humor — I’m not proud but I was a kid and kids are stupid. I want to promote forgiveness.
The Problem of Aggression
Aggression is another topic that demands more robust treatment in separate discussions. Unprovoked aggression makes for bad feels, but aggression as a spectrum of social interactions is also part of the natural cycle of being in this world. Violence is the ultimate physical expression of aggression. Acts of self-defense are not violent in the sense that defense is the opposite of aggression, but defense can be aggressive. Some verbal altercations as exercises of aggression feel indeed to me like violence — violations certainly. But words are not violence — not even calls for violence, which must also be condemned for what they are. Only violence is violence. I believe it is imperative that our understanding of the definition of violence is not diluted.
Disavowal of Violence
I reject violence.
I am not blameless. I won’t qualify acts of violence to mitigate the facts of my own sins. If words were actually violence then perhaps I might have claimed self defense. It does not work that way. I can ask for forgiveness — and I do. And I pray to forgive myself and others. Admit the deed. Pay the price. Do the work. This is how I can improve myself — only if I can might I also be free to improve the world around me. Violence, malice, unprovoked aggression, and all other sins of greater or lesser consequence, are between the individual sinner and God.
The Two Sexes
Contrasting sharply with my views on “race,” I am utterly convinced of fundamental differences between biological males and biological females. The two sexes are so radically alien to each other it is amazing that babies are ever even made at all. And yet, these dimorphic two form a complementary pair that make the engine driving life’s imperative onward churn.
Disavowal of Sexism
Males and females are equal.
I condemn discrimination, favorable or unfavorable, on the basis of biological sex.
I will concede no toxic fault in my attitudes toward and views on women. The stark alienation between the two sexes is perpetually perilous. Men and women are equal in the unfairness caused by each to the other. No two human groups are more obviously opposed. Odd how it is this very mechanic that knots and spins all of humanity into societies, transcending race and tribe. If ever I treated one unfairly because she’s a woman, perhaps it was by unearned deference paid to an unfaithful partner under delusion of the divine authority of female intuition? Women, like men, are just people, man.
The Injustice of Vengeance
It can be argued that many historically significant systems of justice arose out of the problem of “blood debt” in early human societies — yet another topic begging more detailed treatment. To discuss the problems of vengeance and justice effectively, only the most extreme citations will suffice to inform the gravity of the situation. Consider the parent whose child is murdered — what form of justice will serve that aggrieved parent other than the destruction of the child’s murderer? Who is more motivated to carry out retribution than that parent? Then consider that this murderer — now slain by the victim’s parent — is also someone’s child, who must subsequently be avenged. This is the endless cycle of blood debt.
Disavowal of Revenge
Revenge is never justice, but rather a corruption of justice.
Retribution serves neither individuals nor society.
Vengeance is the Lord’s.
Even though I am glad to have never had reason to take blood debt revenge, I have been petty enough to contemplate it anyways — that’s just the unreason of anger, checked by reason. But lesser acts of petty revenge — fighting with customer service on the phone, complaining to the manager, tailgating and flipping off bad drivers, yelling at careless people — these are the destructive and disgusting lapses in reason heaped like grains of bad sand into a stinking heap of perpetual misery. Don’t do it.
Abominations
The human experience is an endless trail of atrocities. The obvious ones are mass slaughters, which have become increasingly efficient in modern times. Democide. Genocide. But there are others equally as evil. Abortion. Infanticide. Slavery. Homicide. Tyranny. Eugenics. Marxism. Euthanasia. Suicide. These stain all legacies they touch.
Condemnation of Abominations
I unequivocally condemn the following as abominations:
Democide. Genocide. Abortion. Infanticide. Slavery. Homicide. Tyranny. Eugenics. Marxism. Euthanasia. Suicide.
The Human Condition
Some sins are obviously abject violations against other individuals, against society, against God. Others so named are more abstract, framed as offenses of attitude they might be anticipated in bad faith criticisms. They all make up a long, unpleasant list.
General Disavowal of Sin
Sin contradicts the will of God.
God bestows sovereignty.
Violations of individual sovereignty are sin.
I condemn sin.
I sin even against myself. I am a sinner. I sinned earlier today. I’ll try not to sin tomorrow — we’ll see how that works out. I know this use of terms like God and Lord and sin and forgive lend a flavor. Less than six months ago I could not have foreseen that I now write these words in this voice because no truer words can be used.
db!
