Words

Earlier this evening, I was listening to an interview where the person interviewed mentioned that there is no current cure for homelessness. I disliked the usage of the word "cure" linked to the state of homelessness. The usage seems to indicate that the state of being homeless is a disease or ailment. I think a better word would have been "solution". The word "cure" means to relieve a person of the symptoms of a disease or condition and the word "solution" means to solve a problem or deal with a difficult situation (yes, I looked them up to validate myself).

The issue I have in linking the word "cure" with "homelessness" also adds or reinforces the untouchable component to the unfortunate circumstances many people find themselves in. It alludes to disease and so, those finding themselves within that situation are also linked with disease. Of course, many may have ailments because of street life but it's more than that. It is the idea that the people themselves, because of the situation they are in, are synonymous with disease. They are disease not just diseased.

How then would a walking disease be treated by others who are people or human (those who have homes)? They would be avoided of course because their state of being might be catching which lends to a fear that I'm sure many have, that of becoming homeless. Well, it's one of mine, at least.

Words are powerful, often times, they mean much more than their definition.

Rabbit holes and comments

I gave myself a break. No, in actuality, I just didn't feel like posting. For the last day or two, I've been caught up in this absurd political circus. I am not a political junkie or an armchair expert on politics, so many times I might say things that spotlight my ignorance. However, much like everyone else, I have a poop hole (an opinion). Shit or gold may come out, or shitty gold but it's all still excrement because even my not-up-to-the-minute information or knowledge is just as shitty as those of the "well-informed". No one knows all of the "facts" or has a handle on the absolute or exact truth of the matter. Truth is malleable as is fact. Scientific truths/facts change or evolve while people of faith take their faith for truth/fact, no change or evolution in the dogma but perhaps a mutation can be had on the personal level. Truths in other arenas is also malleable and prone to change or evolution. What does this have to do with politics, my not-informed self and being caught up in the circus? Alignment. Informed or uninformed people align themselves with ideas that conform to their previously created notions. This is not news to many people, I know, but I have a feeling that this would be news to a majority of people. I have fallen, no, jumped into this hole willingly and blindly in my SM over the last few days. I have a friend who enjoys pointing out my mistakes, rarely do I get a hello other than, you f-ed up. I do appreciate his pointing things out, however, I don't appreciate that his only communication to me is during these times. But, that is my personal gripe. Getting back on my winding track, the reasons I've jumped blindly into this particular rabbit hole are: my alignment, this candidate said something I deemed a personal attack against my people, I felt tremendously guilty for not standing loudly against this candidate when attacks went out to other peoples, then I felt guilty because I questioned my voice against this person, wondering if only voiced my opinion because of his attacks against my peoples and I wanted to make sure that, if shit hit the fan someone would stand for me. So, I questioned my integrity. Questioning one's own integrity is an incredibly uncomfortable feeling.

So, I have decided that for my SM, it'll be cats and feel-good stories.

This brings me to this morning. Instead of looking for circus articles, I read a rebuttal from a favorite philosopher of mine. As I was reading it, I realized that it's much more fun to read pissing contests between academics/philosophers than the shitting contests of the circus. Besides the fun snide remarks and cleverly disguised insults, there is actually brain work going on (especially on this reader's part because that shit ain't an easy read), there are no buzz words or taglines and best of all, the comments.

Everyone knows that in ANY article, comments are THE worst thing to read because everyone does indeed pull apart their butt cheeks to show off their poop holes. In my experience, comments in the general media are not fun, are filled with anger, blame, and so many typos or evidence of a much needed overhaul of our educational system. There are no limits, no boundaries, and very little compassion or empathy in the comments of the general public in current news which seems to be more yellow journalism these days from print to television - whole channels dedicated to the sensational. I suppose that comments are like this because it's easier to cast blame or judgement, to see one side, to speak out against or applaud one's own alignment that the subject matter might espouse.

Comments on subjects in academia/philosophy are much more fun and less C) all of the above. There are catty and snide remarks but they don't often time devolve into calling other posters names, no one wants to do that, they'll just look ignorant if they can't defend their position/opinion in a well-thought out manner or, at least an attempt at a logical, less emotional, well-thought out manner. The one-liners are great too, these people are comics with a day job.

Here's the rub, those who comment on academic subjects are, I believe, more often than not, educated. Those who are not formally educated in the subject are interested in it and have informally educated themselves. This sounds elitist but is it really? It seems as though comments on general articles are written with spittle flying, mouths moving before thinking, really thinking. There are a few who try to provide a comment that isn't filled with blame, anger, alignment etc. but those are shouted down by those of a differing alignment and often times, the poster is called some name.

I have to leave this here because my youngest is on his keyboard making the most annoying sound. If my thoughts seem fractured, I'm going to blame it on being a parent. *wink*

These are my conjectures and observations. Am I speaking in an absolute? Absolutely not!

Note: my next entry will be on why I feel the need to talk shit about people I know in mediums like this instead of telling them to shut it to their faces.