Post 69

Big news!

Okay, so, in the last several posts, I've been doing a lot of exploring of morals &c, babbling endlessly, and reaching conclusions rarely and vaguely. This is all part of a phase that I've been going through recently that I think is now (thankfully) winding down. The year 2007 was an interesting one for me; I don't regret much of what I did with it, but looking back, I see I basically went through adolescence between the ages of 21 and 22 instead of the normal ages of 13 and 19. See, I never rebelled as a teenager because I never felt any reason to rebel. All that stuff about teenagers searching for identity was never something that I felt inclined to do as a teenager, but suddenly, as a young adult, I started doing all those teenagery things like listening to loud music, running away from home, pressing the limits of goodness in my media choices, and so forth; I would often look at the way I was living and think, "These really aren't the sorts of things that I am normally wont to do, so why am I being so dumb?" And then I'd shrug and think, "Oh, well. Not hurting anybody. Can't be too bad."

Well, now I'm done rebelling. I have a lot of theories as to why I was rebelling and what I was rebelling against, but I shan't be boring you with such things in this post, nevertheless I should like to share with you some of the conclusions that I have come to. These are intended to be answers to questions that I've raised in previous posts, but they are only answers for me; I hope they give you somethings to think about, but I also hope (more passionately, even) that you think about them a lot more than you accept them as your own--because they aren't your own; they're mine, and you can't have them! Unless, of course, you really want them, then, okay, whatever, it's your life; so long as you aren't hurting anyone, do whatever the heck you feel like.

(NOTE: each of the following resolutions will be hyperlinked to the post in which I initially explored the morals involved for convenience's sake; don't feel obligated to follow any of those links unless you wish to review my confused rantings.)

Resolution 1: I Am Morally Opposed to Profanity, but--

I am morally opposed to profanity, but I recognize its place in literature. I am one of those who believes that literature ought to be (and, of necessity, is) a reflection of the human condition; authors can try to whatever they will to write something that is totally irrelevant to humanity, but on some fundamental level, they have to draw from their own experiences sometime and cannot, therefore, ever fully detach themselves from the human condition. I believe that fiction, to really do its job, has to be believable, and to be believable, it must be realistic in at least some degree. Therefore, I have decided that I am okay with fiction having profanity in it and that I will feel no guilt should I ever make a creative work that employs profanity as a device.

That said, I am morally opposed to profanity in real life; I do not appreciate when those around me swear in any way, and I myself am through with swearing (Post 67 was a landmark in that it was the first time I myself have ever sworn; it is also decidedly the last such occasion). I am not going to be so uptight as to whine when others swear around me, but I am also going to cease my encouragement of colorful language (I have been very encouraging of it lately whenever I find myself in the company of those more brash than I).


Resolution 2: I Am Morally Opposed to Vulgarity, but--

My stance on vulgarity is almost identical to my stance on profanity except that I am not as accepting of it in fiction. I understand that vulgar things really do occur in the real world, but I believe that the portrayal of evil in art is best done by allusion and implication--off-screen action, so to speak, is not only less offensive, it is generally more artistic and can often be more poignant (as I watched Sweeny Todd, for example, I was struck with the realization that everybody knows that a razor across the throat will produce a lot of blood and that every regular movie-goer knows that modern cinema has the capability to make such a thing look very real--so where's the art in a gorefest? I believe that the whole movie could have been far more artistic and even a bit more intense had Tim Burton employed silhouettes and off-screen action; beyond making it cleaner, it would have made it higher quality).

Resolution 3: Generally, R-rated Movies Aren't Worth Admission Costs.

Upon deciding that I had no moral obligation to abstain from r-rated movies, I began searching for ones that I could watch. I wanted to have a list of movies that I could hold up as a sort of token of courage to all my namby-pamby Mormon peers to help them understand the truth about movies--it was part of this belated teenaged rebellion I was going through. Having searched around, I've decided that it isn't worth the effort. I still believe that the sweeping generalization that "All r-rated movies are bad" is unfair, but I now also believe that I would lose more in seeking good r-rated movies than I would lose in rejecting all r-rated movies. If someone says, "Here's this movie I really like; I think you should watch it," and it's rated R, I'll seriously consider watching the movie, but I'm not going to go out of my way to see The Passion of Christ or The Last of the Mahicans or Schindler's List or any of the other r-rated movies that are surely worth my time. I understand that certain parts of life--and especially historical facts--can only be rendered honestly in r-rated ways, and I don't believe that that makes watching them necessarily wrong, but as I am not especially interested in seeing any such movies right now, I'm not going to suffer through them for the sake of proving a point.

Resolution 4: Money Is--(sigh)--a Necessary Evil.

I still don't like money; I still don't desire it; I still fear it; I still think it is unfair, inconsistent, stupid, and ridiculous, but I'm not going to go shouting about how much I hate it because I don't have a better system to suggest.

This is certainly the most painful resolution, therefore it is also the shortest, therefore I am done.