Let's try this again.
Feb. 25th, 2004 05:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sigersonQuestions courtesy of ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
wavyarms. Anybody know where this meme got started? It's quite elegant.
THE RULES
1 - If you want to be interviewed, leave a comment.
2 - I will respond; I'll ask you five questions.
3 - You'll update your journal with my five questions, and your five answers.
4 - You'll include this explanation.
5 - You'll ask five other people five questions when they want to be interviewed.
1.) You just got ordained, and you just got a job in some religious institution. What's the topic of your first sermon? Give me an excerpt.
...Perhaps you've heard the statement "Thou art That"? Simplification of some pretty deep thought.s But here's a restatement, in my own idiom and with my own biases. You are God. Haven't you always known that? Now here's the problem. Look beside you. That's right. That person's God too. And the one next to them. And all of us here...
...But ultimately, don't agree with me! Don't take my words for it! I cannot communicate God to you, not without stuffing Her full of my petty agenda and strictures--but I can point you to ways of finding Her for yourself. I can't spell out the divine message--I can teach you languages that might help you read it. I can't tell you what God says is right or wrong--I can help you hear the voice in you that knows already. If you listen to me without question, you have lost the way. If you refuse to listen to me without reason, you have lost the way. Speak together with me, and there we can find the way.
2.) Suppose you went out to lunch with Dubya. What would you say to him? On what issues do you think you could have an impact on his thinking?
I don't know that I could change his mind. I'd try to address the problem of dividing the world into "good" and "bad" as clear categories, especially the problem of distinguishing between groups and nations. I'd bring up every old-school American thinker I could: Thomas Paine, Jefferson, Madison, etc, etc, to emphasize the importance of the values on which this country was founded--not the Bible, but the corruption of power (hence checks and balances), the separation of church and state, and the Bill of Rights. Oh Lady, the Bill of Rights. I'd also try to show him that the majority cannot decide the rights of the minority. If I put it in those terms, he might not pick up that I'm talking about gay unions until the end.
3.) You can instantly gain proficiency in any language - which one would you choose?
Flippant: German, so I don't have to study it in grad school.
Serious: Complete proficiency? Sanskrit. Awww yeah. Those Vedas ain't seen nothing yet.
4.) Choose 3 people and tell me what you wish they would change about their fashion tendencies.
See, I don't usually look at people's fashion tendencies. I hate judging other people's styles. I can tell you three people who need fantastic clothes:
sanj: A fabulous Queen Latifah-in-Chicago flapper dress. Put that bodaciousness to work! Phew, but she'd look lovely in it.
Mr. The Man: Zoot suit. But we knew this. Plus a big yellow Bentley to drive him to concerts, and two or three bitchin' babes to go on his arms.
Mrs. Sally: A full, authentic Kazahk woman's outfit, beads and baubles and the lot.
5.) Along the lines of a short story whose name and author I'm forgetting, you could keep one person locked in a damp, dark basement, and thereby insure the complete health and physical well-being of all the people in your city - cancer would be gone, MS, all diseases would disappear. Would you do it? Justify your answer.
No.
The story, by the way, is "Those Who Walk Away From Omelas", by Ursula LeGuin; in the story, the person in the basement is a child, who is not spoken to or ever allowed to see light, who would not even be able to process light or kindness anymore if freed.
If the person in question was an adult, with full knowledge and consent to what would happen, it's a different matter. But I'm going to answer in terms of the story. I do not believe that the misery of one person is the price for the salvation of many, unless that one person chooses it. Because why stop there? One person isn't too much of a price, why not two? Or three? Or a servant class? As long as everyone else is happy, why not oppress and abuse a minority? Even if that minority is one, it's still unjust.
I'm liking this LJ action. Given my track record, in two weeks I will be posting either every night or every six months.
wavyarms. Anybody know where this meme got started? It's quite elegant.THE RULES
1 - If you want to be interviewed, leave a comment.
2 - I will respond; I'll ask you five questions.
3 - You'll update your journal with my five questions, and your five answers.
4 - You'll include this explanation.
5 - You'll ask five other people five questions when they want to be interviewed.
1.) You just got ordained, and you just got a job in some religious institution. What's the topic of your first sermon? Give me an excerpt.
...Perhaps you've heard the statement "Thou art That"? Simplification of some pretty deep thought.s But here's a restatement, in my own idiom and with my own biases. You are God. Haven't you always known that? Now here's the problem. Look beside you. That's right. That person's God too. And the one next to them. And all of us here...
...But ultimately, don't agree with me! Don't take my words for it! I cannot communicate God to you, not without stuffing Her full of my petty agenda and strictures--but I can point you to ways of finding Her for yourself. I can't spell out the divine message--I can teach you languages that might help you read it. I can't tell you what God says is right or wrong--I can help you hear the voice in you that knows already. If you listen to me without question, you have lost the way. If you refuse to listen to me without reason, you have lost the way. Speak together with me, and there we can find the way.
2.) Suppose you went out to lunch with Dubya. What would you say to him? On what issues do you think you could have an impact on his thinking?
I don't know that I could change his mind. I'd try to address the problem of dividing the world into "good" and "bad" as clear categories, especially the problem of distinguishing between groups and nations. I'd bring up every old-school American thinker I could: Thomas Paine, Jefferson, Madison, etc, etc, to emphasize the importance of the values on which this country was founded--not the Bible, but the corruption of power (hence checks and balances), the separation of church and state, and the Bill of Rights. Oh Lady, the Bill of Rights. I'd also try to show him that the majority cannot decide the rights of the minority. If I put it in those terms, he might not pick up that I'm talking about gay unions until the end.
3.) You can instantly gain proficiency in any language - which one would you choose?
Flippant: German, so I don't have to study it in grad school.
Serious: Complete proficiency? Sanskrit. Awww yeah. Those Vedas ain't seen nothing yet.
4.) Choose 3 people and tell me what you wish they would change about their fashion tendencies.
See, I don't usually look at people's fashion tendencies. I hate judging other people's styles. I can tell you three people who need fantastic clothes:
sanj: A fabulous Queen Latifah-in-Chicago flapper dress. Put that bodaciousness to work! Phew, but she'd look lovely in it.Mr. The Man: Zoot suit. But we knew this. Plus a big yellow Bentley to drive him to concerts, and two or three bitchin' babes to go on his arms.
Mrs. Sally: A full, authentic Kazahk woman's outfit, beads and baubles and the lot.
5.) Along the lines of a short story whose name and author I'm forgetting, you could keep one person locked in a damp, dark basement, and thereby insure the complete health and physical well-being of all the people in your city - cancer would be gone, MS, all diseases would disappear. Would you do it? Justify your answer.
No.
The story, by the way, is "Those Who Walk Away From Omelas", by Ursula LeGuin; in the story, the person in the basement is a child, who is not spoken to or ever allowed to see light, who would not even be able to process light or kindness anymore if freed.
If the person in question was an adult, with full knowledge and consent to what would happen, it's a different matter. But I'm going to answer in terms of the story. I do not believe that the misery of one person is the price for the salvation of many, unless that one person chooses it. Because why stop there? One person isn't too much of a price, why not two? Or three? Or a servant class? As long as everyone else is happy, why not oppress and abuse a minority? Even if that minority is one, it's still unjust.
I'm liking this LJ action. Given my track record, in two weeks I will be posting either every night or every six months.
