Hammered (2)

All of the world’s great religious traditions agree on this: There is something more important happening than me and mine.

Hacking a hoax

I’ve always had the feeling that I don’t fit in. I felt this as soon as it was possible to feel it, as a very young boy. This feeling of alienation and strangeness has been my constant companion, placing me at odds with a culture whose first rule is “Fit in” and whose second rule is “Do what you’re told.” But this, finally, is where I live. I’ve never not known that the culture is a hoax.

Feeling the elephant

To the extent that culture is a good thing, counterculture is a better thing. We are all born into a culture, a rationalized defensiveness. Shortly thereafter, we stop seeing the world as it is and start seeing it through a kaleidoscope of religion, tradition and politics. This distortion of reality causes us to flail around blindly while doing so with one hundred percent conviction.

Status quo

The statement “We’ve always done it this way” is all by itself the best reason to stop doing it.

Speaking to the deaf

Loyalty is not a virtue—unless omerta is, unless conformity, accommodation and codes of conduct are, unless the virtues are strategic, personal and exclusionary. Make no vows, Jesus said, speaking to the deaf.