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Wed 19 Sep, 2007 03:02 pm
What is blame?
As it turns out, the word "blame" originates from a Greek word which roughly translates to the word "blasphemy." Blame is an "impious irreverence." As well as a slander, an evil speaking, and a defamation. It also means to charge with, to accuse, to discredit, to chide, to scold, to rebuke, and to reproach. Finally, this whole heap of human dung slinging gets summarized as "the things we say against someone."
In essence then, for a long time, blame referred to the things we say against someone. In modern times, we have somehow enlarged the scope of this word by combining its original meaning; the things we say against someone, with that this someone caused these things. In other words, while the word blame originally meant to say bad things against another, when we blame people now, we see both what they do (the original meaning) and who they are (the modern meaning) as bad. Along with the idea that they are also the cause of this badness and the one responsible for fixing it.
that's interesting. if you change the word from "blame" to "judge" it gains more scriptural context and coverage.
Quote:Is blaming a spiritual malfunction?
The short answer is "yes" because "spirituality" is transcendent of a distinction between "self" and "others". Blaming "oneself" would be equally "malfunctional".
Spiritual commentators have advocated "non-judgemental observation" as the key to "enlightenment".
the sig line is a joke you know
fresco wrote:Spiritual commentators have advocated "non-judgemental observation" as the key to "enlightenment".
ha, you'd have to "judge" to determine that "non-judgemental" is better than "judgemental." i think judgement is fine, but not by itself. just like money is okay, as long as you don't put it above other more important things. ideally, you shouldn't put judgement above your humanity to others. but i liked your point about transcending self, i'll buy that.
tinygiraffe wrote:that's interesting. if you change the word from "blame" to "judge" it gains more scriptural context and coverage.
My observation is that man uses "blame" or "judgement" more than God. Man uses "fear" more than God. Man uses "force" more than God. Then men turn around and "blame" God for what man does. How contradictory that seems.
Re: the sig line is a joke you know
tinygiraffe wrote:fresco wrote:Spiritual commentators have advocated "non-judgemental observation" as the key to "enlightenment".
ha, you'd have to "judge" to determine that "non-judgemental" is better than "judgemental." i think judgement is fine, but not by itself. just like money is okay, as long as you don't put it above other more important things. ideally, you shouldn't put judgement above your humanity to others. but i liked your point about transcending self, i'll buy that.
It's my observation that all people make value judgments every day, on little and big issues, without anyone else the wiser. But can it be discussed in a positive, upbuilding way? Does it "have to" end up in a finger pointing verbal brawl? Or is that what people want today?
of course it's possible for judgement to be uplifting. you can judge something to be good... although again, judging too many things to be good isn't good.
i'm sure you and i agree on this point. for instance, i don't think it's good to take the bible so literally, and you don't think it's good to be too ecumenical. actually, even i'd agree that you can be too ecumenical, but that's much much further down the line for me.
suppose someone wants me to do something that i think is wrong, and i then judge it to be good when it isn't. obviously this is a poor use of uplifting judgement.
but there are tons of things people judge to be bad, when they should give them another chance, no? we may disagree on the examples, but i know you can relate to the idea.
tinygiraffe wrote:of course it's possible for judgement to be uplifting. you can judge something to be good... although again, judging too many things to be good isn't good.
i'm sure you and i agree on this point. for instance, i don't think it's good to take the bible so literally, and you don't think it's good to be too ecumenical. actually, even i'd agree that you can be too ecumenical, but that's much much further down the line for me.
suppose someone wants me to do something that i think is wrong, and i then judge it to be good when it isn't. obviously this is a poor use of uplifting judgement.
but there are tons of things people judge to be bad, when they should give them another chance, no? we may disagree on the examples, but i know you can relate to the idea.
Tons of things; absolutely! I think we are living in a time where ideas are coming at us so fast that we can't keep track of them all. We live in a media "explosive" world that makes us cringe. We may even shun many ideas simply because there isn't enough time to consider the value or relevance of them all. People could promote "bad" ideas as if they were "good" and vice versa and we wouldn't have time enough to figure it all out. Is somebody playing a "lets keep them all in the dark" game? We might be blaming people for a "bad" idea that isn't bad while slaping people on the back for a "good" idea that is really terrible.
yes, i do agree. although i think part of the reason for this is overpopulation.
i want to clarify, i'm not suggesting anything radical like forcing people to have only one child, or doing something to make people unhealthy, (which some people, probably not many, actually advocate) but if we could voluntarily put a little damper on the population over the next couple of generations, it would help a lot.
this is a hazardous idea to mention on the internet, for one, because people imagine some kind of communist china scenario- that's why i quickly said "no, i don't mean that at all."
the other thing is that plots to reduce the population are common in nwo conspiracy theories... i'm *only* saying there would be countless cultural advantages if people didn't have so many children.
i'm not trying to convince you of this, i might add. i don't think i could. and i don't think it would *fix everything,* either.
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