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B for Bitchmove

2911 comments M.A. | Thursday, March 30, 2006

I finally saw V for Vendetta last week. I was going to put some thoughts up, but decided to wait until D-Train had a chance to see it as well. We went Monday night- so now there are no excuses not to blog about it. There are plenty of reviews already, so this isn’t a review; it’s just some thoughts that include spoilers. So if you do want to see it and haven’t yet don’t read further.

I enjoyed the movie quite a bit. Was it heavy handed? No question. Does that ruin the movie? I certainly didn’t think so.

Despite liking V and having no problem seeing him as a hero rather than just a terrorist, despite buying in to the transformation of Evey as central to the story- I’ve got some problems with the whole conceptual framework and the philosophy therein. More than any other aspect of the movie, the transformation of Evey leaves me conflicted.

Evey, shortly after being taken captive by V in order to save her from Creedy’s interrogation and torture, tells V “My father once told me that artists use lies to show the truth, while politicians use lies to cover it.” V agrees, and to some extent so do I. But, the problem then becomes, everyone thinks that they are the artists.

We all need a scary story, a compelling narrative to pull people around to our point of view. And the issues are so important that we feel justified in doing things we may not like as long as all works out in the end. Soon, we all become like Creedy, who V describes as a vicious man for whom the ends always justify the means. They lie to ensure stability and we lie to disrupt it. But either way it’s a lie. When we allow the ends to justify the means what happens when we win? We succeed and then suddenly we take the place of the oppressors- simply telling different lies for different policy outcomes, but nonetheless lying in order to stay in power and keep others out of it.

V claimed that what they did to him was monstrous. And as Evey said- when they did it they created a monster. Do we need some monsters on the right side of things to fight against the monsters opposing us? What V did to Evey was horrible, but Evey’s transformation was positive. Can we lie for the greater good? Scripture seems to claim we can. So if we accept a construct of moral relativism based upon competing moral goods how do we make that judgment call without ourselves becoming monsters?

Hot diggety dog!

7 comments M.A. | Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Well, looks like we finally made it.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but LJ's post on the not so evil world appears to be the first snarked UoM post. The guy just gets here, and already he's getting snarked. (Though I suppose in one day he posted more real content than I have in total) Not only that, but he inspired a post that had a picture of a the whore of all the earth riding a triceratops. How freakin cool is that?


So, thanks LJ, and thanks rat-dog for taking the time to make fun of us.

Wow

4 comments M.A. | Wednesday, January 04, 2006

my word that was a fun game to watch.

But do we worship him?

18 comments M.A. | Friday, December 23, 2005

I suppose it is my turn to post?

I came home to change so I could go to the Joseph Smith broadcast at the Stake center. It was just late enough that I thought I might be late getting there. That sealed the deal for watching it via the internet- which I am doing right now. I don't have to change- that's a plus. I don't have to talk to or see other people- both a plus and minus. (I should be more social.)

One additional benefit is that I can do other things while watching the broadcast. Cleaning my room, (probably won't happen) blogging, (clearly has) and eating some food.

While driving home I thought "I need to hurry and change to get to the Christmas broadcast thing" then remembered we already had the Christmas broadcast and thought it kind of strange that we had the Christmas broadcast as kind of a regular Sunday fireside- but Joseph gets a special devotional on his actual birthday.

So, to somewhat link to D-Train's post, is there some truth to claims of people like Decker? Certainly I believe Joseph Smith was a true prophet. But, do we revere him to a point that it interferes with a focus on Christ? Do we focus more on the fact that we have the true messenger than on what the message is?

President Packer offered the opening prayer. It seemed almost a history lesson/sermon on Joseph Smith as much as a prayer. But, it started with thanks that we could be gathered on this sacred occasion. I thought "sacred?" It kind of made me wonder where we fall, and why we are surprised when people think we worship the prophet Joseph.

Buddhists of most stripes reverence towards the Buddha certainly seems to be definable as worship. Many people mistakenly believe that Muslims worship Mohammed - but I suppose depending on the definition of worship many/all of them do. When we hear something along the lines of "There is one God, Allah, and Mohammed is his prophet." many of us define that as worshipful.

Because really, what is worship? Do we revere the prophet? Certainly. But where is the line?
So, in some measure, do we worship the prophet Joseph Smith? I don't know that we can define it as worship- but should we really be so prickly in being defensive or offended when people assume that we do?

Everyone's just workin for the weekend

3 comments M.A. | Sunday, November 20, 2005

I have told one person about this so far (a roommate and fellow blogger over at the council.) So, I guess this will be the official announcement.

No, I'm not coming out of the closet. (because despite any possible indicators; I am not, in fact, homosexual.)

I'm not announcing a bid for political office,

I'm not leaving the Church,

I'm not getting married,

and I'm not dying.

I am, however, seriously considering quitting my job.
This may come as a shock and cause you to exclaim something along the lines of:
"But why?"
"I thought you loved your job"
"How will you feed yourself?"
or even "Does this mean you'll actually blog again?"

I probably still won't blog because I'm a lazy SOB, though having the option of blogging once in a while would be nice.

I'm getting a bit burnt out- but that isn't the real reason I think I might leave. I can handle continuing to work lots of hours, making less than the time I invest warrants, trying to climb the corporate latter, and so on.
What I can't handle is still not knowing what I'm doing with my life. I can't handle having one or two classes hanging over my head. I can't handle limiting my options because of classes I should have gotten A's in being on my transcript with a D or a C.

I think that I would like to head back to school full time to take the one class I actually need and to retake some classes I already took (not really classes I took, more along the lines of classes I was enrolled in) so that I have a slightly better GPA when that degree gets handed over so that if I decide to go on to law school or grad school I've got a little bit better footing to do so. And yes, I have pretty much eliminated top tier schools already. Even if I can replace a grade by re-taking a class, potential schools still see my transcript and see the original grade there. But that is water under the bridge. I probably would have been ok had I just failed to take portions of my education seriously. I pretty much failed to take portions of my education at all.
I would like to at least finish off well. I probably won't head off to law school or grad school right after finishing- but I want to be in a bit better shape if/when I eventually do.

Working full time while doing this may very well be possible. However, working my current job would not. It is too far away and it is way more hours than full time.
I really am torn here.
On one hand I actually am doing OK and there is advancement opportunity.
On the other hand I don't know if I really want to do any of the things I would advance to.

I think it would be easier to step away if there were something definite I wanted to do in grad school and beyond. I would have a goal, have it validated, and have needed steps to reach it.
As is, it feels kind of like I may just be doing this because I'm sick of working. And maybe I am.

Leaving seems hard because I really did just kind of fall into a pretty good job- while tons of other potential employers wanted nothing to do with me. So, I'm worried that if I go back to school full time and leave my job I will be giving up my chance at solid employment. Also, that by taking a "real" or "grown up" type job and then leaving after six months won't look good to other potential employers.

So I'm stuck wondering what I should do. Am I shooting myself in the foot by leaving? Am I crippling my potential by staying?
I will certainly be thinking and praying about this for the next couple weeks, including thinking and praying about how to talk to my parents about this. I certainly want their input (and if I quit working, may need their assistance.) but I don't know how to talk to them about it, and somehow feel that by leaving I would somehow be letting them down. I also feel like I’d be letting myself down. I don’t want to just quit because something is unpleasant or seems difficult. I have far to often given up on things, and much more often than that just kind of given up by never letting myself care in the first place and just half ass-ing it. But this time I have put a bit more in, I have been somewhat successful. Now that all of that is just starting I don’t want to just bail because I’m burnt out, or not good enough, or even just because I’m afraid of not being good enough. I hope that isn’t what is motivating me here, but it may be.

I appreciate your patience reading this (or scrolling through it.) This is really more of a post for my personal blog- but, for some reason, I just felt like I should post it here. Thanks for putting up with the rambling nature of the post.

so, uhm... I'm not dead.

6 comments M.A. | Friday, July 01, 2005

But if blogging were any indicator I would totally understand why everyone would think that I am.

I got an email from a certain blogger I wrote to ages ago through the mormon friendster equivalent that I am embarrassed to mention. I haven't been there in ages- but that is largely because I haven't really been on the internet in ages unless it is through the intranet at work- and that is basically just to check tech specs of computers I'm selling.

I don't blog or read blogs or read message boards anymore at all. I sit in front of a computer for 10+ hours every day at work- so I usually don't do that when I get home.

instead I vege out and watch a movie.

soooo much better.

How the crap do people with families work full time and blog?

But this previously mentioned email mentioned internet people in our age group being intimidated by JL's high level of education and not really wanting to talk to her.

It made me think about that type of thing IRL and over the internet. In terms of possible romantic interest it does seem like for a woman to be working on or have advanced degrees turns a lot of guys off real early on.

I don't really understand that whole not wanting a girl who is well educated- but I suppose it is intimidating to be in your late 20s and barely through a bachelors degree and have the person you are talking to be about the same age but with Dr. in front of their name.

So where does this separation come from? Is it intimidation? Is it assumptions about what a well educated women must be like? Is it as simple as not wanting to date a woman who is by worldly measure clearly much smarter than you?

I'm not sure. I dated a PhD student when I first got back from my mission and I think I would probably date someone with an advanced degree.

So- as a question to the readership here- women have you felt snubbed because of your high level of education? Men, has a woman being well educated prevented you from pursuing her? If so, why?


Blogs are supposed to say something just ask something- aren't they? Sorry, I haven't done this in a while. Just put up with me and answer the questions.

Don't should all over yourself.

2 comments M.A. | Sunday, May 08, 2005

While this will be my second post here at UoM, and it will also be the second time I’ve been thinking about and structuring a post (or a few posts) in my head and then written about something completely different than what I was planning.

Over at Various Stages this week they have been talking about sins of omission and have had some great posts on the topic. I think a broad range of things have ben covered- with Sarah's weekly post conspicuously absent- which I thought was quite clever whether or not it was intentional. (And by the way, congrats Sarah!)

James tells us that to know good and do it not is sin- but how far exactly does that extend? In Kaycee's post she calls the concept of sins of omission unfair and asks the very important question "where do we draw the line?" because it certainly does seem there is always something more that could be done. When is not doing more a sin?

I've always liked Elder Maxwell's discussions on discipleship- and in a talk delivered at BYU, The Pathway of Discipleship, he talks about sins of omission quite a bit.

To underscore further the dimensions of discipleship in our mortal experience, one way of looking at the “thou shalt not” commandments is that these prohibitions help us to avoid misery by turning us away from that which is enticing but harmful and wrong. However, once we are settled in terms of the direction of our discipleship and the gross sins are left firmly behind—“misery prevention” it might be called—then the major focus falls upon the “thou shalt” commandments. It is the keeping of the “thou shalt” commandments which brings even greater happiness. True, as the scripture says, “wickedness never was happiness” (Alma 41:10), but neither is lukewarmness full happiness. Failing to be valiant in Christian discipleship will leave us without significant happiness. Therefore, our active avoidance of wickedness must be followed by our active engagement in righteousness. Then we can come to know true joy—after all, man is that he might have joy (see 2 Ne. 2:25).

It is very often the sins of omission which keep us from spiritual wholeness, because we still lack certain things.




Elder Maxwell then speaks of the rich young ruler who asked Christ what he must do to gain eternal life. "A customized commandment thus came for that man. It was something he needed to do, not something he needed to stop doing, that kept him from wholeness."

The rich young ruler had the opportunity to personally ask Christ what he must do- but how are we to know what we must do to become whole? Further,the rich young ruler knew clearly what he needed to do to become whole- his sin of omission became a sin of commission once it was explicit. So are only the explicit sins of omission actually sins?

I think that we each have an obligation to actively seek to do good. We also have an obligation to seek personal revelation. As the spirit prompts us, and as we see places we can help- then we can act. When we know there is something we are supposed to do and we don't do it- then we are guilty of a sin of omission. I don't think that just because more could have been done it means you are sinning. More wasn't necessarily supposed to be done and you can only do so much. But if you don't ever even do what you can do- then there's a problem.

There are times we consciously chose not to do something that could be good. I think that's ok. I think that if we aren't always consciously avoiding things we should do and we are seeking regularly to be self aware and improve who we are that's the most we can do.

If we look at everything that we could do, everything positive that would help us that we aren't doing, etc- there becomes more than we can handle.
When I feel like there are things all around me I should do, I often avoid doing any of them well and just feel guilty about all of them- the guilt just makes it worse. For quite a while I used the word should a whole lot. (I still use it a lot- just not as much) Well, I should... I should be...
But most of the time no real change came in accordance with it- just feeling bad mostly about things where I have no reason to feel bad. A friend told me that constantly worrying about what I "should" do but can't or don't is a pretty shouldy way to live.
And she was right.

We can be happy with where we are as individual people and also seek to grow and not stay where we are. But we also can't crap all over ourselves constantly because we aren't further along- it doesn't make us happy and it doesn't really help anyone.

more from Elder Maxwell
Wickedness is not the only mortal failure. Yes, the avoidance of wickedness remains ever important, but the sins of omission also represent a haunting failure. How often, may I ask you, do we speak about the need for repentance concerning our sins of omission? Or how often do we make personal confessions of them to God?

There is a memorable scriptural phrase about our need to have “faith unto repentance” (Alma 34:15, 16). Faith unto repentance covers both sins of commission and sins of omission. And so the faith of discipleship isn’t simply for life’s crises, though they will come. Rather, it is especially needed to ensure our regular repentance. After all, the scriptures are filled with “thou shalt” commandments and with many exhortations for us to do good. James, for instance, speaks of pure religion, urging us to visit and bless the variously deprived (see James 1:27).


Repentance entails attempting to change- but it also entails turning to God, asking for his help, and giving up our guilt.
The point of discussions about sins of omission is that avoiding evil isn't good enough. If we just hide from the world all the time to avoid doing anything wrong, what do we contribute?
So should we repent for sins of omission? Of course. Give up your guilt. Just do what you can. When you know you could have done better- just recognize it, move on, and do better the next time. We don't have to cripple ourselves with guilt.

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