Saturday 18 October 2014

Parody on Eurythmics, "Thorn in my side"

This is a song directed at "Jesus" or priests in general and their scriptures

Thorns in my brain that is what your halo's mostly been
Confusing texts, it's not clear what they really mean
Were you a witch doctor or purely mythical ?
you claim to make men better but you really made me ill.

To run away from you, is what I want to do
To refute your errant ideas, is what I want to do
To run away from you, is what I want to do
To refute your errant ideas, is what I want to do

Paralysis of mind achieved by Bible verses so unkind
did I suffer blinkered vision or was I nearly half blind ?
I was feeling complicated, a feeling of great gloom
I was bound up in tangled cords at your threats of doom

See Youtube 

Eurythmics - Thorn In My Side, CenturyHitMusic channel


Donald Trump has often spoken in broad generalizations which are as effective as using an axe to do micro surgery. I don't agree with his idea of banning whole groups of people, it was inflammatory.
I think politicians need to encourage everyone to read more widely and in greater detail. Politicians need to make policies which enable people to acquire a greater understanding of the findings of up to date science. Well Wikipedia, Youtube and the google box could go a long way to improving people's general knowledge. What about if Trump recommended that people check out each word of Scripture on Wikipedia - that could help everyone end up with a broader perspective. People would see that there are many reasonable interpretations of each passage. They would also end up doing a study of comparative religion and history of religion.
Maybe given the wars over religion in the world Trump should read out:
1 John 2v9, "Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness" 
1 John 3v14," We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death, Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life."
1 John 4v8, "Whoever does not love does not know God"
Matthew 5v22 is one of the bits of the Bible that I like best. It says something along the lines of ~ don't call people, "You fool" which is a very generalized comment. It doesn't go on to offer a better alternative. I think this is also connected with the 5th commandment idea of "Honour / Respect your parents & others"
Matthew 5v22 also has, "Anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgement"
I think the better thing is to try to make your comment specific to the action or idea in question. To be more specific you could say, "I think that would be a foolish thing to do / say" I think it would be acceptable to speak like that.
In a similar way the comment, "I hate you" is too generalized. It sounds better if it is put in more specific terms: "I hate what you did just now, I hate that idea"
I think this could be made more specific if you use one of the other words denoting the various shades of emotion. "I'm really annoyed about one aspect of what you did. I think that you spent more money on it than i was willing to spend and you didn't even ask whether I would agree" with the reply, "I'm sorry but I think it is really worth the extra money, just look at all the extra things it can do, the other one wouldn't have been adequate"
Actually the Bible verses I quoted from Matthew & 1 John put their ideas in an overly severe manner. Just because you are furious about something that your neighbour has done doesn't by any stretch mean that you would lash out at them to cause physical injury let alone murder or that you would wish them harm. Mostly you would only just wish that there was a way to convince them of you point of view. Most time people see that over reacting would be counter productive.
However I do think there could be some tendency that if you go around name calling and speaking in gross generalizations then it could inflame the situation but not necessarily. Some people can laugh at a slagging off and just put it down to banter. I think it depends whether you can see through the generalized language to the specific thing that underlies it - to read between the lines and make out what they would have said if they had taken the time to give a more detailed account.; It is a trade of between easy broad brush strokes and finely painted detail.
When your sibling screams, "I hate you" it usually means something like, "I'm livid that you borrowed my clothes without asking then dumped them back in the bottom of my wardrobe, dirty, and now I don't have them to wear for my important meeting" but they might be too enraged to put it so clearly.

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