Warning: Ranting on Religious Nonsense
So, the Vatican has released yet another thing to piss me off: the Drivers' "Ten Commandments."
I. You shall not kill.
II. The road shall be for you a means of communion between people and not of mortal harm.
III. Courtesy, uprightness and prudence will help you deal with unforeseen events.
IV. Be charitable and help your neighbour in need, especially victims of accidents.
V. Cars shall not be for you an expression of power and domination, and an occasion of sin.
VI. Charitably convince the young and not so young not to drive when they are not in a fitting condition to do so.
VII. Support the families of accident victims.
VIII. Bring guilty motorists and their victims together, at the appropriate time, so that they can undergo the liberating experience of forgiveness.
IX. On the road, protect the more vulnerable party.
X. Feel responsible towards others.
But Jane, you say, those are all more or less good rules of thumb! The road would be a happier place if everyone decided to abide by them! Why are you angry?
That's what I’m struggling with.
Part of it is just the mind-boggling concept that, with rampant buggering-of-altar-boys scandals, the war in Iraq, various crises of faith, yadda yadda yadda, all the crap that’s going on in the world, the papacy thought that the one topic which really needed attention was... road rage? Bzuh? I mean, I know ya gotta be old to get the cool Pope hat, but one would hope senility was not a job requirement. What’s next? The Ten Commandments of Cell Phone Usage?
At first I thought the labeling of "Commandments" was something smartass from the news services, because I first read about this on The (London) Times. Alas no. It is very explicitly stated that "we have drawn up a special 'decalogue' for them [motorists], in analogy with the Lord's Ten Commandments" (emphasis mine). Well! I don’t know about y'all, but to me, it just boggles the mind that Thou Shalt Not Murder is somehow analogous to Thou Shalt Not Use Thy Vehicle As a Penis Extension.
If you want to get buzzwordy, I'm what they call a "recovering Catholic." I did my time at Mercy High School, and I learned some scary things about God there, and ten years later (damn, upcoming reunion to avoid!) I'm still trying to cleanse my subconscious of the poison. So I'm pretty wary of any non-HP folk in robes and a hat, anyway. But this touched a nerve with me because it smacked of something I've noticed out here in the Real World, beyond our little content-filtered cloisters. I think my biggest problem with it, you see, is that this feeds into the widely-accepted belief (at least in this country) that you can't have morality without religion - that morality originated in religion. That, if it weren't for the Big Ten, we’d all be murdering and thieving and adultering willy-nilly, and society would descend into anarchy. That we can't, as human beings, understand the difference between right and wrong or good and evil without God or The Church spelling it out and spoon-feeding it to us.
It's a belief that profoundly disturbs me.
I. You shall not kill.
II. The road shall be for you a means of communion between people and not of mortal harm.
III. Courtesy, uprightness and prudence will help you deal with unforeseen events.
IV. Be charitable and help your neighbour in need, especially victims of accidents.
V. Cars shall not be for you an expression of power and domination, and an occasion of sin.
VI. Charitably convince the young and not so young not to drive when they are not in a fitting condition to do so.
VII. Support the families of accident victims.
VIII. Bring guilty motorists and their victims together, at the appropriate time, so that they can undergo the liberating experience of forgiveness.
IX. On the road, protect the more vulnerable party.
X. Feel responsible towards others.
But Jane, you say, those are all more or less good rules of thumb! The road would be a happier place if everyone decided to abide by them! Why are you angry?
That's what I’m struggling with.
Part of it is just the mind-boggling concept that, with rampant buggering-of-altar-boys scandals, the war in Iraq, various crises of faith, yadda yadda yadda, all the crap that’s going on in the world, the papacy thought that the one topic which really needed attention was... road rage? Bzuh? I mean, I know ya gotta be old to get the cool Pope hat, but one would hope senility was not a job requirement. What’s next? The Ten Commandments of Cell Phone Usage?
At first I thought the labeling of "Commandments" was something smartass from the news services, because I first read about this on The (London) Times. Alas no. It is very explicitly stated that "we have drawn up a special 'decalogue' for them [motorists], in analogy with the Lord's Ten Commandments" (emphasis mine). Well! I don’t know about y'all, but to me, it just boggles the mind that Thou Shalt Not Murder is somehow analogous to Thou Shalt Not Use Thy Vehicle As a Penis Extension.
If you want to get buzzwordy, I'm what they call a "recovering Catholic." I did my time at Mercy High School, and I learned some scary things about God there, and ten years later (damn, upcoming reunion to avoid!) I'm still trying to cleanse my subconscious of the poison. So I'm pretty wary of any non-HP folk in robes and a hat, anyway. But this touched a nerve with me because it smacked of something I've noticed out here in the Real World, beyond our little content-filtered cloisters. I think my biggest problem with it, you see, is that this feeds into the widely-accepted belief (at least in this country) that you can't have morality without religion - that morality originated in religion. That, if it weren't for the Big Ten, we’d all be murdering and thieving and adultering willy-nilly, and society would descend into anarchy. That we can't, as human beings, understand the difference between right and wrong or good and evil without God or The Church spelling it out and spoon-feeding it to us.
It's a belief that profoundly disturbs me.