Is the weirdness really wyrd?
This is a page from the third version of Technopagan Yearnings. There are some formatting differences. Originally published at www.neowayland.com/C65989237/E20071105052207
Enabling behavior and tolerating the special people
I was talking about weird pagans last Tuesday.
Juliaki had some interesting comments that I was thinking about. I wasn't sure that I wanted to be quite as direct as she was.
But then last night I was watching one of the third season DVDs of Veronica Mars. Excellent series by the way, all three seasons are worth your time, especially now since they are out on DVD. Anyway, the premise of this particular show was that there was a serial rapist, so the university was providing safe rides home.
In the show, one of the young ladies at a party was so soused she was lying on the floor and people were stepping over her. When her friends were asked why they were just letting her lie there, they said it was okay, they had called Safe-Ride.
Boom!
Instant illustration of Somebody's Else's Problem™.
I tried to remember if we let people lie on the dance floor drunk when I went to college, I don't think we did. Since I am a non-drinker, I got stuck with ferrying people around. But I don't think we ever went quite that far.
(It wasn't until I got out of college that I figured out how to say no to the calls in the middle of the night to pick people up. The first time is free, the second time is fifty bucks, and it doubles every time after that. One guy got up to $400 before he caught on).
Anyway, as I was watching, I was wondering how much things like a safe ride program actually enable irresponsible behavior because there are no consequences EXCEPT to the people picking up the pieces.
And then it dawned on me, that is exactly what Juliaki was talking about. It's another reason why there's a growing division among modern Pagans.
I can think of no other faith group that actually celebrates the nutcases as gifts from the gods. There is no politically correct way to describe it. People who would be shunned in any other circumstances are actually put on display to show how tolerant Paganism is.
It's not enough to go to the mountain top, you have to come back. What's that old saying, the mystic swims while the madman drowns? It certainly applies here.
So she's right.
This time.
*grin*
Posted: Sun - November 4, 2007 at 02:22 PM
