Of gospel and grief
I ran across this quote from Bruce Sterling:
The presence of the word "gospel" tends to make us think of the current Religious Right, to whom the quote does indeed apply. But if we turn the mirror around toward ourselves, who among us can claim sufficient humility?
We all approach the world with some degree of "stomping," some attitude about How We Think Things Are (or, even worse, Should Be). This is OK-- you generally need some kind of model to function. But I try to remind myself to question everything I believe, even the "obvious" stuff, in fact, especially the obvious stuff.
What would it be like if we didn't know how things "should" be? What if they're supposed to be exactly how they are? And how would we know?
If you approach "reality" in a humble spirit of inquiry
I think that Truth will unveil herself, whereas if you stomp
around emitting gospel and drinking your own public-relations
bathwater, you're gonna come to grief, sooner or later.
The presence of the word "gospel" tends to make us think of the current Religious Right, to whom the quote does indeed apply. But if we turn the mirror around toward ourselves, who among us can claim sufficient humility?
We all approach the world with some degree of "stomping," some attitude about How We Think Things Are (or, even worse, Should Be). This is OK-- you generally need some kind of model to function. But I try to remind myself to question everything I believe, even the "obvious" stuff, in fact, especially the obvious stuff.
What would it be like if we didn't know how things "should" be? What if they're supposed to be exactly how they are? And how would we know?
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