Quick Links
Categories
Calendar
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
XML/RSS Feed
Other Heathen Blogs and Journals
Caryatid's LiveJournal
Boars Heart's LiveJournal
Orn Ransom's LiveJournal
Thorolf's LiveJournal
Falki's LiveJournal
MacRaven
Seledréam
Vanatru's LiveJournal
Expanding Inward
Boars Heart's LiveJournal
Orn Ransom's LiveJournal
Thorolf's LiveJournal
Falki's LiveJournal
MacRaven
Seledréam
Vanatru's LiveJournal
Expanding Inward
Links of Heathen Interest
Other (non-heathen) Blogs
Subscribe
 |
 |
Technorati
Blog Value
My blog is worth $1,693.62.
How much is your blog worth?
Statistics
Total entries in this blog:
Total entries in this category:
Published On: Apr 26, 2006 10:02 PM
Total entries in this category:
Published On: Apr 26, 2006 10:02 PM
Friggin Labels
Please make sure you read the clarifying enty
that explains what I really meant, posted on 5 April.
A few days ago I wrote an entry called “Separating
from Separatism" , and talked about how we as heathens, while
espousing a sense of community, are forsaking an active role in making our
greater communities a better place. There’s something worse, though
– we’re tearing apart our internal sense of community as well.
Maybe it’s always been there, and I’m just now noticing it. Am I that blind? Possibly. There’s so many damn labels in modern heathenism that it’s hard to believe we don’t each and every one of us have our own unique category.
Folkish
Universalist
Tribalist
Blah blah blah.
It’s just one outward sign of people not liking each other. A way to separate yourself from those whose views are different. I’d like to blame things like the Internet, the media, anything that espouses differences as more important than similarities. I can’t. It’s our own faults.
Understand I’m not just wailing here “Why can’t we all just get along?” We can’t. It’s just not going to happen; there are going to be disagreements, and many of them will be major splits. When we disagree about something, though, why do we have to categorize the person or group?
Person A is Folkish. Person B is Universalist. Person C is a Tribalist. Instead of focussing on what they have in common - a worship of the Aesir, a way of reconstructing the ancient religion of Northern Europe - they spend their time ripping apart the other two. Person A calls Person B "fluffy" while Person B calls Person A a "Nazi." Person C thinks that Persons A and B are two opposite extremes of permissiveness, as opposed to their own perfect system. And yet they all have blots, sumbels, and honor their ancestors, landwights, disir, Aesir and Vanir. All of them read the same source materials.
It’s just stupid. We’re one religion with many different ways of approaching that religion; different customs and beliefs. Do we have to tear each other apart like the Baptists and the Methodists at the Town Picnic?
We’re supposed to be about community. We’re tearing ourselves apart by tearing apart our internal community by subdividing it with labels. We label others to separate ourselves from them, or we label ourselves to separate us from “them.”
What do I suggest? That we all have a big total-acceptance love-fest? Not at all. I’m suggesting that we all present a united front. We agree that we aren’t going to agree, but that these small differences aren’t the important thing. The important things:
1. The Aesir and the Vanir
2. Community and the Family or Household
3. Survival of Heathenism
We say we’re not about individuality. We say that community is more important than individual wants and needs. Yet we take our individual differences, magnify them, and build walls between us. Why can’t we move past these petty personal bickerings?.
I’m suggesting that if you don’t like what someone else does, you just let it go. Ignore them, don’t blot with them, or whatever works for you. Why stick a label on top of the label that says “heathen?” No one of us owns the word “heathen.” And maybe it’s unfortunate that we don’t, but we’re stuck with everyone who uses the term. The larger world will never see the difference, whether you run around saying “They’re not really heathen” or not. We all want our own beliefs to shape the future of Asatru – that’s just self-interest at work. Are we willing, though, to sacrifice the future of heathenism to ensure that our own beliefs get accepted?
Shit. I hope not. Because if so, our greatest enemy isn’t Christianity, or atheism, or any other group. It is ourselves.
Our people are strong, self-reliant, and stubborn. "My way or the highway" isn't just a motto; it's a literal truth. In the long run, though, how does this help us? What do we gain by constantly breaking alliances?
The only way that the individual can shape the future of heathenism is by shaping the views of those with whom you disagree, one by one. Stop trying to alienate them and start trying to show them why your way is better. If we all become a little more willing to tolerate those other points of view around us, then maybe we can someday have enough of a consensus to work toward our common goals. Otherwise we'll tear each other apart until there's nothing left.
Maybe it’s always been there, and I’m just now noticing it. Am I that blind? Possibly. There’s so many damn labels in modern heathenism that it’s hard to believe we don’t each and every one of us have our own unique category.
Folkish
Universalist
Tribalist
Blah blah blah.
It’s just one outward sign of people not liking each other. A way to separate yourself from those whose views are different. I’d like to blame things like the Internet, the media, anything that espouses differences as more important than similarities. I can’t. It’s our own faults.
Understand I’m not just wailing here “Why can’t we all just get along?” We can’t. It’s just not going to happen; there are going to be disagreements, and many of them will be major splits. When we disagree about something, though, why do we have to categorize the person or group?
Person A is Folkish. Person B is Universalist. Person C is a Tribalist. Instead of focussing on what they have in common - a worship of the Aesir, a way of reconstructing the ancient religion of Northern Europe - they spend their time ripping apart the other two. Person A calls Person B "fluffy" while Person B calls Person A a "Nazi." Person C thinks that Persons A and B are two opposite extremes of permissiveness, as opposed to their own perfect system. And yet they all have blots, sumbels, and honor their ancestors, landwights, disir, Aesir and Vanir. All of them read the same source materials.
It’s just stupid. We’re one religion with many different ways of approaching that religion; different customs and beliefs. Do we have to tear each other apart like the Baptists and the Methodists at the Town Picnic?
We’re supposed to be about community. We’re tearing ourselves apart by tearing apart our internal community by subdividing it with labels. We label others to separate ourselves from them, or we label ourselves to separate us from “them.”
What do I suggest? That we all have a big total-acceptance love-fest? Not at all. I’m suggesting that we all present a united front. We agree that we aren’t going to agree, but that these small differences aren’t the important thing. The important things:
1. The Aesir and the Vanir
2. Community and the Family or Household
3. Survival of Heathenism
We say we’re not about individuality. We say that community is more important than individual wants and needs. Yet we take our individual differences, magnify them, and build walls between us. Why can’t we move past these petty personal bickerings?.
I’m suggesting that if you don’t like what someone else does, you just let it go. Ignore them, don’t blot with them, or whatever works for you. Why stick a label on top of the label that says “heathen?” No one of us owns the word “heathen.” And maybe it’s unfortunate that we don’t, but we’re stuck with everyone who uses the term. The larger world will never see the difference, whether you run around saying “They’re not really heathen” or not. We all want our own beliefs to shape the future of Asatru – that’s just self-interest at work. Are we willing, though, to sacrifice the future of heathenism to ensure that our own beliefs get accepted?
Shit. I hope not. Because if so, our greatest enemy isn’t Christianity, or atheism, or any other group. It is ourselves.
Our people are strong, self-reliant, and stubborn. "My way or the highway" isn't just a motto; it's a literal truth. In the long run, though, how does this help us? What do we gain by constantly breaking alliances?
The only way that the individual can shape the future of heathenism is by shaping the views of those with whom you disagree, one by one. Stop trying to alienate them and start trying to show them why your way is better. If we all become a little more willing to tolerate those other points of view around us, then maybe we can someday have enough of a consensus to work toward our common goals. Otherwise we'll tear each other apart until there's nothing left.
Posted: Thu - April 1, 2004 at 02:43 PM