Relatively Absolute Absurdity— By John Reed
Relatively Absolute Absurdity
A recent birthday brings me closer to my eighth decade, and the view of our world from that lofty height is increasingly absurd. More on that later, but first let’s talk opposites: relativism and absolutism. Just about any debate these days seems to be defined by one or the other of these polar opposites. There’s good and bad in each but unfortunately few are flexible enough to consider such.
Biblical absolutists would have us stone divorcees to death and expect our slaves to “obey their human masters in everything … with sincerity of heart.” Scriptural relativists find room in the clergy for all: men, women, gays, and … others. The same is found among other religions, notably Islam. Not much middle ground there. And yet.
What about “hate the sin, love the sinner?” From St. Augustine to Gandhi, this sentiment offers a reasonable middle ground.
In the same fashion, our political Left and Right base their arguments on whether the Constitution is to be followed word for exact word from 1787, or some modern interpretation. Who gets to decide? Supposedly unbiased judges, an oxymoron if there ever was one. And yet.
The framers of the Constitution knew their times couldn’t define the document in perpetuity, and so made it amendable. Nearly 240 years later, twenty-seven updates have been added, changing not only the document but our national fabric in ways the founders could likely not imagine. The path to making those changes? Not judges, not presidents, but We The People.
And now to the absurdity we see all around us. Based on the premise that life has no true meaning, I would also define it as deliberately acting on ideas known to be either untrue or exactly opposite of those accepted in the past. Case in point: Democrats claiming to be the party for minorities after spending a century supporting Jim Crow and the KKK. How many still have one of Lester’s axe handles in their closet?
Absurdity isn’t confined to politics. In education circles, math has recently been declared “racist.” Apparently teaching arithmetic encourages Western colonialism … never mind the numbering system from India wiped out the Roman letters and introduced the zero, or the term “algebra” is literally an Arabic word. Ancient Incan quipus were using base 10 long before European contact, and we still use ancient Sumer’s base 60 system for telling time.
Must we just accept the insanity and move on? Unfortunately not enough of the organized media seems willing to question things. The Fourth Estate cares more about clickbait and selling airtime with sensationalist recounts about what someone said about someone else than delving into the issues. The “new media” of Instagram, X, and others is often as bad or worse since fact checkers are few and far between.
To figure out what’s absolutely true, what’s maybe relatively true, and what’s absurdly idiotic, we need a healthy dose of yet another philosophy: skepticism. More next time.
