Yintimidation

AlterNet / By Jeremy Sherman

From: Burning Man Embraces the Paradoxes of Life

I call it “yintimidation." The sweeping final-word pontifications of the self-proclaimed "yin" and "spiritual," who counsel hypocritically that you shouldn’t be judgmental (a judgment) that negativity is bad (a negativity) and that you should be closed-minded to closed-mindedness and intolerant of intolerance.

As the hypocritically spiritual demonstrate, you can’t live by these principles. Instead, you just get good at ignoring the places where you're judgmental, negative closed-minded or intolerant. The principles stunt growth by keeping us from life's age-old questions about when to judge, be negative, be closed-minded and intolerant.

No doubt New Age spiritual puritanism is a reaction to prior puritanisms that pointed the opposite direction; for example, the self-glorifying zero-tolerance policies of the far right and far left. All moral absolutes, once they became culturally dominant, can and will be abused in the human race to outshine each other, boss each other around, and act like the pope.

The complete article is at http://www.alternet.org/culture/burning-man-embraces-paradoxes-life?akid=10899.208999.4eUE1m&rd=1&src=newsletter893052&t=9&paging=off .

This article is amazing. This line in particular:

Jeremy Sherman wrote: Instead, you just get good at ignoring the places where you're judgmental, negative closed-minded or intolerant.

reminds me of all the reasons I came here in the first place, and are a continuous challenge for anyone hoping for any kind of true enlightenment across the globe.

Thank you, Br John.

New Age, 'high brahman' or any other sort of "more-spiritual-than-thou" puritanisms are yet another match of the game of Black vs White. What he was saying about the paradox - we are all one / just do your own thing - is an essential. It reflects that "great Liberty" comes only by way of "great unity", not by elimination or subjugation of the 'undesired' elements ...

At the same time, "doing one's own thing" has to be healthy for the "one" we all are ... it is not just a case of doing whatever one wants to do. His illustration of the Farm is quite suiting.

It is my sincere hope that the generation now coming into its own has that flexibility that our generation lost sight of ... (we got sort of seduced by the 1980's)

Let's just watch and see how they do ...

I love that article. I love all the little quirky things people say and do while I despise conformity to a central principle that limits people. The polar opposite of Burning Man is Wall Street if you want to compare and contrast the two extremes. I'd be much happier in a burning man society than a wall street society.

Br. John wrote:
I call it “yintimidation." The sweeping final-word pontifications of the self-proclaimed "yin" and "spiritual," who counsel hypocritically that you shouldn’t be judgmental (a judgment) that negativity is bad (a negativity) and that you should be closed-minded to closed-mindedness and intolerant of intolerance.

As the hypocritically spiritual demonstrate, you can’t live by these principles. Instead, you just get good at ignoring the places where you're judgmental, negative closed-minded or intolerant. The principles stunt growth by keeping us from life's age-old questions about when to judge, be negative, be closed-minded and intolerant.

holy crap, YES.

this is not to single any one person out. but there is a lot of this 'yintimidation' here. yes, we are jedi. yes, that is cooler and superior to other religions/philosophies. but no one has to be a tool about it.

we are still all individuals, different upbringings, different experiences, different people. we should try to celebrate this diversity instead of all trying to get into zen/tao/buddha lockstep. that just aint 'some of our' styles. viva la difference, eh?

and it is OKAY to judge from time to time. i only have so many waking hours in a day. if i judge that person A is gonna piss me off somehow, and person B seems pretty cool, ceterus parabis, who am i gonna choose to waste time on/with? dont yall do that too? everyone everywhere makes judgments/decisions everyday, always have, always will. this seems a basic human 'right'. yet somehow its 'wrong' (tho admittedly it is when based on irrational or hateful premises like racism, sexism, etc)?

and personally, i am pretty negative. i have every right to be so, for those of you who know me, know some of my story. tho i prefer to call it 'realism', because most of the time, my negativity is sadly proven out. this doesnt mean that i dont still hope for, and attempt to bring about, a better day. i simply have never been, and almost certainly never will be, the happy go lucky type. its just not in the cards. nor do i even want it to be anymore...i finally like me.

so i like almost all of yins, or i wouldnt keep hanging out here. even those of you who used to piss me off have somehow grown on me. but lets all just try to chill with the 'yintimidation'.

Whyte Horse wrote: I love that article. I love all the little quirky things people say and do while I despise conformity to a central principle that limits people. The polar opposite of Burning Man is Wall Street if you want to compare and contrast the two extremes. I'd be much happier in a burning man society than a wall street society.

Wall Street is not a society, it is more like Mad Max Beyond the Thunderdome "Now, when men get to fighting, it happens here! And it finishes here! Two men enter; one man leaves." Sure it's a group of people but they are all fighting each other over a big pile of money. Try to imagine a group of socio paths trying to start a society and you'll get my drift.

Whyte Horse wrote: I love that article. I love all the little quirky things people say and do while I despise conformity to a central principle that limits people. The polar opposite of Burning Man is Wall Street if you want to compare and contrast the two extremes. I'd be much happier in a burning man society than a wall street society.

I have seen a lot of stuff from burning man events, but have yet to find the time to attend one.

I haven't been either but it's easy to learn about. Wall Street culture is pretty much mainstream now. I can't believe how many people wear suits and walk around parroting Ayn Rand while sucking up to anyone with a hint of money.

Ambivalence best describes my feelings regarding America's 'burn culture'. On the one hand, I support artistic expression but the artistic narcissism on display at burn events is overly self-serving, even selfish. My non-denominational church's campgrounds in south-central Pennsylvania host a burn event each Spring and I have attended two.

But I think the real issue in this forum thread and in the article regards ethical judgment. In this thread, there is conflating of judgment and condemnation. Not all judgments are the same. There are diverse kinds of judgments, some judgments regard values while others are judgments of logic. Also, not all values are equal. Every day we make all kinds of judgments that do not arise from an ethical theory. Judgments are decisions and the criteria might be as diverse as, "What action best furthers human solidarity?" to "I do not like that kind of wine." Some judgments may be erroneous if the values from which they are derived are unethical, or the logic if flawed. If our ethical theory supports one kind of action while judging its opposite as unethical, then the chosen actions that follow from this are judgments of value. Then, we can engage in an analysis of the ethical theory and whether or not the judgment to act or not act is logically consistent with the theory or whether the theory itself is flawed.

Whyte Horse wrote: ...I can't believe how many people wear suits...

...seriously?