Purists aren't above-it-all, although they certainly think they are.
Do you know why Puritans were kicked out of England?
Persecution you say? Hahaha. That's what THEY called it.
It was competition.
Whose was the PURER religion--Catholics (who burned heretics at the stake) or Protestants (who'd hang a woman for not going to church on the Sabbath)?
Perfectionism is at best a neurosis. At worst it is murderous and tyrannical.
Now, this isn't a religious rant. No no no.
This is about obsessive compulsions and urges to be a PURIST about damn near ANYthing at all.
We have different names for different kinds of perfectionists.
Suffice it to say, anybody in any group who INSISTS that you say or do things THE RIGHT WAY is Puritan. Oh, and they will threaten you if you do not comply! That's key.
Ever have lunch with a Vegan? That's a clash of civilizations right there at the dinner table.
Ever watch a Trump supporter and a Liberal HIllary voter try to discuss ANYthing? That's the Crusades.
When it comes to WORDs, I confess to being a Puritan.
I'm way too keen on proper pronunciation, definitions, spelling and all the rest. I'm imperfect in my perfectionism. I like tossing slang into a properly worded paragraph for flavor.
I once was a religious fanatic. Reformed, of course.
That is a scar that never heals.
I've lived through a lot of history. 7 decades, in fact.
I see the hatred between cousins and kindred groups around the world. Arabs and Jews and Palestinians, North Koreans and South Koreans, Muslims and cartoonists, Blacks and police, Chinese and Japanese, Japanese and Korean, Liberals and Republicans, Country and Western and Rock, Trump and the Media, and on and on....
IT'S ALL PURITANS!
A quest for purity: I'm right and you are wrong.
Do things MY way or I'll force you to see things my way!
Puritans will LIE to convince you they are right and the opposers are wrong. Yes: Lie! It is for a good cause, you see. The cause is called "THE TRUTH." Ironic?
Puritans are dangerous no matter which side they are on.
That's right.
Puritans ridicule opponents and dehumanize them.
Puritans marginalize and denounce disagreeable sorts.
Adolf Hi*ler was obsessed with the purification of the German people. A population agreed with him and another population was expunged.
Here is the bottom line, listen up and pay attention, please.
When you ridicule your opponents and see them as beneath your contempt; when you are convinced YOU are on the right side of an argument, you are potentially the most destructive force on this earth right now.
Why?
The hunger to PURIFY is a malevolent--not a beautiful--psychosis.
What is the cure? THERE IS NONE!
You'll never get a Puritan to respect the foe.
RESPECT for others is the medicine which heals but
respect is out of the question.
Think about that today when you sneer at somebody or something you know is wrong.
If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem.
Signed,
A Puritan
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Engraving: PURITANS: PUNISHMENT, 1651. The whipping of Baptist minister Obadiah Holmes at Boston in 1651 for holding an unauthorized religious meeting
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