--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB <no_re...@...> wrote: > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "raunchydog" <raunchydog@> wrote: <snip> > > If Barry wants to murder my unicorn, fine. > > Like this. What a drama queen thing to say. > > What could possibly BE more silly and childish > and petulant? "Murder your unicorn" indeed. > > Every so often you break out of this routine > and post something real, but it is so seldom > that it's not really worth wading through your > "normal" posts to try to find one of these > "abnormal" (that is, indicating that you still > have some semblance of humanity left) posts. > > > It doesn't diminish my experience if that is what he > > wants. What DOES he want? > > Actually, what he wanted by pointing out the > sexist nature of the puja you like so much was > to see if you were *capable* of discussing a > subject that challenges your assumptions and > puts you into a state of cognitive dissonance, > and discuss that subject without freaking out. > > Your responses indicate that you are NOT capable > of doing this. You can't discuss it PERIOD. > The only thing you can do is characterize some- > one presenting a perfectly legitimate view of > the puja as "murdering your unicorn."
Barry. It doesn't challenge her assumptions or put her in a state of cognitive dissonance. It's not even worthy of discussion, it's such an incredibly dumb idea, such a gigantic, obtuse, obvious category error. That's what she's pointing out with her "murder my unicorn" phrase. To spell it out for you: Your "perfectly legitimate view of the puja" sees the puja as if it were a horse and evaluates it according to the criteria raunchy would apply to it if she also saw it as a horse. But she--and many other TM teachers, including quite a few who no longer teach, and even some who are now sharp critics of TM/MMY/the TMO-- don't see it as a horse, let alone a horse that doesn't measure up to the criteria suitable for judging a horse's quality. They see and experience it, to use Raunchy's metaphor, as a unicorn, a magical creature that lives on the plane of the heart, not that of the mind. To judge this creature by horse criteria is ridiculous. As she says, it doesn't diminish her experience of the puja as a unicorn. You foolishly hoped it would, and you were wrong. Maybe you never experienced the puja as a unicorn. Or maybe you did and have forgotten, or maybe you haven't forgotten but have to pretend otherwise in order to take your shot at raunchy. The whole ploy is as transparent as glass, and raunchy has seen through it. And you're pissed because now *you* have to deal with cognitive dissonance. [moved from the top] > What he is poking fun AT is a person who takes > herself so seriously that she cannot TELL when > someone is making fun of that seriousness and > setting her up to embarrass herself with an > over-the-top, out-of-control tantrum of a > reply. Nope, wrong again... He is poking fun of someone who, like > someone else on this forum, is *compelled* to > react as expected to such a setup. The two of > you are like wind-up toys -- press the right > button, and you react as expected, every time. > And neither of you ever catches on. In the first place, we both ignore a lot of the crap that's directed at us. All you register is the times when we don't. In the second place, when we don't ignore the crap, it's not because we don't "catch on," it's because we have a point to make about the *nature* of the crap. In this case, the point is that when men who aren't sexist/misogynistic feel the need to make fun of a woman, *they don't do so by making fun of her AS a woman*. It doesn't even occur to them. And even if it did, they'd realize it would make them *look* sexist/misogynistic, not to mention unoriginal, trite, banal. There are umpty-zillion *creative* ways to make fun of somebody. Telling a woman to take out the garbage ain't one of them. When we make this point, you and Vaj and Peter *have* to portray it as "out of control" and "over the top," because somewhere in the dim recesses of your repressed psyches, you recognize the point as painfully, embarrassingly valid.
