Don’t Blame Me For Your Shit
Let’s pretend your name is John. or Jane. Whichever you prefer. Or Rainbow Skydancer, I don’t give a fuck. If someone learnt your name and then told you all about how every John, Jane or Rainbow Skydancer they knew was a horrible person or annoying or liked to do something, wouldn’t you find that stupid? If they started telling you how Janes always gossip too much, or Rainbow Skydancers are all liars, wouldn’t you take it that they’re expecting you to be like your other namesakes and so they’re already blaming you for shit you didn’t do? I think that most people would find that to be stupid, unless they have some stupid superstitious belief about people with the same name having some kind of collective consciousness. Does anyone believe that? I’ve heard some Feng Shui BS like that, I guess.
And you know what, if you start attributing John’s faults to him being named John, you’re not really holding him accountable as an individual. If John steals from you, it’s because he’s a thief. Any other thinking is just saying that it’s simply the inherent nature of being John to steal, and John didn’t choose to be a thief because he didn’t choose to be called John and John can’t be expected to change. Unless he changes his name, but let’s ignore that hole in my analogy.
If we started to bring our kids up in a world where names were like horoscopes, and determine what sort of person you were, I think that we’d start making the superstition work. Sometimes, anyway. Never 100% of the time. But you just ignore when it doesn’t work, right? The exception to the rule?
A lot of people can see that it’s stupid to think that 12 horoscopes (or 13 if you’re more up to date) is a ridiculous way to categorise all of humanity, no matter how vague you make it. Heck, I have trouble imagining anyone applying that sort of rule to names, and there are millions of names out there I’m sure.
So why is that people can be so easily categorised into just 2 kinds? Male. Female. This the predominant way so many people see human beings. Horoscopes are too general, but male/female is just fine.
I say this, because I’m sick of getting to know someone, thinking they are funny or intelligent or just nice to talk with, and then they pull out some fashion magazine faux-feminism or some jilted boyfriend misogyny. And my respect for them goes. In fact, I don’t get angry at them, I just get really disappointed. If I was Ling-Ling, there’d be hallucinogenic goo secreting out of my pores.