Not to split a split hair, but you are, probably deliberately, not talking about what he’s talking about.
And there is a difference between being a son of God, and being the son of God.
No there isn’t.
A 2000 year old institutional history of missing the point doesn’t change the fact that the dude himself defended his own use of the term by referencing Psalms 82. He said to pray unto God using the terminology “Our Father”. The whole message was not “I am divine and you are not”. It was “We are all divine and it is well nigh time we accepted it and started acting like it and shouldered the responsibility that comes with it”. He said “follow my lead”.
You are of course entitled to your own interpretation but I am not “deliberately not talking about what he’s talking about”. Unless I am mistaken I’m talking about EXACTLY what he is talking about. Were that not so I would not have chosen the terminology to make my point.
Apologies for using the term “whackjob” – I’m aware, that was uncalled for. And I’m cognizant enough to know that schizophrenics are not inherently violent or dangerous, despite the media’s constant attempts to make it appear that way.
That said, AHunter3 appears to flaunt his neurological condition as if it weren’t an illness at all, much like the so-called Neurodiversity Movement portrays autism & Asperger’s Syndrome as a “lifestyle choice” (sheesh), and I’m baffled as to why a message board devoted to fighting ignorance would allow him such leeway. Perhaps you could enlighten me?
I’m not sure what you mean by “allowing him such leeway.” What do you suggest we do? Ban him for having a controversial opinion?
Had the relevant professionals merely remarked to me that in their opinion I am set apart from other people by virtue of a different brain chemistry or whatever, I’d have given that the attention I felt it deserved and no doubt see little reason to bandy the fact around unless I did indeed see the difference as a problem.
But I was affixed with the diagnostic label, and although technically speaking I’ve never officially been an involuntary inpatient, I’ve been held against my will and subjected to forced treatment, and I’m quite well aware that others so labeled have been subjected to a hell of a lot more of it.
I’ll quit flaunting when there’s no longer any legitimate political reason to come out, mmkay?
So you were 5150’d. Doesn’t surprise me. I’ve “done time” as a social worker myself, and yes, some of the staff often acted like they themselves needed to be patients. But I never did meet any patient who IMO didn’t deserve to be there, even if it was only a temporary thing, know what I’m saying?
Ban him? No, naturally I don’t think that’s appropriate. But encouraging him to celebrate his “different brain chemistry” when in fact he has a mental disease is not doing anyone any favors. Sure, AHunter3 seems stable enough today, but what about tomorrow? Or the next day? Or the next? Eventually, his ivory tower will fall – just like the members of your own family, Miller, which is why I cited them as an example. (My sympathies for your loss, by the way.)
Can you point to an example of someone “encouraging him to celebrate his different brain chemistry?” I’m genuinely unclear on what sort of behavior you find unacceptable here, or what behavior you would prefer to see.
Also, I am not in anyway related to the two schizophrenics I described. They were family friends, not family.
Oh, what nonsense. When people say “the son of God”, they mean the singular offspring, except apparently in your world.
Actually, that sounds more mammalian. IME, reptiles (so long as you don’t mess with them) tend to be a lot more mellow than that.
Place your wagers.
ETA: Nah. Too lame.
AHunter3 brings a perspective on the illness that has given new information and understanding to several members of the board (by their own admission, and I’ll add mine). He also proivides some good cites and supplies a more sound basis for the beliefs he expresses than do many posters in GD.
His ideas on neurodiversity and the politics around mental illness may seem unreasonable to those who are unacquainted with them, but they are not pure crackpottery, and are worthy of discussion. And, not to implicate any particular person, but some of the people who disagree with AHunter3 have an understanding of mental illness that is deeply flawed (par for the course, really). A less prejudicial reading of AHunter3’s posts would be very illuminating for those people, I think.
Hell. I wish my cites and my posts were as coherent and organized as some of his.
While I will argue with such people, I have no objection to people opining that I ought to consider my difference a sickness.
As long as I retain the right to listen or not listen, and to determine my own medical and/or psychosocial needs, that is.
It does no one a good service, My Most Moldy Gherkin, to implement a social practice of letting some people decide when other people have forfeited the right to make personal decisions and weild individual responsibility in such personal and intimate matters as their own thoughts, on no more basis than “you’re a {label}, everyone knows that {people with that label} are defective because the label means defective, because everyone says so”.
I’ve curious, have you ever gone walkabout or completed a vision quest?
Quite possibly…can you define those terms a bit?
Most cultures have a coming-of-age ritual which involves a spiritual journey of some sort. Walkabout is a traditional journey male Australian aboriginals take where they trace the ancient migratory routes of their ancestors (and, simultaneously, the songlines of the Dreamtime). Vision quests are used by many native american peoples for the same purpose, usually involving fasting and sensory deprivation (such as sweatlodging) to make a person sensitive the the archetypal imagery around us.
Sadly, as a result of the blindness inflicted on us by the sort of dogmatic 19th century materialists who have been shitting in this thread, Westerners have largely lost their own coming-of-age traditions and have been forced to borrow from other cultures to replace them.
If you would like to insult other posters, take it to the BBQ Pit.
Do not do this in Great Debates.
[ /Moderating ]
I really have to question your sensibilities. People have told one of your users that he is a danger to himself an others, that he is insane and should be forcibly medicated lest he murder people. But it’s me who gets the warning for being outraged and making the mildest possible commentary, not even on the specific people, but on the mindset responsible for it.
It’s your board and what you say goes. If you figure it’s fair play for people to openly discriminate against those with divergent thought processes, but out of bounds to criticize it… well, I guess you win by right of superior force. But I’d like to state for the record that I think you are morally in the wrong.
Is there a post that actually made the statements you claim?
I have not had the chance to read the entire thread and no one has reported any other insults directed at posters.
The response to such insults is to report them, not to reply to them in the same manner.
[ /Modding ]
You know, I don’t see people borrowing the Bar Mitzvah. Weird, that.
I personally think my actual coming of age ceremony was when my father tossed me the keys to the jeep, and told me to get in and drive. I was ten, and he was drunk. There were no wrecks, despite reversing into the garage at 40 MPH. The Jeep had a column shifter, and I remembered that, but forgot about the brake, you see. Missed the sports car parked in there by innnnches. Left huge gouges in the driveway from taking off, all four wheels spinning.
Coincidentally, he stopped drinking for a long while after that.
According to historical family research, it pretty much matches the disaster most of my family’s coming of age events have been. Except with less fire.
Tell me, why do you think vision quests and walkabouts are more authentic a coming of age ceremony than the Bar Mitzvah, which has very little of the mystical dream quest about it?