Ramblings of an Anonymous Coward

What's My Point Again?

jeremy suggests that if something in inevitable and you want it to happen, what is the point in waiting? i personally translate that to people need to essentially get off their asses and make it happen. now would be good time to do that. and i agree with his point, but being the net, his choice of topic to illustrate the point has gotten more notice than the point itself.

mike over at obfuscated networking followed up [on-point] calling it the Wired Syndrome. definitely worth the read, and includes this classic mathematician, physicist story...

one night a fire starts in their hotel room and they both get up. the physicist looks at the fire, gets some water and puts it out. Both go back to bed. the next night another fire starts. the mathematician gets up, looks at the fire, then goes back to bed. the physicist asks if he’s going to put it out and the mathematician tells him he doesn’t have to, it’s a solved problem.

my comment on jeremy's blog was mostly out of frustration with the commenter Al, i found it as a prime example of why the inevitable doesn't happen as soon as it could (or should). people often draw illogical conclusions and use those as arguments of why something shouldn't be changed or accepted. his assertion that affirming gay marriage and providing it all the legal rights of heterosexual marriages eventually leads to people wanting to do the same for bestiality, polygamy, and incest is ignorance. plain and simple. i don't know anything about Al, but it wouldn't surprise me that many of the rights he enjoys today he would not have had if people thought the same way at some point in the past. and then to attribute such thoughts to "open-mindedness" pushed me over the edge leading to my comment.

regardless, the acceptance of gay marriage wasn't even the point of zawodny's post. his point was more like... what are we waiting for? and my answer to that is we aren't really. the issues that don't get get more widespread support are those that simply don't have a large enough support base or faces a similar amount of resistance. in the case of gay marriage, i support as do many; however, there is a large and vocal opposition as well. hence, the inevitable acceptance of it is taking the proverbial scenic route like many issues of the past that were supported by the stodgy and close-minded. funny none of them can provide any real reason why these changes shouldn't occur which is why eventually they do happen. in time either the masses catch on or other events effect a change. it was true for slavery, prohibition, women's voting rights, ...

now what was my point again?

Posted by ac at August 29, 2004 12:57 PM