Holier than Who?

A wonderful post by Tristero at Hullabaloo. It starts off about eating habits and vegetarianism, but goes interesting places:

Long version: The notion that all human behavior has a moral valence is part and parcel of Puritanism. Cotton Mather:

I was once emptying the Cistern of Nature, and making Water at the Wall. At the same Time, there came a Dog, who did so too, before me. Thought I; “What mean and vile Things are the Children of Men, in this mortal State! How much do our natural Necessities abase us and place us in some regard, on the Level with the very Dogs!”…Accordingly, I resolved, that it should be my ordinary Practice, whenever I step to answer the one or other Necessity of Nature, to make it an Opportunity of shaping in my Mind some noble, divine Thought.

Granted, this is funny as hell. But it's also very creepy in its holier-than-thou piousness and blatant self-loathing. This stuff has created an enormous amount of mischief. There is nothing particularly "mean and vile" about urinating. Nor is there anything particularly ennobling about vegetarianism. OTOH, there is a lot that is very, very wrong with condemning humans for having a body; likewise there is a lot that is very, very wrong with assuming moral superiority because you will or won't eat something.

Funny, yes -- what kind of noble thoughts are you going to have while taking a dump? "Creepy" doesn't begin to do it justice. It's the Christianist world view in a nutshell: condemning others for being human. And I'm not talking about indulging in human frailties, but just for being normal. It's something that's infected American thought since the beginning (and I really do mean "infected").

Quite aside from food preferences, the idea that it's acceptable to condemn others for not behaving the way you think they should is reprehensible in itself, particularly this nation. It's immoral to eat animals? On what basis? My ancestors and yours have been eating animals for millions of years. It's immoral to have sex with someone of the same sex? Says who? It's at the point where it's weird to find a species that doesn't engage in that behavior. It's wrong to kill others? Under what circumstances? Do you believe in defending yourself?

I think I'm probably one of the most truly moral people around, the more so because I don't have a convenient list of hand-me-down tribal taboos to pick and choose from. I have one rule: Harm none. It's amazing the kind of perspective that brings to just about any action. Well, pissing on a wall, not so much. As far as I can see, that's value neutral. For that matter, Cotton Mather notwithstanding, so is having a body. (Just to nip one sophomoric objection in the bud, yes, all life is sacred -- we all carry a spark of the divine. That includes me. The rest flows from that.)

Leaving the vegan syndrome alone -- if you don't want to eat flesh, don't. Just please refrain from preaching at me about how morally superior you are -- I'm willing to posit one idea: condemning others for not adhering to one's personal morality is immoral.