‽istis reclaims context (weekending September 19th 2020)
This week ‽istis wandered among the issues
of the week and wondered and pondered context…
‘Context’ claimed:
‽ perhaps
in defence: phrases, comments, ‘only meant as a joke’, actions, writings - ‘taken
out of context’ whether current or in the past (that foreign country where they
do things differently[i])
‽ possibly in
explanation, where to understand all is to forgive all? Yet if we wish to claim
that moral formula – with nature and nurture as key factors either individually or in
an interactive equation where an outcome could be limited culpability and limited
capacity for independent agency – then we may have to suggest that explanation could
be an excuse and that neither virtues or vices might be attributable to individual
effort, merit or worth. Which would be most threatening, ‽istis wonders,
an inability to attribute vice or virtue to individual responsibility?)
‽ maybe in
justification: extraordinary times demand extraordinary measures… and contracts
are awarded without tender; ‘I/we only have to do this, because you do that’… and
the sound perhaps lingers: of possible coercion, control and even abuse; perhaps of rights-denied; of ‘other-blaming’
– whether that is of partners, children, ‘the enemy’ or the abuse of the letter or spirit of international law…
And ‽istis - floundering as to what to think
and how to act in the apparent subjectivity of context and constructs and
interpretations and translations and opinions (whether or not they are
masquerading as universal truths) - wonders where on earth (or possibly in
heaven) the firm foundations, the conviction, the certainty or the authority might
be found to know, or believe, or even feel what is the right thing to do and
the right way to be (personally, in relationships, in families, in
neighbourhoods and communities of geography or interest, in politics – local, national,
international)… and whether we even have a choice?
But yet, if perhaps, possibly, maybe we could
somehow try and work some of this out together, or even just consider that
there may be something to actually work out – in theory and practice - imagine
how different the world could be, in any context…
© Pistis
NB: further reflections and comments linked to this
week’s theme and past blog
entries to be found on Twitter: replies, retweets (which don’t necessarily
indicate approval, sometimes the very opposite!) and ‘likes’: @Pistis_wonders
