Labels

[Excited Penguin]

The trouble with labels (my trouble with them, at least) is that they are inherently unfair characterizations of people, whether the label in question is accurate or not. 'Boru is an atheist' is true as far as it goes, but implicit in the label is that notion that I am first and foremost an atheist, which is untrue and unfair.  My atheist doesn't inform everything I do or am.  When I'm building an instrument or cooking a meal or dancing with my wife, I'm not thinking about atheism - I'm thinking about woodworking, ingredients, and trying not to step on my wife's toes.



I dislike labels, certainly, but I hardly think it rises to the level of a phobia - I'm not afraid of being labeled. 'Boru the atheist',  'Riah the Jew',  'Betty the Nigerian' and so on may all be true, but they do a dis-service to people because no one is all one thing or another.  People are always more complex than labels would have us believe.

Boru

What's wrong with that argument, of course, is that it presupposes everyone is so retarded as to define people based on one little detail about them. But hey, ok. If you care that much about what someone who thinks so narrowly thinks about you then I can certainly understand you. There's nothing you can do about emotions. Evie told me this just recently.

Sorry for the strong language, for some reason I feel like cursing right now. It's got nothing to do with what we're talking about or with you guys, I can assure you.