Hypocrisy

Most societies are composed of different members with differing mentalities. Ideally, this will compose of those of different ethnic, cultural, and ideological backgrounds. Normally, one set of values will naturally become the standard, which will provoke a set of counter-values. In the sixties, the hippies were popular, which inspired the beatnick generation. Today, counter cultures include goths, nerds, spiritualists, etc. And yet, most of these members can usually live together in functional harmony.

However, in our intellectually-driven arena, I've found that there is usually some urge to be intellectually independent. What this means is that there will often be individuals who take contrary stances to the norm, and justify them with (sometime faulty) logic. And as an exercise in playing devil's advocate, that's fine. But it bugs me when people claim things when they clearly can't substantiate such claims of belief in life. This may include sensitive topics like beliefs/skepticisms in religions/spiritualities, or other things like thinking whether genocide is a preferable alternative to reducing the eco footprint that humanity leaves on the planet.

The latter example is pretty dark, but the fact remains that a lot of people are willing to publicly declare and defend their intellectual stances on sensitive topics like these (or perhaps less sensitive ones like refusing to conform to social norms in order to remain 'genuine'). What often happens, however, is a hypocritical cowardly turn when the stake is actually challenged.

As I finished my exams in April and was waiting to board the bus to take me back to my hometown, I observed an uncomfortably loud and offensive exchange of expletives on another bus platform. A man was repeatedly swearing, which drew the attention of a mother (with young children -- around 8 yrs old or less). The mother screamed for the man to pay more attention and consider his surroundings before swearing a blue streak. The man returned "I don't care! I don't care if children are around! *bleep bleep bleep*!" As soon as security appeared, however, the man fled. What happened to not caring?

Apparently, the claim that they "don't care" (assumingly, they're not caring about societal norms), is clearly unsubstantiated because they clearly cared enough to avoid the authorities of that society. People who truely don't care about societal norms wouldn't care to continue cohabiting in the same geographical region as that society. If you really don't care, make both yourself and society happy by leaving. Admittedly, finding political/ideological independence from society is getting increasingly more difficult, given the growing reaches of expanding metropolises.

Another form of hypocrisy I've recently observed is online, in the form of scanlations (see glossary for definition). These scanlation groups often hide behind incomplete understandings of copyright laws to justify their technically illegal practice of translating and distributing manga. Often, the rationale is "it hasn't been liscenced for translation/distribution in our region, so we're at complete liberty to work on them." Sadly, that is not true. But that's not even the point of this post. Many groups are now increasingly vigilant about controlling their own distribution of scanlations, forbidding the hosting of their files on online storage sites such as rapidshare, or mediafire. Despite the fact that they themselves are clearly violating the publishing and distribution copyrights of the Japanese (and increasingly Korean) comics, they feel at complete liberty to incur full indignation when they experience violations of their own distribution of scanlations. If it's supposed to be free and open for all to have access, scanlation groups should stop whining and let the internet spread it to the far corners of digital space. Otherwise, they should stop their own activities completely, since they've already experienced for themselves what the official/legal producers/authors of the texts encounter on a daily basis.

As an aside, it also irks me when these scanlation groups treat Chinese translations of Japanese works as being "raws" as well (ie, original works), just because they're historically, culturally and geographically closer to each other than they are to western civilization. Chinese translations are as original as English versions of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. Sure, you can use it to enjoy the text, but it'll never give you sufficient insight to the subtleties of Russian culture/language.

In summary, I personally feel that while it may be a mark of social distinction to claim a philosophy contrary to dominant beliefs, I also think that claims should be substantiated. It's too easy in our times to blithely remark "you believe in God!? How naive can you be!" when it's exactly those kinds of claims that would get you killed in certain regions in the East. If you claim it, you should believe it.

To end on a humorous note, I end with a quotation from television: "to each his own, I say, unless you're high episcopalian, in which case you're either Catholic, or you should just shut up."