Friday 11 January 2008

Rhetoric

Why does nobody ask a smoker why he/she smokes?

Do smokers have to justify their being smokers?

Why must a vegetarian be asked and justify his/her being vegetarian?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

S/he does not have to justify it at all, of course, but one may just wonder about it (in the same way as one may wonder why somebody smokes, drinks, is a meat eater or likes the Tibetan script)

Anonymous said...

I asked myself why I smoke: it was started with experiment of finding out why people smoke. And I got addicted myself.

Smokers can be justified by the smoke and cigarettes; no need to justify themselves. Those two matters speak by themshelves.

A calling, like Vegetarian, is meaningful if it's being asked. It's being asked because it shows. It shows because it's physical. Justification is non-physical. Should we try to do non-physical things to enforce the physical things? No need. :)

Hi Kucing How are you! MEOOW

Yolda (Y.G.N.) said...

thanks+ terima kasih for your comments. Of course it's not bad to be asked and it's natural that people are curious (I'd ask other vegetarians as well). The fact is that sometimes there's some kind of implicit negative attitude...Hedonist habits are mostly understood but those "restrictive" ones aren't that understood. Those who asked my why did I take the decision showed intolerance, implied that I was somehow mad or unconscious or just rare. I didn't meet curious questions but inquisitive questions. That's, I guess, the point. Fortunately there's a lot of people who just ask out of curiosity, as you say, Hu-ang-lags.
About the physical/non-physical...well...it depends on the consequences of the non-physical thing. how can smoke and cigarettes justify (I meant, "explain why", not "detect") a habit? a material justification for a habit could be clothes and the protection they give to the body, to explain why we wear clothes (and why they're different according to the country and climate). Fashion and taste are something else. ah...and sandwich panels' behaviour as well (Master Guling knows it well).