"Stupid and Pointless"

Professor Borcherds says these words all the time - especially when reviewing possible ways of solving math problems. He has a wry humor about him that makes listening to him a rather entertaining affair, despite the monotone and all.

Have I ever told you guys that I think Futurama owns? 'tis a sad thing that not enough people would concur with me, and hence the TV scheduling of the American couch potato is saturated with Family Guy. Sure, Family Guy is hilarious in its own way, and I absolutely adore Stewie Griffin but its just no replacement.

One of the more pivotal characters in Futurama is Professor Hubert Farnsworth, the 160 year old nutcase who gives Fry a job, goes around stripping and then laughs at Fry's 21st century discomfort- his "outdated notions of modesty". And here is where I start piling up the crap.

Suppose you were a parent (or any other presumably responsible character) and you saw your children going about naked, would you admonish them (I presume you would) by asking rhetorically "do you have no morals?" or "do you have no shame?" Now if you would ask the former and base your morals upon what is explicitly stated in whatever religion that you adhere to, then this post is probably not applicable to you. But if you want to read on, then forget all the things that you take on faith and follow my train of thought. Sure, I'm a Christian and all, but in a world filled with atheistic people (I absolutely refuse to use the term immoral here; given that by humanistic principles, morality is a non-issue here), one must be able to look beyond that which one staunchly and stubbornly believes to be true.

Perhaps, you count yourself as religious but would still give the "have you no shame?" response. I would then have to ask you, what is innately shameful about your body? Perhaps you might believe it to be not as beautiful or fit or well defined as you desire it to be, but that shame is one that is self-imposed. That shame is not being discussed here, because we tell people that they should be ashamed. Now perhaps if the matter in question were some undesirable trait, like a compulsion to lie - we would know that that trait is universal and normal BUT still be ashamed of it. This reasoning fails here, since we are all physically flawed in varying maginitudes, but flawed nonetheless, and we don't go around mortally ashamed of that little blemish or that flabby chin or that wild strand of hair. And then we talk of decency, and how we can outrage the modesty of others. Do we pretend that the people we pass by everyday have no genitalia and then become traumatized when the odd one flashes at you? Or do we say that the sight of it is repulsive and they absolutely have to be kept under wraps?

If so, one day we might have to start suing people for being ugly.

I cannot comprehend why anyone would naturally perceive genitalia to be repulsive. Its every bit an intrinsic part of your body as is your face. Depending on your gender, you will see at least either set of sexually defining body parts everyday (unless you're a hermaphrodite, in which case you'll see both or unless you're obese and can't see your crotch without a cleverly positioned mirror). And most of us will become familiar with the body parts of the opposite sex at some point of our lives. There is no natural mechanism that says "these are your privates, keep them hidden", although the etymology of the diction tells of how ancient this notion is. From where I stand, I see that our ancestors might have wanted to cover up for safety, for warmth or just for religion's sake. But today's world is mostly highly regulated with climate control and devoid of religion. So we come up with new reasons - "because that's tradition"

Thats why I absolutely abhor tradition. I do not deny that most traditions orginated from prudent practices, but I would just want to ask whether those practices are prudent today. For once, I would just like people to look beyond preserving the status quo and start asking question.

This is post is not about nudity, nor about exhibitionism - it is about understanding why we do the things we do. And ultimately, this is not me. I realize that many of the things I do and believe in are ridiculous from an objective viewpoint. But I have a reason, one that is non-quantifiable. I am a Christian, with faith that transcends logic and I'm content to leave it at that. But I'm sure there are many people who arent. What are you doing with your beliefs?