The last border
A thought has been floating around in what remains of my mind. I approached it here but didn't quite pin it down. Finally pinned it down.

Several years ago I noted a profound saying in one episode of Fibber. It didn't sound like the usual writers; sounded more like Jim Jordan was sending a personal message to someone. Leaving aside the dialect, he said:

You don't want to ruin tradition. When a natural rule leaves the realm of tradition, it has to be written as law. When it's written as law, you can go to jail for breaking it; and when it's written as law it can be repealed.

Good advice, except that laws are no longer repealed.

The Trans phenomenon belongs to the same category but infinitely worse.

Tradition leaves room for internal confusion and ambiguity. The traditional structure of BORDERS AND BOUNDARIES sets up spheres of increasing size. Inside your mind you can do anything at all. Inside your house you can do anything that doesn't ruin other houses. Inside your city you can do anything that doesn't ruin other cities. Inside your nation you can do anything that doesn't bomb other nations.

We've blown up ALL those boundaries now.

The Trans thing breaks through the boundary of the individual body in a brand-new way.

Young people are often confused and ambiguous. They act out these confusions in play. Pretend to be a fireman, pretend to be a man, pretend to be God. As long as these expressions are detachable (toys, costumes, etc) they do no harm. After enough experience through play or school or work, you figure shit out. You become more definite and certain about important things, and learn to ignore stuff that doesn't matter.

We have decided that one particular INTERNAL confusion MUST be turned into an EXTERNAL AND PERMANENT ALTERATION in the body. Parents who believe that their child is confused, or simply decide to confuse the child, pay for surgery to add or subtract pieces. This addition or subtraction is permanent. The confusion or belief is no longer internal. Everyone notices it, and everyone alters their behavior accordingly, which then reinforces the belief.

This is truly new and unprecedented, or more precisely CONSIDERING THIS TO BE SANE AND NORMAL is new and unprecedented. In sane times, a person who removed his hands or head or eyes or ear was considered crazy. A parent who removed or added pieces to a child was considered a vicious sadist.

In fact those parents are still vicious sadists. We define them otherwise because we are beyond beyond beyond beyond beyond beyond beyond insane.

Labels: defensible spaces

  ¶ 4:18 AM