Religion is a mental illness

[trog.livejournal.com]

Photo: Orthodox Jewish Man Covers Himself In Plastic Bag On Plane

Why is he doing this? Don't read further. I'm telling you, you do not want to know...



We don't often see the classic Twin Peaks phrase "wrapped in plastic" taken so literally—but a Redditor posted the above photo of an Orthodox Jewish man who did just that on a recent flight. Poster "FinalSay" initially assumed the man was covering up because he was in front of women, but others pointed out that it is much more likely that the man is a "Kohen", who are holy priests (or descended from them).

Kohens are prohibited from flying over cemeteries ("A kohen initially was not supposed to approach any dead body, and if he did so he became ritually impure"), which as you can imagine, could be a major problem for travel. According to Haaretz, Rabbi Yosef Shalom Eliashiv, the leader of the Lithuanian Haredi community in Israel, "found a solution to this issue, ruling that wrapping oneself in thick plastic bags while the plane crossed over the cemetery is permissible."



Source: http://gothamist.com/2013/04/11/photo_orthodox_jewish_man_covers_hi.php

Comments

[chron-job.livejournal.com]

> I don't see the issue here

The issue is that his rules are absurd.

Now, I grant you, in this case, they are harmless in their absurdity, since they effect him, rather than trying to rope others into obeying the absurd authority he obeys... so I'm not gonna try and pass any laws against him or mess with him. But I still note, that there's a problem here.

The problem, ya see, is that making the critical decision "Does this effect just me? Or is this effecting others? Should my rules apply to them as well?" requires the application of reason.... and the defining characteristic of absurd authority is that it is immune to appeals from reason.

That's why we (or I, at least) are unsettled by absurd authority, even when it does not effect us directly at the moment, because at some time it may, and when it does, it will be just as immune to reason.

[dwer.livejournal.com]

but they're his rules. I have a rule that I won't pick up a gun and shoot someone, no matter what. Why is my rule ok and his not? Because I don't wear a sign that says "Won't touch a gun"?

[chron-job.livejournal.com]

> Why is my rule ok and his not?

Ultimately because it has a rational and explicable link to a value that we share.

[dwer.livejournal.com]

Think squidboi would agree that you and I are being rational about it? How about gunslnger or wossnames with the helicopter icon? This guy's values include following rules that require him to avoid graveyards. Until he actually tries to wrap someone else in plastic without consent, I don't see why we should get a say in the viability of his beliefs.

[chron-job.livejournal.com]

>. Until he actually tries to wrap someone else in plastic without consent, I don't see why we should
> get a say in the viability of his beliefs.

I would say, until he tries to wrap someone else in plastic without consent, I don't see why we should try to control his behavior in a way that violates his Agency.

But to "get a say in the viability of his beliefs" ? My say in the viability of his beliefs, if I take your meaning correctly, comes with no chains, and no obligatory behavior or threat of force. I will not use power to enforce my opinion about said viability.... but I DO have an opinion, and intend to express it.

I think wrapping yourself in plastic to maintain a ritual purity because you are in an aluminum tube that might be several thousand feet above a plot of land that contains dead people... is absurd. I think the idea of ritual purity is itself absurd.

But then, I think the transubstantiation of communion is absurd. I think the idea that Mohamed spoke with an Angel is absurd.

And, I also say, that I am a bit unsettled about people with extreme commitment to maintaining ritual purity, because many similar ideas are at the root of taboos, social behaviors, and pogroms that oppress and injure other people.

But, so long as the behavior is inward directed, I am merely unsettled, rather than threatened in a way that compels action.