What's This Shit?

“The fact that until recently the word “shit” appeared in print as s— has nothing to do with moral considerations. You can’t claim that shit is immoral, after all! The objection to shit is a metaphysical one. The daily defecation session is daily proof of the unacceptability of Creation. … The aesthetic ideal of the categorical agreement with being is a world in which shit is denied and everyone acts as though it did not exist. This aesthetic ideal is called kitsch. … Kitsch is the absolute denial of shit, in both the literal and the figurative senses of the word; kitsch excludes everything from its purview which is essentially unacceptable in human existence.”

--Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being

In his novel, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera claims that politics is about kitsch. People with similar aesthetic sensibilities coalesce to advance their collective kitsch. It’s not merely about advocating their own point of view but eliminating competing ideas and dissent as shit, something that stinks up the place, something that messes up the pretty picture, something that reminds us that our aesthetic does not reflect reality in total. The “shit” not only has to be gotten rid of, it has to be denied. The world has to be reordered so that the “shit” no longer exists.

In a complex society that has competing aesthetics in play without any aesthetic being dominate, it is possible to retain your individuality. But in a totalitarian state, kitsch becomes totalitarian, and there is always a drive toward totalitarianism. It is always a threat.

Kitsch comes in an infinite variety. There is heterosexual kitsch, for instance, and with that aesthetic, anything that isn’t hetero, anything that doesn’t fit the gender binary is thought of as shit that needs to be eliminated, erased, denied. Even among gay men, there is the masculine kitsch…the cop, the soldier, the fireman. For some it’s not enough that their masculine ideal remain personal. They want that ideal to be universal.

You can see kitsch operating all around us every day. I think it’s at the root of intolerance in all it’s forms. Human beings can be extremely chauvinistic. There is this tendency to want to destroy anything that is personally offensive, and the driving force behind that isn’t morality but aesthetics. Most of us want to “redecorate” the world as if it were our private homes and the lives of others and their aesthetic sensibilities are of no consequence.

I don't consider anyone who claims to be an authority on what any god "wants" or "thinks" to be an actual authority.  As far as I'm concerned, those who claim to be authorities are merely human beings who don't know any more than anyone else.  I don't know if they're intentionally fooling their followers or if they've actually drank their own Kool-Aid, but I'm not buying it.
 
I think life is a mystery, and my life comes down to me trying to figure it out and doing the best that I can.  I might listen to the thoughts, concerns and advice of others, but ultimately, I'm the one who has to decide for myself, and I know that I don't know what any god "thinks" or "wants".

For whatever reason, I am powerfully attracted to members of my own sex.  Even though I have extreme social phobia and PTSD and I've not had sex with anyone for years and I've never had a boyfriend, those feelings still give me a lot of joy.  They make me feel alive.  I'm not forsaking them.  I'm not going to try to forsake them.  And I've never heard any good reason as to why I should.
 
Those feelings are what I have, and trying to smother them or stamp them out would seem as mindless and stupid as mowing over a field of wildflowers because some idiot told me that denying myself their beauty would somehow make me a better person.