Everyone is justified in their own eyes...

I find it amusing, and sometimes irksome, to read the blogs of other people. I know, people probably feel the same way about reading mine. Blogs are a great way to blow off steam, like personal diaries, but unlike personal diaries, they are inherently public as a result of their being, well, online. Therefore, it's probably not a good idea to post something that one does not want read by a wide (and sometimes hostile) audience. That advice, like most good advice, is much easier given than followed. Thankfully, this will not be another rant on blogger ettiquite, because I'm really the wrong person to go on a high horse about politeness. I will leave that to others more qualified.

However, that was a lead in to what this entry is about, and that is the self-justication that people engage in on a daily, if not more frequent, basis. For better or worse, the internet has provided everyone the chance to be their own expert about whatever they want to talk about (an opprotunity I grasp personally with both hands). It also, though, allows people to be seen as they want to be seen, and sometimes, that isn't a pretty thing. It is this self-justification that I wish to speak about today, knowing full well that I am not immune to the charge either.

Recently, I read a blog entry in a livejournal blog written by the youngest son of a minister in United who is openly gay. Having written in the past (and probably in the future) for United's Anchor magazine, the real sin I am commenting about is not his aberrant attraction (which, like any sinful pull, must be resisted by the Christian). What is to be criticised though, no less because it is so common, is the self-justification by which everyone excuses their own sins while blasting others for theirs. Every man is right in his own eyes, as it were. The blogger in question accuses his father of spousal abuse (a serious, if not uncommon, accusation, and one that often plagues divorced couples, even my own parents). He (the young man) uses this case of being a bad husband to justify his own sin, that is, seeking a good husband for himself.

Then all the other classic forms of self-justification come in. After the comparison of one's own virtuous (?!) behavior with the self-righteous and hypocritical judgments of others, there follows other rather standard ploys. There is the adamant refusal to admit that one's own personal sin is, in fact, wrong. There is the comparison of a hypothetical value of one's own supposed sin with the large value of someone else's known sin. There is the claim that the support one receives from others is bona fide acceptance of all areas of conduct, and as proof that a certain action is not wrong. There is usually some sort of biological or environmental justification for the behavior that reduces one's own personal responsibility for the actions that result. Anything that would attempt to create any pangs of conscience over the action must be explained away, either by selective definition of terms, or by a rigid adherence to cultural context at the expense of transcendent and eternal standards of righteousness. To put it more simply, "that's just what people thought at the time."

With the rise of the blog, this sort of self-justification has reached a whole new standard of ubiquity. The blog is an easy way to quickly (unless one decides to type long rants, as I am often guilty of doing) toss off one's thoughts, often without concern for grammatical correctness or flow. The main goal is to toss off one's own personal thoughts as truth, making us all our own authorities, and publishing our own thoughts to a candid, and hopefully favorable world. If all else fails, and our blogs receive too much bad press (and not enough support), there is always the expedient of making the blog a private one, and thus limiting the right to read and review to those who we know to be in favor of what we say. Anything is acceptable in order to support our own fervent belief in the righteousness of our behavior and conduct. All of those who attack us must be discredited by pointing to their own sins, and all of our mistakes must be explained away so that we are not responsible.

There is one advantage to the fact that this sort of behavior (which always existed, formerly in more private media, is now in public. This means that one's behavior is more transparent than ever before. With the multiplication of our own words, it has become all the more simple to compare one's words with one's actions, to record idle words slipping out (that happens all too often for me at least) and to point where people need to improve. It also allows people the opportunity to form their thoughts with some knowledge of where they are likely to find support, and where they are likely to find criticism. For those who are not scared into the shell of "private" posts by the feedback, it is an opportunity to make one's reasoning stronger, to make one's speech (and really, blogging is more like speech than like writing) more careful and better thought out, and to make one's skin at least a little tougher and thicker. These need not be bad, but they depend on refusing to merely use this beautiful medium of the blog as an instrument of self-justification, but rather as an opprotunity for reflection, and an opportunity for others to reflect on your thoughts as well.