Tuesday 23 January 2007

Pic of the day: This picture is for a friend, who suffered an unfortunate but hilarious misunderstanding. The message is however serious enough. In a society fraught with suspicion and hysteria, you have to be careful what you say.

Short: Bear services

I don't think the English language has the expression "bear service"? If it had, it would have been used a lot, because there is a lot of it. In Norwegian it is a common expression, and here is the explanation for it, as told from generation to generation when the little ones ask what a bear service means.

Once upon a time there was a man who had a tame bear. He had raised it from a little cub, and it loved him like a son loves his parents. One day as the man was taking a nap, a buzzing fly landed on his face. The bear saw this and was angry at the fly. He hit the fly with all his bear strength, and killed it on the spot. Unfortunately he also killed the man. That's why it is called a bear service, when we try to help people and end up hurting them instead.

It should be obvious to any thinking man or woman that it is a bear service when you lump pictures of young adults along with child porn, or hemp and khat with lethal drugs. Not to mention when white-collar thievery gives harder punishments than rape or robbery. These and many other things cause people to realize that man-made laws are random and worthless. This is not a problem for those who have a higher law inside themselves. But for those who lack such an inner light, they may act randomly, finding no guidance inside or outside. Whatever they think they can get away with, is OK for them. (The same kind of thing happened during the Viking age, when Christianity collided with the old Germanic faith and many people stopped believing in one without starting to believe in the other. As an observer from shortly afterward wrote: They believed only in their own strength. But strength, as we just saw, is a dangerous thing without wisdom.)

The age of the Law is over, but for each of us we have to pass through it on our way to a life in freedom. If the law is unjust, some will get lost who could have found their way.