I am.. You are.. He is..

You've all heard the triple standard. I am one thing.. You are a slightly less acceptable way of looking at the same thing.. He is acting in a way that is completely unacceptable. We are all doing the same thing.

Want an illustration? Here's one. I have reconsidered my options. You have changed your mind. He has gone back on his word.

We can get sexual too. I am experimentative. You are kinky. He's a fucking pervert.

Nice isn't it. The acceptability of an action is based on who is doing it. It is acceptable for certain groups to act in one way. It is unacceptable for another group to act in the same way.

I was at a seminar yesterday, organised by the Mad Monk. The famous half of the duo known as The Monk and The Punk. I'm the infamous half.

The event had a speech/presentation by a apparently well-known media personality. An announcer, and presenter. At least everyone else there seemed to know him. I am not quite so knowing. But that's just me. He was talking about the ethics of being a media presenter. About being a socially conscious media person.

All well and good I guess.

Then he started talking about protecting our culture. When people start talking like that, I tend to switch off. After all, things like culture and values and morals are not static things. They change. They are modified. And anyone who tries to say that they want to go back to the old culture is simply trying to create an excuse for repressing you. he just wants an excuse to fuck you up. The culture/morals/values he espouses are at best outdated, and usually made up from a rose-coloured glasses view of what the culture used to be.

He starts talking about a Valentine's day demonstration that was supposedly held at Victoria Park. Apparently it was sponsored by the big media organisations and had teenagers and schoolchildren walking around with posters, banners and placards saying things like set us free to love. The quote is not directly from the supposed demonstration, but from the speaker's memory of it. Personally, I am not sure this demonstration even happened. I used to read the papers those days, but I don't remember it. It's not showing up on any google searches. If someone can tell me that this happened, and point me to the relevant pages I would be happy to give that link a place in this article. So far, to quote something that is popularly said on the forums - pics, or it didn't happen. Or to put it more succinctly - prove it!

The point he makes is that the corporations made use of teenagers to promote Valentines Day. He spoke long and loud about the evil done to these kids by utilising them for the nefarious purposes of the corporations.

Then he goes on to say that the following year, the monks got together and on ValDay took a bunch of teenagers all dressed in white around Victoria Park with white lotuses in their hands, praising the dhamma etc etc etc. You get the idea.

I had the urge to ask him, didn't the monks do the same thing that the corporations did. Didn't they use the kids to further their own agenda. Were the kids on both occasions not used as simple promotional items? I didn't. I wasn't officially part of the event, and I didn't want to screw things up for the Mad Monk. So I kept my mouth shut. But I that told me what kind of a person I am listening to. And that means that the person lost a lot of credibility as far as I am concerned. The lack of proof of any pro-ValDay promotional events of the sort he has mentioned, drops his credibility even further.

But the main thing I took from this is his double standard. Possibly even hypocrisy.

This double standard is everywhere. There are people like that all around us. They may even be us. Look around you. Listen to those around you. Listen to yourself. Look in the mirror.

One of the Litmus tests for this in Sri Lanka is the war. The standards people apply to the LTTE are not the ones that they apply to the LKGOV. The LTTE bombs a civilian target, it is screamed at, shouted, condemned. The LKGOV bombs civilians, no one says a word. After all, it is a war. It is accepted, even lauded. Of course, the LKGOV, being in charge of all the media, whether officially or through various legal and illegal forms of Chilling Effects, can lie to us.

But war and conflict is where a lot of such things happen. People are willing to accept things on the part of their supported side that they self-righteously condemn in their opposition. If it was bad for the Germans and Japanese to run Concentration camps, then why was it OK for the American Government to do the same thing to Americans of German and Japanese descent during the First and Second World Wars respectively? While the American camps were not the Death camps of the Germans and Japanese, but the conditions were horrific. Why do we condemn the war criminals of the Nazis, while Bomber Harris who orchestrated indiscriminate and large scale bombings of German cities is given a knighthood and a peerage.

The LTTE holds a Heroes Day, which is derided by the LKGOV as well as many people, and when the LKGOV holds a similar event, the soldiers and veterans are féted. Are the soldiers of the LTTE not heroes in their own right? Have they not also fought for something they believe in? But the double standards remain.

The point of all this is here. If we are going to apply certain standards, they must be applied across the board. Equally. Totally. Impartially.

There are few who can do that. Most of us are willing to followed the clichéd I am.. you are.. he is.. formula. I try to do otherwise. I am not good at it, but I try.

What about you?