picture in my mind

This is a lovely rendition of Lonely, with a live band. It's been my earworm.

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This whole business with homosexuality and what you can say, what you cannot say. Haiyah.

Isn't it that as long as you say something nicely, you can say anything? If you say very politely to my face, I'm sorry, I don't agree that people should be short -- do you think I would have just cause to be angry with you? No, right? You have a right to your beliefs. If I feel somehow affronted, hurt or angry, obviously it is my problem stemming from perhaps some lack of maturity or reduced perspective-taking abilities. It is very important that people be able to stand up for their truths, but is also equally important that respect is upheld. 

If people would just be nicer, the world would have at least half the conflicts it has now. Doesn't the Quran say, Speak good or don't speak at all?

By the way, just because coincidentally, my previous post featured a homosexual in a positive light, does not mean either that I agree with homosexuality. I disagree with it actually. I do not believe it is right. I do not believe it should be legal. But this does not mean I cannot think positively about a homosexual person! (because surely sexual orientation does not make up the entire person, right.)

Being in the profession that I am now, this brings me to think about the fact that homosexuality used to be in our old versions of the DSM (which catalogues by diagnosis the Western world's perception of disorders of the mind and heart). And because today, homosexuality has been removed from the DSM, it's been accepted as okay. 

Recently, I'd been reading about sociopaths / psychopaths or officially known as individuals with antisocial personality disorder. These are basically people with damaged empathy systems -- they are unable to feel guilt, remorse or pity and will relentlessly pursue their own gains at the expense of others. Not all criminals are sociopaths and not all sociopaths are criminals, but apparently half of serious crimes are caused by sociopaths (M. E. Thomas, Confessions of a Sociopath). These people tend to be highly skilled and highly deceitful, and therefore appear the image of success in society.

I've been thinking... if morality can be so flexible and homosexuality is considered okay now, then one day, wouldn't being a psychopath be considered okay as well? It's a scary thought. Already, the idea of it is gaining popularity -- just take the well-loved BBC Sherlock who claims to be a high-functioning sociopath. It's just a game of dice, isn't it? Let's see on which side of morality such-and-such profile falls.

Now, if you believe in an absolute truth, then it's a different story.