This-essay is   a7601161.htm   which is available  at the
web-site   www.essayz.com.   See more notes at the bottom.
Previous-Essay      <== This-Essay ==>     Following-Essay
By-Months                By-Years                 By-Words
Webs of Like-&-Un-Like ESSAYS <==> Like-&-UN-Like This-One
==========================================================
                                      %GOSSIP POWER 760116

     Gossip  has power to inhibit creative human endeavors
when  members of  a technocratic society are not  free  to
honestly  accept each other.   People  must masquerade  in
order to be acceptable.   Letting the  mask slip grants to
competitors a possible advantage in the game of life. Even
when what is revealed is not technically illegal it may be
useful  according  to  generally accepted  conventions  of
propriety.  Conventions of propriety are usually developed
by  those who have eaten of the fruit of the tree  of  the
knowledge of good and evil in the midst  of  the Garden of
Eden.  Having eaten of that fruit, they feel that they are
like God,  knowing the difference  between Good  and  Evil
people.    Such  knowledge  is the basis  of gossip power.
Gossip  power  is  extralegal.   It operates  outside  the
courts of law, and sometimes operates inside the courts of
law in violation of the most basic laws.

     Gossip power is used by manipulators of persons.   It
is  maintained  by people who like to manipulate  persons.
Often  gossip  power  is made respectable and is  used  by
respectable persons under the cloak of "due process". Such
use   depends  upon  informed  understandings  of   proper
behavior,    rather  than  upon  written  legislated   and
published laws.   The presumed informal understandings may
not  be real,  but nobody  is  inclined  to  question  the
authorities who articulate them while a victim is on trial
for violating the "common misunderstanding".   To question
the  authority would put self under suspicion of  likewise
having   violated  the  "common   misunderstanding"---thus
becoming   a  subject  of  investigation  because  of  the
exercise of free speech.

     Gossip power will be mitigated when citizens come  to
a  common understanding regarding  the ultimate importance
of  keeping  channels  of communication  open  and  making
mutually  helpful use of them.   The masquerade  can  end.
Then people can be  honest about themselves.   Then people
will be accepted as  they are,  rather than be manipulated
because they are not quite what they are suppose to appear
to be.  Gossips will have their power diminished,  because
their  stories  will not be attractive  forbidden  fruits.
People will be known for  what  they are,  and accepted as
such.  People will be free to help  each other to be fully
human, rather  than to  masquerade as being  in conformity
with some out-of-date definition of goodness.

                                                                                                                               
                         (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in      
  www.essayz.com       Search for Integrity and Honesty        
                    (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy)  
                                                                                                                               
==========================================================

Lines beginning with a percent sign are  KEYWORDS  for use
in ESSAY-System Searches.  Their terminal digits are dates
of writing in the format @yymmdd#, where @ =  a  means 99,
@ =  b  means 20, and # = is a within-date essay-count.

Links to date-adjacent essays are near  page top & bottom.

   
Find the following links by clicking on CENTER when CENTER
near  the top or bottom  of a web page of essayz.com
 
                    
               1. Go to HOME PAGE of essayz.com
            2. Find brief-essays via keywords
           3. Find brief-essay about ADDICTION
          4. Search-Helps related to ABOVE-LINK
 
            5. GoTo Action & Information Center
           6. Find Regular-Essays via Year/Month
          7. Find Regular-Essays via Word-Starts
              8. Find Regular-Essay about LOVE

This-essay is   a7601161.htm   which is available  at the
web-site   www.essayz.com.  These 5 lines echo top lines.
Previous-Essay      <== This-Essay ==>     Following-Essay
By-Months                By-Years                 By-Words
Webs of Like-&-Un-Like ESSAYS <==> Like-&-UN-Like This-One