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%PURITY CODE AVOID EVIL BEING SUPERIOR INFERIOR SIN+960111
  %MANIPULATIVE TOOL HANDLES CONTROL EXCLUSIVE BEST+960111
  %NEVER VIOLATE PERFECT COLLUSIVE ORGANIZATION WIN 960111

     Purity codes attempt to define those people who abide
by their  prescriptions and proscriptions---as superior to
those people who do not  abide  by their prescriptions and
proscriptions.     The purpose of purity codes is to  make
distinctions between people who are acceptable---and those
people  who  are  not  acceptable;   trustworthy  and  not
trustworthy,     friend   and  enemy,    good  and   evil,
indestructible and destructible.

     People   who  take  purity  codes  seriously  are  in
competition  with  each other as to who is purest;   which
purity code is "best".

     People who do not take purity codes seriously are not
respected by those who do take purity codes seriously; and
vice versa.

     People  who take one particular purity code seriously
rarely  respect  people who take a competing  purity  code
seriously.

     Purity codes engender alienation and conflict.

     People  who  transcend purity codes  understand  that
purity  codes  are often used manipulatively in  exclusive
ways, to draw artificial boundaries between "insiders" and
"outsiders", "right" and "wrong", "good" and "evil".

     Once   the  assumptions  of  taking  a  purity   code
seriously have  been internalized---it is logical  to take
them  to their logical conclusion;  to seek perfection and
to regard imperfect people as "outsiders",  "wrong",   and
perhaps as "evil"  agents of the "Devil".  People who have
NEVER violated  the  rules of a purity code  are  "better"
than  those who  have sometime violated  the  rules  of  a
purity code.

     The  ignorance of never having  experienced  what  is
forbidden---is better than the knowledge gained by  having
experienced anything which  has  been  forbidden.  When in
doubt "DO NOT DO IT!"   It is better to have been cautious
and  ignorant,   than  to have been  daring  and  to  have
violated the smallest prohibition.    It is better to have
avoided  associating with "doubtful"  characters  who  may
have  violated the purity code---and so to be "pure"; than
to  associate  with  "doubtful"   characters  and  so   be
"defiled".

     Purity  codes  thus  usually  promote  personal   and
communal  alienation  and  disintegration.    On  occasion
people who knowingly have  violated purity codes have been
crucified   for  trying  to  help  people  transcend  some
leaders' preoccupations with purity.     Such crucifixions
do not promote personal and communal integrity.
                                                                                                                               
                         (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in      
                    (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy)  
                                                                                                                               
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