I is for I, Insurrection, and Introspection.

 I is a pronoun. I am, I said. Well, Neil Diamond said. He was talking to a chair at the time, and only he knows why.

Pronouns, as a rue, are specific. He, his, her, hers. Mr, Mrs, Ms. Them, theirs, they.

No, wait.

Specificity is no longer true. Them, they, and theirs used to refer only to groups of people. They are plurals. But they are no longer plurals. Some individuals are now (for the past few years, in fact) claiming rights to be called "they", because, well, they identify not as singular beings, but as pluralities. As people who is / are dynamically fluid in their self-imaging.

They are non-gender-specific.

I applaud them, but not their abuse of a series of words that have specific meanings. Let's take the example of Aaron, a non-gender-specific person who has no desire to be seen as a male. Or a female. Rather, s/he (or "they") sees him / her selves ("themselves)  as neither, both, and as a combination. This is fine. Again, it's something to be celebrated, and recognised as part of humanity's astonishing and rich diversity.

But. Physically Aaron presents physically as a singular being. A onesome. Which tends to mean that Aaron is not, in fact, more than one human being. 

Just as I am. And I am, as Mark the Bible person said, legion. I am the sum of all my experiences, all my memories, all my reading and thinking. And I am one person.

Gender fluidity is an ancient phenomenon,  recognised only recently. It is a fact that is resisted strenuously by many religious folk who are unwilling to grasp a fact when it compromises their belief. The fact that it exists and is now scientifically recognised as a reality for a few people is not, however, permission to beat the living shit out of an existing pronoun. Especially one which already has a specific meaning.

Him and her are obvious no-noes. Them and they are obvious no-noes, as they apply to more than one person.

Remember when the title "Ms" was introduced to a startled patrinomy? It was sneered at, ridiculed, fought, and eventually recognised - and the world went on its merry way.

May I suggest that  society  get together, embrace our gender-fluid neighbours, and work at finding a new word to cover their state of being? (I use "their" in that plea to mean the non-gender-specific community. If, in fact, they are a community. Surely they're part of a wider community? The human one?

How about Vi, Vou, Ve? Vyself? Vourself?

It's distinct enough, can be unique to a particular group, and hell, we'll all get used to it. And we won't confuse Aaron with being a bunch of guffawing cannibalistic bankers.

Speaking of such a group of people - the infamous USA Insurrectionists come to mind. The cos-play meatheads who invaded the USA houses of parliament in a bid to overthrow an elected government. That's a bunch of people who are a They. A collective-minded hive-brained gang of fascists, whose behaviour was far worse than any Communist demonstration in the USA's history. And their mentors, the Republican Party, want the actions of those smelly, fascist-flag waving treasonous cock-wombles ignored. White-washed. 

How long will it be before the Republicans force the USA to the brink of being a rogue nation? If Joe, Kamala, and Bernie Sanders don't grow stronger backbones and start asking Republican voters the hard questions, the answer could be "not very long at all".

Enough Outrospection. Let's try a little Introspection. Socrates once said (well before he casually quaffed a beaker of hemlock) that "The unexamined life is not worth living", and he knew what he was thinking and talking about. It's a trick that took me nearly 50 years of life to learn, and I have to say  that I was about 30 years too late. Better late then never, though.

Actually examining one's life isn't as easy as it sounds, though. It's a challenging process. Doing so means you really have to face your mistakes, your fears, your joys, your triumphs. And it may be that a fear you've nursed for years may not be a desirable thing to keep. And it takes courage / bravery to face a fear and kick it into touch. And if you are honest with yourself (which I found to be another breath-taking challenge) you may well find that there's a triumph or two in your life that won't bear honest scrutiny.

Ian* Socrates quotes:

*Socrates' name wasn't really Ian. But as I have set out to provide quotes from poets / thinkers whose names start with that day's cardinal letter, and because I couldn't think of any poets / thinkers whose names started with "I", and because The Bis S-man has already been spoken of in this blog... he has become and honorary Ian. For the day.

I cannot teach anybody anything. I can only make them think.

Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel. 

I am not an Athenian or a Greek. I am a citizen of the world.

True wisdom comes to each of us when we realise how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us.