In the 13th and 14th centuries, the Inquisition ran amok in Europe seeking out “heretics” and stamping out “heresy”.    But little emphasized is that the prima facie rationale for the Inquisition’s interrogations, tortures, and frequent sentences of death was to save the heretic through admission and confession from eternal damnation.  Interrogation with its attendant tortures was actually considered a sacrament of the Church!  And the interrogating priests were empowered to administer almost any tortuous treatment to save the poor soul from eternal damnation—  But…they were not permitted to kill a person during the interrogation/torture phase.  That punishment, if deemed appropriate, was supposed to occur only after official sentencing.  Nevertheless, many unfortunates did die during torture—and the strange thing is that it was even then considered murder.  The priest administering the torture was guilty of murder!  That’s why Pope Alexander IV instructed that interrogation and torture was always to be conducted by two priests, one to immediately absolve the other of murder should a tortured heretic die during interrogation.

What a self-reifying system—buddies watching each other’s backs.  And although the purpose and techniques of the Inquisition were entirely abominable in my mind, this particular contrivance for self-regulation, the buddy system, seems to me to have some legitimate applications.  Children have been trained to use it while swimming, students are encouraged to use it while navigating about dark campuses late at night, and…I was thinking about using it here on Xanga.  How would that work, you ask??

Well, let’s say that I post a blog that is tortuously offensive, or hideously self-damning, or simply too stupid to save itself.  In the past, upon realizing my “mistake”, I could go “private”  (hide),  or post a subsequent blog making corrections and amends (awkward, unconnected, and untimely), or I could just ignore it (ignorant).  What never seemed like a viable option to me, because it seemed too unconvincingly self-recanting, was to post a comment by myself about myself on that very same blog attempting to rectify affairs.  I tried it once and it was pitiful: me on me—hell, that’s public masturbation, that’s heresy!!!

But what if…I had logged off, and logged back in as another persona, say, NFP.  Then returning to notforprophet’s troubled post with a fresh venue and outlook, and observing the golden rule of being a best-buddy, I could by comment immediately go about setting things right!   Such a scenario might look like this:

You Are Here: notforprophet

Thursday, August 02, 2001

I believe most girls believe what they say when they make a promise.  I just don’t trust them to do what they say in that promise.

Public Entry 12:22 pm - 2 eProps - 5 comments - edit it - email it

5 Comments

You are an evil person!

Posted 8/2/2001 at 12:49 pm by prettychica - delete

You’re going to go to hell.

Posted 8/2/2001 at 12:51 pm by nastybitch - delete

Let me explain.  notforprophet doesn’t really mean that this applies only to girls generally.  He believes it also applies generally to males.  However, in the past, when a guy has broken a solemn promise to him, he’s typically kicked the shit out of him.  Guys now know this and have modified their behavior for him accordingly, and so seem more trustworthy, though generally, in their behavior with others, they are  still as untrustable as girls.  notforprophet could never kick the shit out of a girl.  It’s inconceivable, except as a very last resort of self-defense.  The girls know this and their respondent behavior embraces this knowledge at some level, perhaps even subconsciously.  Hence, he observes more girls breaking promises to him than guys, but he didn’t mean to impute that girls are less trustworthy than guys—just more fortunate!

Posted 8/2/2001 at 12:54 pm by NFP - delete

You’re still an evil person!

Posted 8/2/2001 at 12:58 pm by prettychica - delete

You are both going to hell!

Posted 8/2/2001 at 12:59 pm by nastybitch - delete

See—buddy system!!  NFP absolving notforprophet, just like two grand Inquisitors!!!   Great idea, no??