I propose a new commandment. Not an 11th Commandment because ten is such a nice number (we have ten fingers, ten toes . . . well, most of us do). I suggest we replace the 10th Commandment, which according to my Google search, now apparently reads . . .
“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.”
This obviously has to go. Not only do we totally ignore this particular divine directive, but frankly our whole consumer ethic is built on coveting. Without hungry insatiable lust for everything we see around us material and flesh, the shopping malls would be empty.
That taken care of, here is my suggestion for a new 10th Commandment:
“Not doing the wrong thing is no excuse for not doing the right thing right.”
Who said that?
I just did. Probably someone else too. Whatever.
I don’t know where we need to go to get this commandment thing changed, but I’m all over it. So all of you apologists and compromisers out there, beware! When I get this done, you are in big trouble for all of your waffling, excuses, halfhearted and half-baked remedies, your wholesale wimpiness, your cowering centrism.
You know who you are.
[ This posting originated at the author's novelist website jdrachel.com ]
