I'm still working on updating DU For Guests; some recent bedriddenery interrupted the work, but that's all over with now.
The below is part of a chapter on the old edition, the 2008 edition of DU For Guests, but it's being expanded.
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Measuring the primitives, or DUmmies. conservativeunderground, the DUmmie FUnnies, and conservativecave are, essentially the FDA (Food & Drug Administration) testing the integrity of the DUmmies. Surely the primitives of Skin's island have no objection to this sort of regulatory oversight, they always being in favor of it in all other areas of life.
The chief job of the FDA, of course, is to check to see if a product is what it says it is; if it meets its own standards and claims.....and to publicize those instances where a product has lied about its quality, characteristics, and benefits.
The primitives, the DUmmies, set their own standards, on which decent and civilized people evaluate them.
A DUmmie, for example, might claim to be a virtuous person.
It is then the job of conservativeunderground, the DUmmie FUnnies, and conservativecave to examine those claims, to ensure that the virtuous primitive is indeed what he says he is, virtuous.
Another primitive, for another example, might claim to be "socially sensitive" to the needs of others.
It is then the job of conservativeunderground, the DUmmie FUnnies, and conservativecave to examine those claims, to ensure the tolerant DUmmie is indeed what he says he is, tolerant.
A third DUmmie, for a third example, might claim to be inspired by higher things, non-materialistic.
It is then the job of conservativeunderground, the DUmmie FUnnies, and conservativecave to examine those claims, to ensure the non-worldy DUmmie is indeed what he says he is, non-materialistic.
Again, the primitives, the DUmmies set their own standards by which they are judged.
Take the Bostonian Drunkard, the illiteratii to the Dummies.
The Bostonian Drunkard writes much, but would otherwise be ignored by decent and civilized people, excepting that the Bostonian Drunkard some time ago set the "standard" against which he must be judged.
The Bostonian Drunkard alleged himself to be a literary genius.
Okay.
And so the Bostonian Drunkard has foreversince been judged against that standard, the standard for a literary genius. It is not the fault of decent and civilized people that the Bostonian Drunkard has fallen considerably short of his own standard.
If the Bostonian Drunkard had simply written what he wrote, without attaching the label of "literary genius" to himself, his life perhaps would have been considerably less tumultuous.
But that's his fault, not the fault of people trying to assess him according to a standard he himself set.
In the entire sordid tawdry history of Skins's island since January 2001, no "product" has "passed;" no DUmmie or primitive has lived up to his claims about what he is, but one can always hope.
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I dunno now. Using the Bostonian Drunkard as an example of a primitive failing to meet the primitive's own standards of quality seems dated, passe, old hat, dull stuff. I'm thinking of using the sparkling husband primitive instead, in the new edition.
Anybody have any other ideas, about a primitive who sets the standards against which the primitive must be judged ("wise," "smart," "honest," "principled," "non-hypocritcal," &c., &c., &c.), and the primitive falls short of his own standards?
