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LJ Idol Season 6 Week 8 Reprobate
Dec. 18th, 2009 09:43 amI can honestly remember the first time I heard the word “reprobate”. It was on my grandma’s farm in the summer. We would visit my grandma once a summer when I was pretty young. After we moved to Atlanta, the visits were less frequent but we did make the trek up to see her. It was after dinner and we were seated in the living room. (Well the adults were since children weren’t allowed on the sofa before we had a bath and with good reason as anyone who has been on a farm know.) We were watching the news on TV. I don’t remember who the politician was but I do know that there was a debate going on between my parents and my grandma about him. Grandma had a habit of picking her teeth with a toothpick after dinner. She was right proud of her teeth since she still had most of them and she looked after them. I remember hearing “Well he’s just a plain old…reprobate!” I thought, ‘that’s a new swear’ from the reactions of my parents to my grandmother’s outburst. I filed it away and later looked it up in the dictionary and found the following
Reprobate (transitive verb)
Etymology: Middle English, from Late Latin reprobatus, past participle of reprobare — more at reprove
Date: 15th century
1: to condemn strongly as unworthy, unacceptable, or evil
2: to foreordain to damnation
3: to refuse to accept: reject
Reprobate (Adj)
1 archaic: rejected as worthless or not standing a test: condemned
2 a: foreordained to damnation b: morally corrupt: depraved
3: expressing or involving reprobation
4: of, relating to, or characteristic of a reprobate
So for my grandmother, that pretty much was swearing since she seriously lived by the bible and the pope.
Later in my comparative Christianity class (it was such a cool class), I found out about the Calvinist belief that only the pre-ordained would get into heaven. All the non-elected are considered reprobates and condemned to hell. Sinners who have no regret for their transgressions and sins or remorse are considered to be in state of reprobation. Which just strengthen the power of the word in my mind. I rarely give anyone the title of reprobate.
There have been a few that I have labeled such and I don’t do it lightly. Bernie Madoff is a reprobate. His only regret in the mess he created was that he got caught. He did try to take one for the team so that his family could keep something of the monies he stole but as this still goes slowing through the courts, the monies are going back to the original owners. Not enough not in time for many but it is something and with any luck there will be more especially to those who now have nothing due to Mr. Madoff’s house of cards. And yes I do know a couple of people who were very directly effected by this including a 70 year old woman who has had to go back to work since she no longer has her retirement income.
There are a couple people in fandom I would label as reprobates. I will not name names because I really don’t want the drama llama to visit me again after I managed to get away from those situations. It just kills me to see how they keep getting away with the stunts that they have pulled before in new forms of fandom and the Internet is only making it easier for them to do so. They have no regrets other than getting caught but then they go to ground and like crab grass spring up somewhere else. I was a much more trusting person before I met them. Now my inner cynic comes to the forefront much sooner than it use to. In some ways the Internet has made it easier to make sure they get shut down before they can do real damage but in other ways it has made it easier for them to find people that will trust and believe them. I think my personal favorite, she said sarcastically, was when one of these reprobates tried to convince a buddy of mine who was pretty well know in fandom that I was the one that had started the trouble within the local group. I was lucky that the person asked for my side of it. They looked at what I had said and what the other person said and realized that I was giving the correct version of events. I was lucky that time. I have lost a job due to another person bearing false witness against me and I really liked that job a lot.
I try not to label the clueless as reprobates because they honestly don’t see what they are doing as wrong or hurtful. It is only when they have the clue and decide that what they want is more important than the truth that they start to slide to the reprobate side of the scale. The conscious choice to do wrong and continue to do so as long as it serves their purpose and needs is how I see the path to reprobation.
This has been my entry in the LJ Idol contest. I am really going to need your vote this week because I have been coasting on tribal immunity and my numbers are dropping towards the low end of the scale and I have a lot more to say
Reprobate (transitive verb)
Etymology: Middle English, from Late Latin reprobatus, past participle of reprobare — more at reprove
Date: 15th century
1: to condemn strongly as unworthy, unacceptable, or evil
2: to foreordain to damnation
3: to refuse to accept: reject
Reprobate (Adj)
1 archaic: rejected as worthless or not standing a test: condemned
2 a: foreordained to damnation b: morally corrupt: depraved
3: expressing or involving reprobation
4: of, relating to, or characteristic of a reprobate
So for my grandmother, that pretty much was swearing since she seriously lived by the bible and the pope.
Later in my comparative Christianity class (it was such a cool class), I found out about the Calvinist belief that only the pre-ordained would get into heaven. All the non-elected are considered reprobates and condemned to hell. Sinners who have no regret for their transgressions and sins or remorse are considered to be in state of reprobation. Which just strengthen the power of the word in my mind. I rarely give anyone the title of reprobate.
There have been a few that I have labeled such and I don’t do it lightly. Bernie Madoff is a reprobate. His only regret in the mess he created was that he got caught. He did try to take one for the team so that his family could keep something of the monies he stole but as this still goes slowing through the courts, the monies are going back to the original owners. Not enough not in time for many but it is something and with any luck there will be more especially to those who now have nothing due to Mr. Madoff’s house of cards. And yes I do know a couple of people who were very directly effected by this including a 70 year old woman who has had to go back to work since she no longer has her retirement income.
There are a couple people in fandom I would label as reprobates. I will not name names because I really don’t want the drama llama to visit me again after I managed to get away from those situations. It just kills me to see how they keep getting away with the stunts that they have pulled before in new forms of fandom and the Internet is only making it easier for them to do so. They have no regrets other than getting caught but then they go to ground and like crab grass spring up somewhere else. I was a much more trusting person before I met them. Now my inner cynic comes to the forefront much sooner than it use to. In some ways the Internet has made it easier to make sure they get shut down before they can do real damage but in other ways it has made it easier for them to find people that will trust and believe them. I think my personal favorite, she said sarcastically, was when one of these reprobates tried to convince a buddy of mine who was pretty well know in fandom that I was the one that had started the trouble within the local group. I was lucky that the person asked for my side of it. They looked at what I had said and what the other person said and realized that I was giving the correct version of events. I was lucky that time. I have lost a job due to another person bearing false witness against me and I really liked that job a lot.
I try not to label the clueless as reprobates because they honestly don’t see what they are doing as wrong or hurtful. It is only when they have the clue and decide that what they want is more important than the truth that they start to slide to the reprobate side of the scale. The conscious choice to do wrong and continue to do so as long as it serves their purpose and needs is how I see the path to reprobation.
This has been my entry in the LJ Idol contest. I am really going to need your vote this week because I have been coasting on tribal immunity and my numbers are dropping towards the low end of the scale and I have a lot more to say
