Archive for the ‘My Inner Mephisto’ Category

February 9th, 2010 By Tony Posted in Blogging/ Vidblogging, Mephistic Moments, My Inner Mephisto, Spiritual & Personal Growth, The Midnight Rambler

Mephisto Is In The Building

I would like to report, with much great joy, and consternation [not to me], that Mephisto is alive and well.

Mephisto has not left the building. He never did. He is still here by my side, more benign and less aggressive than the Mephisto of yore. He tells me that he is too tired of all that aggro <shrug>, and simply wants to kick back, enjoy his life and have a laugh. Mephisto’s wicked sense of humour which he gets from me, is in fine form just ask Soul Sister. I think she has fallen hard for him!

He tells me that the energy required to bray with donkeys, converse with idiots, and continually rebut lies that are perpetuated about Deafness and disability, is too draining. But I didn’t think so at the time, I was raring to go spit chips and snarl, so I allowed him, Mephisto, to possess my body and give free reign to his acerbic wit and aggression.

It was a deliberate act on my part, allowing Mephisto to voice and express the aggression and acerbic wit that lay dormant within me. My modus operandi was to show Hearing people that Deaf people can match their wit and intelligence, word for word, thought for thought, dagger for dagger, and spit for spit!

I laughed as Mephisto’s eyes lit up, when he baited people just to watch them stumble. I split my sides watching Mephisto scour the dictionaries and thesauruses to give his writings a more literary bent. I even helped him make up words that did not exist, but were linguistically or grammatically correct. Don’t ask me to quote you any, I could find them if I tried, but I can’t be arsed. They are there; all you gotta do is read.

I haven’t been blogging as much of late.  With my internal metamorphosis, and the loss of interest in writing purely about Deaf shit, I just cannot muster the energy to counteract the bullshit that cloaks a lot of writings about deafness and Deafness. Nor can I be arsed to deal summarily with the attitudes of many of the bloggers and writers out there, whose views on deafness are shaped by nothing more than opinion, content to wallow in a thinking that demands nothing more of them, than for them to respond to an idea with more ideas, based on nothing but ideas. But as you know, once a person has an opinion, it is sacrosanct.

No one really has anything new to say about Deafness. That is not strictly true. Research in Deaf Studies [social and cultural] are enlightening, but otherwise it is the same flatulating [there's a new word for ya] bullshit  about communication methods, how we are all the same in spite of the rejection of social and cultural model of deafness,  and how happy a deaf person would be if they could just speak and hear! Sure, now fuck me dead!

Anyway, blag, blag, blag, but Mephisto and I are a happy couple now. It is a great feeling not to be rent with so much aggro.  That’s all I wanted to say really.

2 Comments

December 4th, 2009 By Tony Posted in Mephistic Moments, My Inner Mephisto, Stories, The Midnight Rambler

3 People, 3 Laptops, A Dinner Table, The Lounge Room, & Facebook!

Last night was one of the most spontaneous incidents of fun I have ever engaged in. Three people, three laptops, a dinner table and the lounge room, sounds rather dirty I know, but it was good, clean fun; and it involved Facebook, blogging, a crabby laptop that took forever to load, some wine, and bloody good sense of humour.

I would love to describe the unfolding scenario and chaos, but really you just had to be there. It’s a moment worthy of Monty Python, but like I said, you just had to be there. Though the more technologically savvy would understand the implications of people, laptops, dinner, wine, loungeroom and Facebook!

Don’t even ask about the time I thought I was locked in the men’s toilet, only to discover I had been banging on the wrong door! That’s a story for when I am lying in the arms of an angel ;-)

What I want to talk about, is an issue that cropped up this morning when I was talking to a friend on MSN, or was it Yahoo? *Shrug*, about a comment I posted on Facebook, in reply to a comment another friend made regarding Australian modern day attitudes to disability:

Disability rights is heading back into the Dark Ages again……

My comment was a succinct:

When did it leave the Dark Ages.. you mean the able bodied people have gone back to dragging their knuckles on the ground?

I don’t have an issue with the comment. Of course I wouldn’t, I am the one expressing it. It is a general comment, and not aimed at anyone in particular. I have seen it used in a TV show where a female character remarked that a male character had gone to a training course to learn how to lift his knuckles off the ground. It expresses the rage and frustrations of a minority group, about the majority.

I understand that my friend’s feelings were hurt, but as I said, the comment was an expression of frustration delivered in a tone dismissive of hearing people, who are the dominant group, and are responsible for the issue that continually plague Deaf and hearing impaired people’s lives. I was not having a go at her, or being dismissive of her genuine friendship and attempts at understanding.

Have a gander at this article, Listen – We Have Something To Say! for one example of what we Deafies are continually screaming about!

Like I said, this is not a diatribe against my friend, nor is it indicative of her attitudes. It is a topic for discussion though, and one that is not debated enough. I just thought to raise it, to make people aware.

I’m not apologising for the comment I made, or how I expressed it, but I do get that many people won’t see the comment for what it is. That’s not my fault. I am not to blame for other people’s ignorance, or their lack of will to educate theselves. There is only so much awareness raising a person in a minority group can do, before they wanna scream: “Just get fucked!”

Further into our chat, my friend pointed out that comments like the one I made, can make people defensive and creates more walls that impede communication and understanding. I disagree. Vehemently so. It insinuates that I am the one who is Deaf, I am also the one responsible for creating awareness about my deafness. That is true up to a point. When you are continually butting heads, is it any surprise that Deaf people make the comments they make?

Unlike many, I am actually motivated to understand different minority rights, the perspectives afford by women, deafness and disability, people of colour, anti-semitism, Gay and Lesbian rights, et al. I consider it important to understand our differences as well as our commonalities. I consider it important to acknowledge that we are all human beings with different needs, that should all be accommodated as a basic human right. Not to spend our lives continually having to fight for them.

I can also say, that I actually get some of women’s perspectives on their place in the world. I can see the social expectations heaped on them. Not in the sense of understanding their bodies, what they experience and so forth, but as human beings who have their gender used as a weapon to control and oppress them. For what it’s worth, I also get the following joke:

What’s that useles speice of skin at the end of a penis called?

A man!

Tags: ,
1 Comment

← Previous Entries