Excommunication

The wonders of being excommunicated. When you get excommunicated by a group, you tend to sit down, preferably under a Bodhi tree, and meditate on the issue. Despite what others say about you, you pause to think a little more deeply into the matter. And then you'll realise that the situation is only because both parties (you vs them) have set up the case of excommunication.

You live your life the way that you think is the form that is worth living. They find you plain odd, and decided that you embarrass them with your antics. What both don't realise is a clash of ideology. You think that as long as you are not breaking any rules or laws, it is okay to do whatever you want to do. They think that if you are not socially conforming to the norm, you will embarrass them, especially when you are tagging along in their group.

A clash of ideologies. The world is a free place; it has place for everyone of every race, every creed. What limits who we are with, what we can do, how we do it has nothing to do with the world, it has everything to do with the narrowness of our own perception of what the world is. It is due to the innate shallowness of people that cause the multitude of problems stemming from non-tolerance of people who are different.

Of course, there are deviant lines of thought that threaten the society as a whole; these thoughts are best dealt with to prevent the collapse of civilised society. However, there are so many other people around who believe in different things, who do things differently. If we were to excommunicate them, aren't we reducing the meme pool from which our diversity and social survivability stem from?

So, after you sit and meditate on the issue, you realise that it is not the fault of any single entity; both parties are to be blamed. But now, a tough question remains: do you want to re-integrate into the group or totally dismiss them and seek your own fortunes somewhere else?