From: ibshambat@gmail.com   
      
   One saying I hear all the time is “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”   
   That saying deserves to be taken out and shot. True beauty takes talent and   
   effort to produce and deserves respect.   
      
   One of the most ridiculous statements I've heard comes from followers of   
   Taoism, who think that creating beauty as a concept also creates ugliness.   
   Foolishness all around. Beauty existed before I existed or recognized it; it   
   will continue existing long    
   after I'm gone.   
      
   How many girls get traumatized through coercion toward beauty? Some very well   
   may be that, but they do not own traumatization. There are all sorts of things   
   that are good in themselves that can be used for wrong. That someone gets D's   
   does not mean that    
   nobody can get A's, and that some people are poor does not mean that nobody   
   can get wealthy. It is wrong to equate beauty to the abuses of beauty by   
   stupid teenagers and unethical plastic surgeons. Doing that gives such people   
   way too much credit. Beauty    
   existed long before such things existed; it will continue existing long after   
   they are gone.   
      
   If the society does not value beauty, there will be no demand for beauty. The   
   people who create beauty will either go starving or have to do something else.   
   I judge it wrong that America, with 300 million people and per capita GDP of   
   $45,000 a year, does    
   not have art comparable to that of Renaissance Italy, with 3 million people   
   and per capita GDP of $1500 a year. America should have 300 Sistine Chapels.   
   The only reason that it does not is that it does not value beauty or the arts.   
      
   Some people see beauty as stupid and shallow. There is nothing stupid or   
   shallow about the Sistine Chapel. There is nothing stupid or shallow about the   
   works of Keats and Akhmatova. There is nothing stupid or shallow about the   
   Burmese stupas. All these    
   are amazing accomplishments, and they deserve respect.   
      
   Well what about the bad behavior of the “don't hate us because we are   
   beautiful” people? These people's problem is not that they are beautiful but   
   that they are jerks. I once tried to approach such women in conversation, and   
   they responded with “we    
   don't talk to trash.” Their problem was not that they were beautiful. Their   
   problem was that they were horrible people. Whereas I've known any number of   
   women who were both beautiful and good people. It is wrong that such women be   
   punished for the sins    
   of jerks.   
      
   Beauty, itself, is innocent of misdeeds of stupid teenagers or unethical   
   plastic surgeons. These people do not own beauty, nor do they deserve to be   
   given credit for something that existed long before they existed and that will   
   continue existing long    
   after they're gone. Beauty is a good quality, and it should be respected as   
   much as any other good quality such as intelligence or being a good person. Do   
   not equate something with its abuses. See it for what it is in itself.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)