We’ve got this idea, (thank you Thomas Jefferson), that there ought to be a wall of separation between church and state precisely because we don’t want one to dominate the other.
Where would we be without that boundary? Separation of church and state creates a society where a multitude of people and beliefs have to learn to coexist, and it also preserves our rights to practice what we want without harassment.
It’s a beautiful system.
I propose a similar approach between our personal and a professional lives. We need that same separation so that the sanctity of each is preserved against domination by the other. It goes both ways of course. If you’re working…work. Do a good job and be reliable and professional and take your responsibilities seriously.
But it also means, when you’re in personal mode, that’s off-limits. And I mean, mind-your-own fuckin’-business, totally off-limits!
This recent hoopla about a New Jersey judge, who’s also a stand up comedian, is a perfect example. He apparently does a great job as a judge. He’s also got a budding stand up comedy thing going. He’s good at both and he really enjoys what he’s doing. He apparently doesn’t use any personal information from any cases in his routines, so who cares?
Apparently, some are concerned that being a comedian somehow undermines the dignity of his position, or that the public can’t discern the difference between his two personae. That kind of thinking is exactly the problem!
It’s like some kind of logical fallacy; a comedian, by definition, is somebody you don’t take seriously, hence any person who acts as a comedian can’t possibly be taken seriously when they’re acting in a professional capacity.
There’s an assumption that we ARE the roles we play, personally and professionally.
It’s retarded!
Can you imagine a similar line of reasoning being used to dismantle the separation of church and state? Of course you can, but thankfully we have an ingenious concept of necessary separation built into our sociocultural frame of reference.
Can we please adopt the same idea for our individual personae?
I can’t help but make the comparison of the surprise a child has at seeing their teacher at the grocery store, maybe they see them with a spouse and kids of their own. It’s a revelation-the teacher has a life!
But we’re not children. We can, and should, expect better than this.
Want to read more about this nonsense?
http://abovethelaw.com/2013/02/judge-facing-ethics-challenge-because-hes-also-a-stand-up-comedian/
