"So you just practice uniting with God when you are in the yoga room, but out here in the rest of the world, you just act like a fucking asshole?"

I just saw this video over at Linda's blog. The perfect video to continue my asshole meditations (if you don't know what I'm talking about, see this post) :-)

In my previous post on assholism, I got totally caught up with coming up with a definition of "asshole", and did not get around to pondering my question, which is: "Are there ever circumstances on or off the mat in which one might be justified in being an asshole?" Or, to put the same question in terms of my definition of "asshole": "Are there ever circumstances on or off the mat in which one might be justified in believing (if only for a moment) that one is superior to others, and to adopt the appropriate attitudes and actions to put somebody down?"

I would think that the answer would quite probably be no, if one were on the mat: Whatever style of yoga you practice, and wherever you practice, your practice space would hopefully be a safe space in which you would not need to exercise any asshole powers. But what about off the mat? Might there be circumstances in which one's boundaries and/or interests are sharply threatened, in which the only way to preserve one's sanity or well-being is to asshole one's way out of the situation? Might there be circumstances in which, in order to stand up for your own rights or those of others', one needs to treat the transgressor in a way that is less than "nice", which might make one come across to the transgressor as "being an asshole"? Could it be, then, that one person's hero might be another person's asshole?

I have some thoughts on this, but I think I'll keep them to myself for now. I'm more interested to hear what you might have to say about this. If you have anything to say about these issues, I'll love to hear them.