Every culture has it's accepted conventions. This is not only a fact, but it is what gives color and 'uniqueness' to each culture. The interesting, or amusing part, is when the differences of attitude about a particular convention are considered when the sources of the attitudes are from a person within that culture and from a person from without that culture.
One that immediately leaps to mind is the custom of underarm shaving. In many countries it is the custom for ladies to shave this area regularly. In others, it is the accepted custom not to do so. Now this is all well and good so long as each person is willing to agree that each is doing simply what that person's culture dictates. The problem arises when value judgments are placed upon such action. Members of the 'shaved' culture tend to regard those of the 'unshaved' culture as not only wrong, but as dirty, non-feminine, and uncouth. Looking the other way, those who shave are regarded by the other faction much as many people judge men who shave their heads bald for the heck of it: odd, silly, and, perhaps, pretentious.
Now there are, indeed, things which, I believe, are bad, despite the fact that some culture practices it. I think wanton killing is wrong, slavery is wrong, just plain dishonesty is wrong. Admittedly, I may myself be a victim of my culture, but it seems to me that I am at least among the majority of peoples and cultures when I say those are wrong, and maybe I'm absolutely right and they are universal wrongs. However, shaving underarm versus non-shaving underarms does not fall into a category of right or wrong. It simply is a process carried out by some people and not by others. Which appeals to me? Why, shaven does, of course, because that is what I've been raised with and accustomed to seeing. That does not negate the fact that I am capable of being aware that it is simply a learned attitude and not an instinctual one. Everyone knows that his or her mother makes the best potato salad in the world, but logic tells us that only one can be the actual 'best' (and all others using the same, identical recipe). We are not only what we eat, but we are what we are taught.
Now what, if anything, does this have to do with ironing clothes? To me, it is quite simple. What is the inherent 'badness' of having a wrinkle in a piece of cloth? Does it somehow impede the ability of the wearer to perform some function? Would Conan the Barbarian have been unable to wield his sword were his garments unpressed? Would Columbus have failed to cross the Atlantic had he been plagued with wrinkled clothes? Would the Wright brothers have failed at Kittyhawk if their clothes had not been freshly ironed? No, I think it likely that each would have still accomplished their goals. Possibly, by not having had to wait for their clothes to have been ironed, maybe each could have set out on his mission a little earlier and we might at this point be in a slightly more advanced society than the present one!
But no, society says 'wrinkles bad, flat good', and we therefore have millions of irons being produced, lands strip-mined for the ores, vast amounts of coal, oil, nuclear, and hydro generated power consumed, and uncounted hours of toil spent ensuring that unnumbered legions of men, women, and children are 'correctly' and 'respectably' attired.
And beyond the wasted power and the wasted hours, what about the inherent danger of hot irons? This point was brought to my mind by Gayle, a wise and discerning lady whose compassion for the injured of the world knows no bounds. How many homes have burned due to the forgotten iron? How many homes and how many lives have been ruined? How many people, having gotten an iron burn on their finger, find it sheer agony to then attempt to use the tv remote? Why doesn't OSHA step in and ban this machiavellian device? Do these administrators not see the danger or is it simply that, with their wealth, derived from the great unwashed and wrinkled mass of taxpayers, they pay others to iron and thus avoid the danger themselves?
But, regardless of the costs and dangers of ironing, is there a universal wrongness about wrinkles or a basic rightness about flat that drives this diabolic insistence on ironing? NO! It is simply a cultural convention, nothing more, nothing less. Are we guardians of the resources of our planet? Have we a responsibility to see that our children and our grandchildren inherit a world that is not exhausted of it's energies and depleted of it's fertility? YES, YES, YES!! So I challenge you, grab onto that standard and lift high the wrinkled banner of our cause! Save our resources, save our energies, save our precious time! Become one with the great, wrinkled horde of humanity! Wear your wrinkles proudly and remember that only he who never moves puts no wrinkles in his clothes! Be a doer and accomplish great things. WRINKLE YOUR CLOTHES!!