Ihatecilantro.com and Me

You know the old saying, and I'm paraphrasing here, out of lack of absolute knowledge as to whether .com(s) (brainyquotes, wisdom quotes, quoteland or quotationspage) has the most accurate records, equally doubting the veracity of them all in fact, whereby brainyquotes, for instance, accredits the quote to both Woody Allen and Groucho Marx (it's Woody quoting Groucho in Annie Hall that commonly causes the mixup that it's a Woody quote -- it's a Groucho quote) and in any case, it more or less goes like this, I'd never want to join a club that would have me as a member?

Right, so I find it mildly hilarious, even after time. I also think there's some truth to it, probably why it's so funny. Indeed, I've been on a Facebook group founding spree this week (having just joined the social networking situation a few weeks ago), feeling more apt to start a group called "I love mustard" then join one, but alas someone beat me to the punch and their tagline included roasted garlic mustard as one of the many in their fridge and, had I formed the group, that certainly wouldn't have made the list. Loving mustard to me involves loving its purist forms, not buying dozens of artisan varieties, so, for now, I'll love my kind of mustard on my own time, without the support of other mustard lovers.

Joining groups presents all kinds of problems because, inevitably, you won't subscribe to all the group's dogma, a conflict I would hope, but am less than sure, that the world's faithful struggle with from time to time. For me, today, the question is whether to become a member of ihatecilantro.com. On the one hand, I do hatecilantro.com, on the other, their last news update is from early September, so I question their dedication to the cause. Then again, the site is well-executed, its tone just right. Their logo and commitment to cilantro hate publicity and awareness is worthy of my respect, and that of even the greatest lover of cilantro who still believes in the importance of the first amendment, although I'm willing to consider a correlation between not only cilantro love and moronicism, but also freedom of speech hating on-ism.

But back to the original problem, I'm not sure I want to belong to a group of a bunch of people just like me, a group that would have and encourage my membership. We could be, well, so obnoxious put in a room together. It makes me think of when I was vegan, making me a de facto member of the vegan club, a truly sanctimonious and utterly difficult to be around crew. Do I want to join a group of people who will, by virtue of being in the same group, assume they have more in common with me than they might? Do I want to associate with a lot based on hate, when I'm a member of exactly zero other groups (Facebook aside,*sigh*)? These are important questions I'm asking myself as I decide if I'll be joining the 1,731 already existing members. I need to sleep on this for a few days, but I'll be back with a satisfying conclusion.