a note on otherwise

The above image was composed by a person, likely unknown to me, and posted to the website 9gag.com on June 26th, 2020; the post was titled "Otherwise". Many respondents expressed begrudging appreciation for the post, as it amused them. At the time of this writing, it appears that the post has achieved 8,902 points, which may be a lot.

9gag.com, which is not at all unproblematic, does not list who posted a piece of content so it is difficult to assign attribution.

I discovered this image by performing a Google image search for the term "otherwise"; I was hoping to find an appropriate image to accompany this page. I believe the image I selected is appropriate.

When we are told rationality must be the basis for our behavior, to act intuitively is otherwise. When we are told we must cultivate our career before all else, to skip a work call to play with our friends is otherwise. And when we are told that nothing is worth doing unless we can claim it as our own for profit, to share with affection under conditions of anonymity is otherwise.

In short, otherwise is not 'The Other', but is the affirmative enactment and wisdom of ways of being that authority would deny us.