h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

<> I think killing someone because someone has burnt a book is much worse than the burning of the book. And if you wish to burn a copy of the Quran because you object to what it says then I feel you have that right. If someone is offended so what. They can be offended. As the Australian comedian whose name I can't remember said, "If you want to live in a democracy but expect not to be offended, you're an idiot".

Of course it's wrong - Quran, Bible, books of learning, any book.
So it is and it's wrong to take physical vengeance over your hurt feelings.

But we shouldn't, perhaps, be surprised.

We as animals pass on our learning to our offspring - it's part of survival strategy.

We, as humans, have a tendency to pass on our family/national feelings to our children and, in suitably nourishing environments those feelings can become augmented down generations...

Hence, for instance, the Irish problems and the current subject ones with you-know-who.

We can rail against it, discuss it, argue over it but in the end we should acknowledge that the feud, the vendetta are built-in to us - surely?

The only real solutions are broad education, talk and time.

And a chicken in every pot.

~jwf~

give a man a fish and he eats for a day!!

teach a man to fish and he will sit by the river all day drinking beer......

Build a man a fire and he'll be warm for a day.

Set a man afire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.


But, seriously, I think Rod has hit the nail on the head (and it is also very much a major part of the explanation for the situation I've been describing in Canada):

'The only real solutions are broad education, talk and time.'

... of our politicians especially.

Try to get them to not continue creating more and worse situations

'of our politicians especially'

One of our philosophers (and the husband of an ex-Governor General) has pointed out the importance of the fact that every one of our Prime Ministers and most of our important political and business leaders have been the products of our state-run schools (what we call Public Schools) where they rubbed shoulders on a daily basis with other students of every class and ethnicity, rather than of exclusive, class- and ethnicity-restricted private schools.

I can't argue with the importance of that fact for the relatively happy circumstance I observe around me.

An interesting comment, anhaga. Yes, it gels well.

That's one of those things that we (I, anyway) knew but didn't realise - until someone points it out.

Well, the message is clear. Carry out an act of religious hatred on your own and a) the Police will act and b) the courts will hammer you.

Get a few mates together to do the same thing and the Police will either do nothing, protect you or arrest a token fall guy and the courts will be lenient.

I fail to see what the woeful failure of Strathclyde police to address mass law breaking has to say about the prompt and just application of best practice in Cumbria, Surely we should abhor the one while praising the other?


Another analogy occurs to me. Rape is woefully under-prosecuted and there are very few convictions. Does this tell us that *no* rapists should be prosecuted? That the law is an ass for even having laws against rape on the statute?

>>The only real solutions are broad education, talk and time.<<

"The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the
intelligent are full of doubt."
Bertrand Russell

"Some folks are wise and some are otherwise."
Tobias Smollett

"You can be sincere and still be stupid."
Charles F. Kettering

"A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. So is a lot."
Albert Einstein

>>The only real solutions are broad education, talk and time.<

I wouldnt necessarily disagree with this. But it sounds a little like saying it will all be sorted out under Communism. True, obviously ...but meantime we need laws.

You're missing the point Ed. I'd be willing to wager that if 10,000 people burned Korans in Carlisle, we wouldn't see 10 people imprisoned.

Incidentally, the house journal says sectarianism's a myth - http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2011/apr/24/scotland-sectarianism-research-data?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+theguardian%2Ffootball%2Frss+%28Football%29

There seems to be a horror expressed in this thread at the very idea of book-burning. In general, is it always wrong to burn books no matter how heinous those books are deemed to be?

>>In general, is it always wrong to burn books no matter how heinous
those books are deemed to be?<<

What about a book of matches?

>book of matches?<



In my art foundation course we made all kinds of funny books at one point. There's a whole thing about 'artists books'. I made one out of Rizla papers..oh and a even more poncy one out of London plane tree leaves...

swl:

>>You&#39;re missing the point Ed. I&#39;d be willing to wager that if 10,000 people burned Korans in Carlisle, we wouldn&#39;t see 10 people imprisoned.


Possiby I am.

Are you saying that the law was unfairly applied to Ryan because others failed to apply it elsewhere? This still seems like an odd argument to me.

Or are you arguing for a more robust response to Scottish sectarianism? I&#39;d certainly support that. (Won&#39;t happen: too many punters get a vicarious thrill from it.)

I'm saying the law should be evenly applied; firstly because it's only fair, secondly to deny a sense of injustice to those who feel hard done by and thirdly because the British system is one of precedent.

It's all very well to sit in ivory towers and condescendingly point out the minutiae of legal procedures, but to the man in the street all that is seen is injustice.

Then you&#39;re a utopian idealist. *Of course* the law isn&#39;t applied even-handedly, and that&#39;s a disgrace. For every (eg) raped woman who gets justice, many rapists get off free due to shoddy investigation and prosecution...etc. etc. But my Modest Proposal is that rather than level out at the lowest common denominator we aim towards Best Practice. If that&#39;s regarded as an ivory tower aim, we&#39;re screwed.

Sticking with the Scottish example...are you saying because law enforcement is a sham the law should be repealed? Surely to Christ the answer is to fix the law enforcement?