Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84 exptools; site ihu1m.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!ihnp4!ihu1m!gadfly From: gadfly@ihu1m.UUCP (Gadfly) Newsgroups: net.flame Subject: Re: Do those with monkey brains deserve to be eaten?! Message-ID: <409@ihu1m.UUCP> Date: Wed, 1-May-85 17:48:58 EDT Article-I.D.: ihu1m.409 Posted: Wed May 1 17:48:58 1985 Date-Received: Thu, 2-May-85 03:03:27 EDT References: <1781@decwrl.UUCP> Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories Lines: 124 -- > Ahhhhh. Ken Perlow you little rascal you. Sorry for the delay, Ken, but a lot of the time I heretofore had for perusing that supercilious spew of crypto-fascist techno-twits which we call netnews (it's a dirty job, but hey...) has been preempted by practicing and making reeds for the Baroque oboe. Believe me, it's just as painful. [I said] ~~ You asked once before where morals came from, you ~~ lovable Leo Buscaglia clone you, but all you do is snipe at poor ~~ souls (and rich Rosens) while they agonize--or paint--over the ~~ delaminations in their moral fiberglass. You give the distinct ~~ impression that the acid test of a morality (amorality?) is in ~~ its answers. [Arndt] >> **** Ahhhh low blow. Leo Buscaglia!! That twerp! He's the one >> person that makes me want to hurt people. Rather just hurt him. >> Because it would feel good. I want to throw up every time I fail >> to learn my lesson and listen to him for a few minutes. In a >> nasty brutal world - you know, ours - he disarms the will to >> resist with his pap! Does anyone for one moment think he can >> stand like the Pope before the Hunnish hordes and stop them from >> sacking Rome? With that drivel? Gee, we have something else in common besides our names. I, too, detest LB. He reminds me of those sickly-sweet "Love is.." comics. But much holier-than-thou. The last time I saw him (on TV), I had a nearly irrepressible urge to pie him. I kicked the cat instead. I would have kicked a fetus, Ken, but there wasn't one around. [OK, folks: ~~ = me, >> = Arndt. Got it? Good! There'll be a quiz next week.] ~~ Well that's boring. No moral code worth its pillar of ~~ salt is lacking vast cracks and crevasses. I'll go further than ~~ that--a moral code with easy answers to hard questions is at ~~ least suspect, if not downright dangerous. Good questions should ~~ be savored, like good wine. Or are you intimating that the proof ~~ of the pudding (simian or otherwise) is in the eating? If so, ~~ please pass the salt. >> **** Craks and crev's indeed. All you are saying is that we >> appear not to have infinite knowledge . . . yawn. Only the dumb >> don't seem to know that yet - and those still living before 1700. >> Can't crack the cant, eh? "Easy answers to hard questions, etc." >> "Cracks and Crevasses, pillar of salt, good wine, pudding, >> simian, ye gads, Ken. Change your supplier. Missed the joke, eh? Well, Ken, you play with guns; I play with metaphors (and occasional semicolons). Morality plays with metaphors too. So do morality plays. Get it? I kind of liked "worth its pillar of salt", though. >> Look, and here's the 'meat' (sorry) of my reply, what IS the >> difference between a man and a monkey? Eat one and not the >> other??? Why? As one person, bless you, so aptly put it - have I >> (with the monkey brain piece) offended your morals or only your >> sensibilities???? If your morals, then WHAT morals are those?? The difference (as I see it) is language. Man is a monkey that can talk. The facility for language lifts us out of the 2-dimensional world of here-and-now and gives us many pasts and more futures. Humans are qualitatively different from all other animals on that score. Killing and eating a monkey doesn't offend me at all. Eating a (presumably dead) human offends my sensibilities--but only because once upon a time I worked as a short-order cook; killing one offends my morals. I won't kill any being that can give me three reasons not to do so. Unless it refuses to return the courtesy, of course. The guiding principle is "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." It appears in most religions. It applies to all beings capable of understanding it. And it undoubtedly evolved in a number of cultures independently. >> Picture yourself in the monkey's place before a hungry crowd of >> 'moderns'. With the few moments left to you, what would you say >> to them to get them to eat something else??? THAT'S THE REAL >> QUESTION,EH? Of course . . . that could never happen . . . right? >> I mean surely there are REASONS why we would never accept eating >> of human flesh. Wouldn't the Supremeo Court protect us??? Er, >> what if someone WANTED to be eaten? Remember my friend? Or we >> started with those who had died a few moments before of natural >> causes. I mean some peoples DO eat their fellow man. The mean ole >> Christian missionaries and the naughty Colonial powers - thank >> goodness they're gone now - forbade them to practice their >> religion and their culture!!! Doesn't appear to be 'unnatural' if >> some groups are already doing it, wouldn't you say? Wouldn't it >> be 'funny' to wake up one morning an old man in a culture in >> which your grandchildren ate human flesh. Of course out of >> feelings for your 'old time', 'traditional' views they'd no doubt >> keep the 'hand sandwiches' in the frig when you came over to >> lunch... >> Ken Arndt Uh-oh, I smell a "leads to". You know, some imagined improper behavior (like abortion, hmmm?) "leads to" genocide/Nazism/hell. Well, when you've got a few relatives who survived the camps--and many more who didn't--you learn that humans are capable of making the most arbitrary of black-and-white distinctions. Or as my grandmother used to say, "If people can do *that*, they can do anything." They don't need a road paved with good intentions; they don't even need a sidewalk. There is no "leads to", just easy answers in hard times. Because people submit, blindly, to authority. Of course it can happen here--it's happening. Interesting, your obsession with eating people. I thought the issue might be killing people. Seems to me, if killing 'em is OK, perhaps it's only fitting to have to eat what you kill. Those oppressors you mentioned had nothing against killing, though they usually preached otherwise. Liars and murderers--yes, thank goodness at least some of them are gone. Sic semper tyrranis! -- *** *** JE MAINTIENDRAI ***** ***** ****** ****** 01 May 85 [12 Floreal An CXCIII] ken perlow ***** ***** (312)979-7188 ** ** ** ** ..ihnp4!iwsl8!ken *** ***