[1968] in Central_America
Re: New quotes for Sat Nov 11
sethg@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (sethg@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Mon Nov 13 22:35:35 1989
*** The Overjerked Free-Speech Knee (OFSK) ***
This phenomenon is quite common on Usenet netnews. Recent transactions
on discuss suggest that some discuss users have this malady.
Victims of OFSK show themselves when they hear somebody criticize
another person's statements for being offensive, insensitive, uncouth,
or otherwise things-that-should-not-have-been-said.
In response, the victim will leap up and shout: "Don't censor that
person! Freedom of speech!" or words to that effect.
Case in point: certain responses to Linda Julien's complaint against the
Gilbert and Sullivan Players haughtily remarked that by golly, nobody
should censor G&S, no matter how offensive their statements were. This
is not at issue: Linda said of G&S, "it is my hope that they will be
more considerate in the future." Eariler in the same paragraph, she
remarked that religious persecution is not generally tolerated at MIT,
but "not tolerated" != "censored."
* * *
I'm sure that G&S's misuse of the pentagram was their honest mistake,
but Linda has every right to object to it. Is anybody disputing this?
If G&S performed a dramatic reading of Chaucer's "The Prioress's Tale,"
wouldn't a Jewish viewer have a right to object?
(This tale--one of the Canterbury Tales--is, if memory serves, about a
Christian girl stabbed by a Jew, and oozes anti-Semitism. If anyone
disputes this point, I can look it up and post choice selections.)
* * *
According to Vanessa Layne <dagoura@athena.mit.edu>, an upright
pentagram is also a symbol of Christ, i.e., the Star over Bethlehem, and
the downturned one symbolizes the Satanic goat's head. Organized
religion is *so* fascinating.
