Click here to support the Daily Grail for as little as $US1 per month on Patreon

News Briefs 16-10-2010

It has been a while. The 3 i’s through which i have been seeing: Internet problems, Influenza and the Insanity virus.

Quote of the Day:

What I give form to in daylight is only one per cent of what I have seen in darkness.

M.C. Escher

  1. Is there any particular
    Is there any particular reason you’ve started using link shorteners? I don’t generally like clicking web links when I can’t see where they’re pointed.

  2. The pen is mightier than the stick or the stone
    Re: Speech and harm.

    “Just as whoever violates a prohibition risks offending those who respect it, perhaps the fact that slurs are prohibited explains why we cannot escape the affect, hatred and negative association tied to them and why their occurrences in news outlets and even within quotation marks can still inflict pain. Prohibited words are usually banished wherever they occur. This explains why bystanders (even when silent) are uncomfortable, often embarrassed, when confronted by a slur. Whatever offenses these confrontations exact, the audience risks complicity, as if the offense were thrust upon them, not because of its content, but because of a responsibility we all incur in ensuring certain violations are prevented; when they are not, they must be reported and possibly punished. Their occurrences taint us all.”
    http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/07/speech-and-harm/

    Sticks and stones may break my bones but names/slurs can never hurt me?

    What a quaint concept… and one that has been largely discarded along with those of individuality and personal responsibility. Today, we are no longer just responsible for ourselves. We are now all responsible for everyone who has ever lived and accountable for everything that has ever been said or done.

    Ideas are bad enough but… words?

    Eeek!

    Sometimes it does seem that being so hurt by something someone says, suits us. It serves us to be damaged by thoughts and injured by words because short of this avenue of convenient suffering, the world would be free to think and speak without fear of us.

    We must be feared… even if we don’t care to earn an ounce of honest respect.

    1. cheers for the feedback.
      At university, I can recall many examples in private conversation of students saying they would alter figures in their experimental work to get what they referred to as positive results.

      On the other side of things you might enjoy the Sokal affair.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Mobile menu - fractal