You must forgive me for a rather benumbed sentiment. Sometimes, it is easier to focus on the more mundane than it is on the horror of what is unfolding around us.
Tonight I saw an article about a girl being tried under Egypt's Blasphemy laws....it made me laugh to begin with, why should there be such a thing as blasphemy laws? Is it not blasphemous to kill, to hate to cause other people suffering? I suppose not, especially if that is now the status quo.
Looking at the offending photos, it struck me as a rather inexpert attempt by an ingénue, and actually it is the reaction of media and other people that creates more of a debate. There's so much hypocrisy in that reaction, so much denial of what people prefer to do in the shadows, whilst maintaining this apocryphal sense of conservative respectability.
I never understood why one need be so duplicitous in their actions, what shame is there in doing something (whether you stand by it or not) and being transparent in your successes and failures? Why this perpetual need for shame?
In Europe, there has been a certain transparency (albeit not extending to every aspect of life) for the better part of the 20th and 21st centuries and I wonder if that has been in tandem with the waning role of religion in our society? It seems to me that whether it be Christianity or Islam, religion promotes guilt and with that judgement and criticism of those around us. In some ways that seems to increase immorality rather that remedy it. But that leads to a far more esoterical discussion than I am able to deal with right now!
Tonight I saw an article about a girl being tried under Egypt's Blasphemy laws....it made me laugh to begin with, why should there be such a thing as blasphemy laws? Is it not blasphemous to kill, to hate to cause other people suffering? I suppose not, especially if that is now the status quo.
Looking at the offending photos, it struck me as a rather inexpert attempt by an ingénue, and actually it is the reaction of media and other people that creates more of a debate. There's so much hypocrisy in that reaction, so much denial of what people prefer to do in the shadows, whilst maintaining this apocryphal sense of conservative respectability.
I never understood why one need be so duplicitous in their actions, what shame is there in doing something (whether you stand by it or not) and being transparent in your successes and failures? Why this perpetual need for shame?
In Europe, there has been a certain transparency (albeit not extending to every aspect of life) for the better part of the 20th and 21st centuries and I wonder if that has been in tandem with the waning role of religion in our society? It seems to me that whether it be Christianity or Islam, religion promotes guilt and with that judgement and criticism of those around us. In some ways that seems to increase immorality rather that remedy it. But that leads to a far more esoterical discussion than I am able to deal with right now!
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