On 25/02/09 17:53, Glen Pfeiffer wrote:
> On Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 07:10:46AM +0100, Tony Mechelynck wrote:
>> On 23/02/09 06:58, Stephen Samuel wrote:
>>> Methinks you take the phrase 'holy war' far too seriously.
>> Maybe I do, but around my house most of the inhabitants consist
>> of Turkish, Moroccan, Congolese and Polish people, plus some
>> Albanians (of Albania, Kosovo or both, I don't know), one old
>> Greek couple, etc.; and I can tell you, "holy wars" are
>> something to be taken ve-e-ery seriously among that kind of
>> people.
>
> I was under the impression that pretty much everybody understood
> what was meant by "holy war" in the given context. It seems to me
> that you are nitpicking over a term that you may not like, but
> understood fully what was meant. Am I wrong?
Let's say I find it morally irresponsible to promote the use of the
expression "holy war" in the context of something fun. I might have
approved the exact same software competition under some other label,
"arguing contest" maybe, or "competition of software handling". "Holy
war", in the proper sense, means something like (in ancient history) the
conquest of Canaan by what wasn't yet the Jews, (in medieval history)
the Reconquista and the Crusades, (in modern history) pogroms, the
Shoah, the various Israelo-Arab wars and Intifadat, and more of the
like. Too serious a thing to make fun of it, even in a figurative sense.
>
> Don't get me wrong, I'm not a supporter of promoting these holy
> wars. I would rather see constructive discussion.
>
I believe the kind of discussion I'm driving here is constructive, but
in a moral-philosophy or human-rights-political context, not a
software-promotion one. Now if you say that neither moral philosophy nor
the defense of human rights are constructive, then I can only disagree
with you, even if I'm unable to make you change your point of view.
Best regards,
Tony.
--
There cannot be a crisis next week. My schedule is already full.
-- Henry Kissinger
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