From: Chris Russo (extropy@russo.org)
Date: Thu Feb 08 2001 - 14:19:37 MST
>On Thu, Feb 08, 2001 at 07:39:57AM -0600, Chris Russo wrote:
>>
>> Here's a thought - why not make the pie out of feces?
>
>Because then it *isn't* a purposefully harmless prank.
Harmless by your definition, not mine. If you ever get a chance to
talk to a woman who's been raped, or forcefully groped, ask her if
she was physically hurt. If she wasn't, explain to her that since
she wasn't physically harmed that the act of the rape was "harmless".
You just don't get it. When someone does something physically to you
against your will, it's a violation of your person.
>Look, the whole idea of the pie-in-the-face is that it's meant to be
>non-damaging. If it causes injury, or infection with a nasty strain of
>gut-rot, then it undermines its own purpose. You might as well ask "why
>not embed a hand grenade in the pie?" Answer: because then it wouldn't
>be an overtly harmless insult any more, and we're back to talking about
>people making political points by shooting at each other.
Microwave the "pie" to cook anything bad. Someone aggressively
trying to shove even a regular pie in your face can also poke you in
the eye with a finger or the edge of a pie tin. Every similar attack
has some chance of injuring the victim in some fashion.
>Can you cope with people mocking you publicly, if they don't lay so much
>as an air molecule on your person?
Sure, I have no problem with that. When someone mocks me publicly,
they're not impeding me or attacking me physically. They have a
right to mock me.
By your logic, if someone is mocking me and I don't like it, I should
be able to have my bodyguards go shove a pie in his face or do
something else equally assaulting and degrading. Might makes right,
huh?
Maybe if Bill Gates had bodyguards who were bullies in a similar
fashion, you'd see the unfairness of the situation and realize that
it doesn't matter who the victim is - the act itself of physically
humiliating someone is wrong.
Regards,
Chris Russo
--
"If anyone can show me, and prove to me, that I am wrong in thought
or deed, I will gladly change. I seek the truth, which never yet
hurt anybody. It is only persistence in self-delusion and ignorance
which does harm."
-- Marcus Aurelius, MEDITATIONS, VI, 21
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