[lit-ideas] The Reluctant Water Boarder
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 23 Apr 2009 07:59:44 EDT
In a message dated 4/23/2009 1:17:18 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
mr.eric.yost@xxxxxxxxx writes:
A: "People who don't care for the well being
of babies will never understand those who do."
B: "Yeah, but we won't care."
----
Exactly. Or recall Malcolm Bradbury's 'youthful piece' as he wrote to me
in my copy when I met him in the Buenos Aires Book Fair.
"Eating people is wrong"
That was the line from "The reluctant cannibal", by Flanders and Swann. I
have discussed it elsewhere in terms of Blackburn's attitudinalism.
"Boiling Babies Barbaric" works similarly.
The 'reluctant water boarder' may be under strict orders -- 'due
obedience' they call it in Argentina: Goebbels worked under it, lots of
Mussolinians, too.
"Baby" is ambiguous. A foetus can be a baby. Many pregnant women have
boiled their babies to death by taking an immersion foamy bath when they
shouldn't.
'baby' can apply to 'baby cockroach', which _should_ be boiled.
"baby" is derogatory for 'cute chick'. If she is not a minor, a witch, and
we live in Saalem, 1720, she was possibly boiled.
And where does Elizabeth Anscombe says this? I hope there is a context.
I never use 'baby'. It's infantile talk, like 'babbino', as in "Mio
babbino caro".
We can assume a species of animals which survive 'boiling'. Why assume
that 'boil' means 'boil to death'? In which case, 'boiling babies of
_strenosauri delicati_' would be more like 'cleaning' them or 'entertain' them.
Philosophy: The Exercise of Intelligence Applied to Real-World Cases
Misused by Politicians.
Cheers,
JL
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