Monday, December 18, 2006
The thing I hate most
about getting a haircut is how every person I meet for three days has to comment on it.
Friday, December 15, 2006
I do not deny the holocaust.
You can tell it's going to be a weird post when I feel that I need to establish that right off the bat.
Earlier this week there was a conference of sorts in Tehran. Iran invited people from all over the world to share papers and research they had conducted regarding the holocaust, pretty much exclusively research that concludes that the holocaust was either faked or exaggerated. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that in many countries it is illegal to deny the holocaust happened (true, but instead of "many" I submit 3: France, Austria and Germany) and since Iran had nothing to do with WWII, it's aftermath or the holocaust, they can be a impartial place to allow academic discussion on the subject. I'll agree it's difficult to find neutrality on the subject in Europe, given the still very raw emotions associated with the war, but I reject the notion that Iran can be considered "impartial" on anything related to Jews, Judaism or Israel.
Reaction on the world stage was predictable: Basically every western government decried the conference as a sham and a distraction from Iran's plans to develop nuclear reactors, which it probably was, and Jews the world over were irate, as I suppose they should be.
Me, I'm OK with the conference. I do consider laws against denying the holocaust an unacceptable breach of freedom of speech. I completely disagree the position, but I think that people have a right to be willfully ignorant bigots if they so decide. Freedom of speech unfortunately means that people are free to spout what you consider to be patent nonsense.
As for world reaction, I really think it should have been minimal. I don't think anyone is concerned that President Bush or any member of congress is about to sides with anyone attending the conference, so there really is no need to get prove that you don't agree with them by trying to shout them down. And if the conference really was intended to be a distraction, we played directly into their wishes by spilling so much ink over a few dozen ignorant people gathering in a bellicose country and playing scholar for a few days. Let them have their conference and publish their papers. Let us ignore them and focus on more important things. By getting so up in arms over the whole affair, we kind of imply they might have a point and that we're afraid of it. We should rest assured that this conference is unlikely to sway anybodies opinion.
Earlier this week there was a conference of sorts in Tehran. Iran invited people from all over the world to share papers and research they had conducted regarding the holocaust, pretty much exclusively research that concludes that the holocaust was either faked or exaggerated. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that in many countries it is illegal to deny the holocaust happened (true, but instead of "many" I submit 3: France, Austria and Germany) and since Iran had nothing to do with WWII, it's aftermath or the holocaust, they can be a impartial place to allow academic discussion on the subject. I'll agree it's difficult to find neutrality on the subject in Europe, given the still very raw emotions associated with the war, but I reject the notion that Iran can be considered "impartial" on anything related to Jews, Judaism or Israel.
Reaction on the world stage was predictable: Basically every western government decried the conference as a sham and a distraction from Iran's plans to develop nuclear reactors, which it probably was, and Jews the world over were irate, as I suppose they should be.
Me, I'm OK with the conference. I do consider laws against denying the holocaust an unacceptable breach of freedom of speech. I completely disagree the position, but I think that people have a right to be willfully ignorant bigots if they so decide. Freedom of speech unfortunately means that people are free to spout what you consider to be patent nonsense.
As for world reaction, I really think it should have been minimal. I don't think anyone is concerned that President Bush or any member of congress is about to sides with anyone attending the conference, so there really is no need to get prove that you don't agree with them by trying to shout them down. And if the conference really was intended to be a distraction, we played directly into their wishes by spilling so much ink over a few dozen ignorant people gathering in a bellicose country and playing scholar for a few days. Let them have their conference and publish their papers. Let us ignore them and focus on more important things. By getting so up in arms over the whole affair, we kind of imply they might have a point and that we're afraid of it. We should rest assured that this conference is unlikely to sway anybodies opinion.
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