Quran burning
Sep. 7th, 2010 12:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
angstzeitJust so we're clear here, I think burning Quran's, especially in a big, showy manner, is seriously fucking stupid.
But it is absolutely the right of any moron to do so in the USA. Just as anyone has the right to build a mosque where they want. There will certainly be people killed in the name of this event. But that doesn't make the people burning the Qurans any more responsible for those deaths than musicians are responsible for murders, or suicides, or rapes committed by their listeners. You don't get a free pass on murder because you heard a song, or didn't like what somebody said, or your religion was offended.
But, as I've said before, with freedom comes responsibility. Burning Qurans does have ramifications. These people are choosing to throw gasoline instead of water on a fire. Their actions are stupid, and selfish. Very selfish.
But selfishness is probably the ultimate American value. It is, I think, at its root, what the Tea Party is about. We prefer to call it independence, freedom, liberty, etc., but in the end it is the right to say "I don't care if you don't like it--I'm doing/saying/writing/painting/playing/reading/listening/watching it anyway." And we all partake of it and enjoy it in our measure. It is the American Dream.
But it is absolutely the right of any moron to do so in the USA. Just as anyone has the right to build a mosque where they want. There will certainly be people killed in the name of this event. But that doesn't make the people burning the Qurans any more responsible for those deaths than musicians are responsible for murders, or suicides, or rapes committed by their listeners. You don't get a free pass on murder because you heard a song, or didn't like what somebody said, or your religion was offended.
But, as I've said before, with freedom comes responsibility. Burning Qurans does have ramifications. These people are choosing to throw gasoline instead of water on a fire. Their actions are stupid, and selfish. Very selfish.
But selfishness is probably the ultimate American value. It is, I think, at its root, what the Tea Party is about. We prefer to call it independence, freedom, liberty, etc., but in the end it is the right to say "I don't care if you don't like it--I'm doing/saying/writing/painting/playing/reading/listening/watching it anyway." And we all partake of it and enjoy it in our measure. It is the American Dream.
