#odd discussions

[leminlobster]

I today have described politics, philosophy, & ideology in a rather limited and simple manner to a friend so that they could better understand such concepts as they are among the few who enjoys such educational discussions. However, halfway through, it was requested that I use hamsters to describe humanity.

Mine and my friend's takeaway from the discussion is one disturbing fact:

"Everything can be boiled down to hamsters"

[angelholme]

What I like about the internet

You get into the weirdest discussions about the most odd things.

While I have been working, this morning has involved waiting for code to compile. And so I have been browsing various message boards while I’ve been waiting for it to complete.

And in one of these, I strayed into a discussion about whether or not Anakin was guilty of genocide. Which lead to a discussion of whether “genocide” as a word had any good or bad connotations.

Which is where the oddness comes in, because - for me - it is just a word. If you just use it in its strictest definition, it is actually neutral. It just means the extermination of an entire population of people. 

Now, I admit, rarely is that an act of good. You look back through history and no where is someone celebrated for “an act of genocide”, and the number of songs about “the hero who committed genocide” are few and far (and I suspect zero).

But there is an episode of Doctor Who (The Trial of A Time Lord) where The Doctor is forced to kill every member of a newly born race because they are too dangerous too live and would wipe out all of humanity if they reached Earth. He is accused of genocide (which it was) but his argument was that it was in self-defence.

Still - it was kind of an odd conversation. And not one I get to have in real life. 

(There was also a discussion about whether Alderaan had it coming, which is a whole other matter).