Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Suggestion

Even if this (warning: gruesome) was a single case it should be enough for all good people to update any guidebooks, reference material and/or teaching aids to explicitly denounce such practices or remove the offending paragraphs, in fact decent people should think about either abandoning or rewriting the entire content of materials that once contained such practices.  The originals can be kept for historians in libraries and museums but should not be used anymore in reference to current events.
The sad truth is that it is not a single case and even sadder that millions, nay, billions of books, websites and other media which contain, condone and even promote such practices are being used as guides and reference material for current events and sit on the bookshelf of decent people who keep advancing it as a source of guidance (and I admit there is even one in home though I do not advocate using that book for guidance).
I don't advocate book burning but some material is not suitable for some situations (like pornography for children or in this case books which contain and advocate gruesome punishments for non-crimes for moral guidance), the original texts should not be removed from existence but please fellow humans, update the books you say you use for moral guidance and help in removing such practices from this earth let them be just a memory we read about in history books in the proper context of rejection of those ideas not in books that are being promoted as "good".

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