In the spirit of Godwin's law - I propose Beastie's law

[Ted Mittelstaedt]

CC set to FreeBSD Chat (Jerry you deleted the wrong mailing list)


> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-freebsd-questions at freebsd.org
> [mailto:owner-freebsd-questions at freebsd.org]On Behalf Of Jerry
> McAllister
> Sent: Tuesday, November 27, 2007 9:23 AM
> To: Peo Nilsson
> Cc: freebsd-questions at freebsd.org
> Subject: Re: In the spirit of Godwin's law - I propose Beastie's law
>
> >
> > Well, by "erasing" the history, no matter who "tried"
> > to write it, the chance decrease...
>
> Hmmm.   I have come to think that our writing our history condemns
> us to repeat it rather than the other way around.    With oral history
> it is possible to creatively adjust it in each generation.  With written
> history, it is only creatively adjusted (no history is written truthfully)
> when it is first written down which is the time it is least understood
> or at least, least seen in perspective.
>
> Then, since it is written, we seem condemned to believing it rather
> than making it useful to our needs.
>

Oral history has given us such nonsense as the "virgin" birth of
Jesus, so that instead of history focusing on the truth inherent
in what the guy was actually preaching, it instead focuses on
an impossible asexual human reproduction event that in reality
never happened.  Yes, Virginia, Mary did feel Joseph's schlong.

The next time you see a group of Christmas carolers, stop them
and ask how many of them know what the Golden Rule is.  10-to-1
odds you will find at least 1 of them that can't tell you what it
is.

Written history is much, much better.

Ted