[Ansteorra] Kansas State historical society bans re-enactments of war orviolence

[iainmacc at juno.com]

On Wed, 27 Feb 2002 16:29:13 -0500 fitzmorgan at cs.com writes:
>    Did we always have this many fuzzy-minded idiots, or is it just
> that the idiots don't get eaten by bears anymore and live long
> enough to breed more idiots?

        Dunno. I suspect that those sadly uneaten idiots have taken over
the school system, to spread the doctrine to more than just their own
kids. However, it reminded me of something. Something else that
thoroughly annoyed me when I saw how much it had been "revised":

        One girl told him bluntly, "My mother says that violence never
settles anything."
        "So?" Mr. Dubois looked at her bleakly. "I'm sure the city
fathers of Carthage would be glad to know that. Why doesn't your mother
tell them so? Or why don't you?"
        They had tangled before - since you couldn't flunk the course, it
wasn't necessary to keep Mr. Dubois buttered up. She said shrilly,
"You're making fun of me! Everybody knows that Carthage was destroyed!"
        "You seemed to be unaware of it," he said grimly. "Since you do
know it, wouldn't you say that violence had settled their destinies
rather thoroughly? However, I was not making fun of you personally; I was
heaping scorn on an inexcusably silly idea - a practice I shall always
follow. Anyone who clings to the historically untrue - and thoroughly
immoral - doctrine that 'violence never settles anything' I would advise
to conjure up the ghosts of Napoleon Bonaparte and the Duke of Wellington
and let them debate it. The ghost of Hitler could referee, and the jury
might well be the Dodo, the Great Auk and the Passenger Pigeon. Violence,
naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other
factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. Breeds
that forget this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and
their freedoms."

      - Robert Heinlein, "Starship Troopers"


        Don't think that the movie has more than a very faint resemblance
to the book from which it was taken. Trust me, it doesn't.


                      Iain MacCrimmon