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The Quadrennial Global Round-Ball Extravaganza

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Patrick:
Not a thing

Alex C:

--- Quote from:  Neal Stephenson ---"You know, when I was a young man, hypocrisy was deemed the worst of
vices," Finkle-McGraw said. "It was all because of moral relativism. You see,
in that sort of a climate, you are not allowed to criticise others-after all,
if there is no absolute right and wrong, then what grounds is there for
criticism?"

Finkle-McGraw paused, knowing that he had the full attention of his
audience, and began to withdraw a calabash pipe and various related supplies
and implements from his pockets. As he continued, he charged the calabash
with a blend of leather-brown tobacco so redolent that it made Hackworth’s
mouth water. He was tempted to spoon some of it into his mouth.

"Now, this led to a good deal of general frustration, for people are
naturally censorious and love nothing better than to criticise others’
shortcomings. And so it was that they seized on hypocrisy and elevated it
from a ubiquitous peccadillo into the monarch of all vices. For, you see,
even if there is no right and wrong, you can find grounds to criticise
another person by contrasting what he has espoused with what he has actually
done. In this case, you are not making any judgment whatsoever as to the
correctness of his views or the morality of his behaviour-you are merely
pointing out that he has said one thing and done another. Virtually all
political discourse in the days of my youth was devoted to the ferreting out
of hypocrisy.

"You wouldn’t believe the things they said about the original Victorians.
Calling someone a Victorian in those days was almost like calling them a
fascist or a Nazi."

Both Hackworth and Major Napier were dumbfounded. "Your Grace!" Napier
exdaimed. "I was naturally aware that their moral stance was radically
different from ours- but I am astonished to be informed that they actually
condemned the first Victorians."

"Of course they did," Finkle-McGraw said.

"Because the first Victorians were hypocrites," Hackworth said, getting it.
Finkle-McGraw beamed upon Hackworth like a master upon his favored pupil.
"As you can see, Major Napier, my estimate of Mr. Hackworth’s mental acuity
was not ill-founded."

"While I would never have supposed otherwise, Your Grace," Major Napier
said, "it is nonetheless gratifying to have seen a demonstration." Napier
raised his glass in Hackworth’s direction.

"Because they were hypocrites," Finkle-McGraw said, after igniting his
calabash and shooting a few tremendous fountains of smoke into the air, "the
Victorians were despised in the late twentieth century. Many of the persons
who held such opinions were, of course, guilty of the most nefandous conduct
themselves, and yet saw no paradox in holding such views because they were
not hypocrites themselves-they took no moral stances and lived by none."

"So they were morally superior to the Victorians-" Major Napier said, still
a bit snowed under.

 "-even though-in fact, because-they had no morals at all." There was a
moment of silent, bewildered head-shaking around the copper table.
--- End quote ---

Patrick:
I'm saying that unless you're actually going to organize a protest, what's the point in complaining about it to a web forum where you are most likely not going to find anybody motivated enough to do it themselves?

I'm not saying that nobody on here is motivated enough to do anything about it. People are motivated enough to complain about it to their friends, that's what I see happening here. I'm saying that realistically, who is going to actually do anything that will actually help the situation? May's got the right idea here:


--- Quote from: Barmymoo on 14 Jul 2010, 13:06 ---I'd say that we all do, in the collective. If we as citizens put sufficient pressure on our representatives, they in turn will be forced to put pressure on other governments. The reason that governments spend a lot of time talking about education, health and taxes in their own country is because that's what they know the voters care about. If they knew that the voters also cared sufficiently about the same issues in other countries to vote on that basis, they'd sit up and listen.

That's the theory anyway.

--- End quote ---

But out of everyone who reads that post, let's realistically assess the number of people who are going to do this.

Patrick:
I'm not saying you should dedicate your life to hating the World Cup just for the sake of validating the discussion here. I'm saying that it's ineffective at best.

Patrick:
I'm not defending South Africa's actions at all, and yeah, that sounds plenty reasonable. I'm just saying, talking about it on the internet clearly isn't enough to keep South Africa from being dicks to their own people. They bulldozed homes to build stadiums and they put 'undesirables' into concentration camps. I understand that and I disagree with this practice.

I'm just saying that going onto an internet message board, saying "South Africa are dicks!  :x" and agreeing with each other clearly isn't enough. It still doesn't change the fact that statistically speaking, girls getting raped is more likely to happen than girls learning how to read. It doesn't change the fact that statistically speaking, 1 in 4 South African men has committed rape. It doesn't change the fact that out of those, half have raped more than twice.

Find me a sitting member of South African government who gives a fuck what the world has to say, and I personally guarantee you will receive a hen with teeth in the post within the week. Same goes for finding me a sitting member of the South African government who doesn't get bribed on the daily.

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