Quote:
Originally Posted by Skybird
It is said that othing can stop an idea whose time hgas come. While I take that more in a romantic than literal understanding, i tend to think that dieas and ideologies can be infectous the the ojne and the many minds. Thus, if I identify an ideology to be extremely irrational end driven by hysteric sentiments and to be of extreme evil like religious fanatism and fundamentlaism, then I tend to think that not much can be learned from them in the way you described it, but that they can infest minds by just being dealt with. So, if you want to save them, please do it like oyu handle ebola and anthrax and all the other biological agents for war as well: in a deep hidden bunker where you have doors of steel 10 cm thick and extremely limited access, with security all around, and the place hidden from the public, at best being buried, forgotten, and become a silent victim of time.
We must not always preserve the germs of terror and evil. Destroying it, if we can, may prove to be fully sufficient. Think of it as one step on the stairs that our ancestors have tried, slipped and barely survived the fall by getting a grab at last second, and then climbed higher, leaving that slippery step behind and never wasting another thought on it. What can belearned from it: Only to watch out more careful for the steps before you.
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I understand where you are coming from, but I have to respectfully disagree. Take away Mein Kampf, someone will just write another. But the ACT of taking it away would make it a martyr of ideological openess.
People have believed in such evil since well before Hitler or Mohammed - their infamies merely propelled their works to the forefront of our discussions. However, evil texts being available to all, due to their overwhelming opposition, clearly displays what as a species we've decided what is right, and what is wrong.
Destroying such works would only remove the disdain society has for the ideas they represent - it would do nothing to rid the ideas themselves.
And, quite frankly, removing the fact that derision for those ideas are mainstream would leave our world as open to those ideas as Germany was to Hitler - and that I find outright frightening.