Barbarians!

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.

swee'pea99

Legendary Member
As a paid-up lifelong Guardian reading live-and-let-live type, I hesitate to judge other cultures or assume any kind of moral superiority. It's all relative, 'nkay? But then I read about Isis, who have apparently bulldozed this

nimrud.jpg


along with the entire ancient city of Nimrud, into rubble, and I just want to put my liberal hat over in the corner for a bit while we WIPE THEM OFF THE FACE OF THE EARTH.

Really. There are no words...
 

jonny jeez

Legendary Member
Did you feel the same when they were seen to behead aid workers?
 

jonny jeez

Legendary Member
If I'm honest, no.
I respect your honesty.

Funny isn't it how we really value the lives of strangers. We relate more to an inanimate object that means something to us and find it easy to ignore the lives of those who mean nothing.

Is that right...or wrong?

I suspect there are good arguments in both camps.

To me, it is wrong and I suffer the guilt of doing nothing about it and donate cash instead.
 
Last edited:
OP
OP
swee'pea99

swee'pea99

Legendary Member
Either is an act of barbarism, both are appalling and indefensible, and I hesitate to distinguish, or judge one 'the greater monstrosity', but for me at least I think the difference is that while an act of barbarity against an individual is a catastrophe for their loved ones, the destruction of an ancient monument is, it seems to me, a crime against humanity. People come, people go, time moves on. But the destruction of a cultural treasure, over 3,000 years old and irreplaceable, leaves us all that much reduced. I realise this is uncomfortably close to Harry Lime's 'cuckoo clocks' argument, but that's how it seems to me.
 

Dave the Smeghead

Über Member
So beheading and killing people is now on a par with destroying some old stone carvings ...the mind boggles.
I don't think that is what is being said.
The acts of barbarism that these people (if you can call them that) are committing against other people are truly horrific and beyond equal in my memory. Also the smashing into rubble of significant historical and cultural artifacts is an act of barbarism, and also truly horrendous. However, one cannot compare to the other except in both barbarous acts being undertaken for a mis-guided ideology. There are truly no depths that mis-guided humans won't sink.
 

TVC

Guest
Remember these morons videoed the destruction of the artifacts and released it, just as with the murders. It is all about getting reaction and managing their profile. They are smart and media savvy no matter how sick and twisted their drives.
 

Accy cyclist

Legendary Member
So beheading and killing people is now on a par with destroying some old stone carvings ...the mind boggles.

So if this Isis mob were to invade Europe(highly unlikely i know but)and bulldoze the Colosseum and Stonehenge you wouldn't bother?
 

perplexed

Guru
Location
Sheffield
Either is an act of barbarism, both are appalling and indefensible, and I hesitate to distinguish, or judge one 'the greater monstrosity', but for me at least I think the difference is that while an act of barbarity against an individual is a catastrophe for their loved ones, the destruction of an ancient monument is, it seems to me, a crime against humanity. People come, people go, time moves on. But the destruction of a cultural treasure, over 3,000 years old and irreplaceable, leaves us all that much reduced. I realise this is uncomfortably close to Harry Lime's 'cuckoo clocks' argument, but that's how it seems to me.

I 'liked' this, but you know what I mean. Their sheer thuggery in destroying such wonderful indigenous works of art and history somehow emphasises their total disregard for any other culture or belief. It is said that there is no war as barbarous as a civil war, so I think that by destroying Nimrud they are sending a message that there are no depths to which they will not sink. Precisely because the monuments have a permanence which humans do not, they've ensured that their acts will resonate pretty much forever.
 

mustang1

Guru
Location
London, UK
I saw a movie last year about the German army taking paintings from France in the second world war and how America attempted to stop this.

Idk how much of it was true, I'm just saying that there doesn't appear to be much action when Isis destroys/removes art/cultural/historical items.
 
Top Bottom