Letters to the Editor
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Human progress
DurianJoe: you talk about human progress, but as I see it, your point of view is the atavistic one. Why is the Papua New Guinean tribesman scared of the polaroid (apologies to any Papua New Guinean tribesmen)? Why do some Muslims cry for blood when a teddy bear is named Mohammed? Why before the Enlightenment could you get tortured for painting Jesus the wrong way? The same reason you think a joke about rape has some equivalency to rape. Obviously, these are all examples of superstitious thought, while your argument is based on up-to-the-minute, well-intentioned psycho-sociology, or something. But your argument does share one essential ingredient with these examples: a primitive disregard for the difference between signifier and signified (for lack of a less pompous term).