Burning For You
So that pastor finally went ahead and burned a Koran.
Lots of people are upset, especially people in Afghanistan who think the proper response to a YouTube video they don't like is to burn their own goddamn country to the ground. Before we judge them too harshly, let's keep in mind that Americans do that kind of shit over the results of a basketball game, but the number of people who are coming out to condemn the pastor and his church makes me wonder why people are in such a hurry to forget to blame the people actually throwing molotav cocktails.
Now sure, if a military general says "Please stop setting fire to books, its making it really difficult for us to do our jobs", I'm certainly not qualified to argue with him. But because a dude in the USA made a YouTube video of himself burning a book that they sell for like $9 at just about any chain bookstore you could care to name, people just assume on the face of it that "psychotic overreaction" is just the natural next step.
"Don't burn the Koran, because you know how it sets them off." I'm sorry, I forgot that we're supposed to adapt all of our behavior around what we might accidentally make lunatics start doing in response. Kind of like how we totally restructure our entire society every time a serial killer says that our preoccupation with material goods made it impossible for him not to make a suit out of human skin. Or like how you'll all blame the Fox executives if I start bombing universities over the cancellation of "Firefly".
Now you can chase around and around asking why anyone should want to burn the Koran. And I can see the "it was a hateful act" argument, especially in the context of one church burning another church's holy book as a big "Fuck you". But whether or not it was hateful is also entirely beside the point; this is America. We have the right to free expression in America. The Supreme Court protects setting fire to American flags (as they should), but we're not willing to extend similar protection to setting fire to a book that's mass-produced and readily available in just about every city in our whole country? It's not like he burned the original Koran, or even a copy that was signed by the author.
And now the pastor and his church are getting death threats. For setting fire to a mass market paperback. (Okay, so the covers weren't technically paperback, but the point is the same; you can go buy a copy of that same exact Koran right now. Seriously. It won't even be expensive.) And while I'm sure all the pastor's critics are all ready to condemn resorting to violence out of one side of their mouths, I'm willing to bet that deep down most of them are thinking, "Well, you sort of have it coming, bro." At the end of the video I linked to, they even say that police and FBI are watching the church closely, but more for "the protection of the neighbors" rather than the church itself. And yes, its commendable that they've realized that innocent people might get caught up in it if a psychopath targets the church... but it would be nice if they realized that all the church's members happen to be "Innocent", too.... though I guess they may have a ticket for illegal garbage burning in their future.
Yeah, ooh, I said "garbage" when I was talking about the Koran. But exactly how much am I supposed to revere an item that's mass produced and sold in retail stores? I get that it contains the immutable words of Allah or Superman or whatever, but I promise that if one gets burned, you can grow the fuck up and go buy a new copy with the exact same words printed inside. If it bothers Allah so damn much that a copy of his bestselling novel isn't more resistant to fire, then maybe he should cave in to the pressure and just buy himself a fucking e-reader.
But, joking aside, people don't seem to realize that "Oh, right, burning a copy of a book that far and away the majority of all people who are now and have ever been alive think is total fucking bullshit doesn't actually affect the message inside the book, or even how easy it is to acquire a copy of said book for themselves to read." Seriously, burning a Koran carries the same emotional weight for me that burning a pile of "Archie" comics would... it's kind of a shame, I guess, but only because I could have used that paper to line the floor of my hamster's cage.
So don't get mad because some guy burned a book to make a statement. That's not the aspect of our modern world that needs to be changed. What we need to change is the idea that "homicidal temper-tantrums" is the cut-and-dry logical response to disrespecting something. I'm not saying people condone the response in Afghanistan... but that anyone would even suggest that the problem was that the Koran was burned in the first place means that lots of people seem to understand the response, even if they don't agree with it. And saying to someone lobbing flaming bricks over a YouTube video filmed thousands of miles away, "I understand why you feel this way".... that's seriously fucked up, you guys.
It's not like he's burning all Korans. He burned one. To make a point. That doesn't warrant a death sentence.
Lots of people are upset, especially people in Afghanistan who think the proper response to a YouTube video they don't like is to burn their own goddamn country to the ground. Before we judge them too harshly, let's keep in mind that Americans do that kind of shit over the results of a basketball game, but the number of people who are coming out to condemn the pastor and his church makes me wonder why people are in such a hurry to forget to blame the people actually throwing molotav cocktails.
Now sure, if a military general says "Please stop setting fire to books, its making it really difficult for us to do our jobs", I'm certainly not qualified to argue with him. But because a dude in the USA made a YouTube video of himself burning a book that they sell for like $9 at just about any chain bookstore you could care to name, people just assume on the face of it that "psychotic overreaction" is just the natural next step.
"Don't burn the Koran, because you know how it sets them off." I'm sorry, I forgot that we're supposed to adapt all of our behavior around what we might accidentally make lunatics start doing in response. Kind of like how we totally restructure our entire society every time a serial killer says that our preoccupation with material goods made it impossible for him not to make a suit out of human skin. Or like how you'll all blame the Fox executives if I start bombing universities over the cancellation of "Firefly".
Now you can chase around and around asking why anyone should want to burn the Koran. And I can see the "it was a hateful act" argument, especially in the context of one church burning another church's holy book as a big "Fuck you". But whether or not it was hateful is also entirely beside the point; this is America. We have the right to free expression in America. The Supreme Court protects setting fire to American flags (as they should), but we're not willing to extend similar protection to setting fire to a book that's mass-produced and readily available in just about every city in our whole country? It's not like he burned the original Koran, or even a copy that was signed by the author.
And now the pastor and his church are getting death threats. For setting fire to a mass market paperback. (Okay, so the covers weren't technically paperback, but the point is the same; you can go buy a copy of that same exact Koran right now. Seriously. It won't even be expensive.) And while I'm sure all the pastor's critics are all ready to condemn resorting to violence out of one side of their mouths, I'm willing to bet that deep down most of them are thinking, "Well, you sort of have it coming, bro." At the end of the video I linked to, they even say that police and FBI are watching the church closely, but more for "the protection of the neighbors" rather than the church itself. And yes, its commendable that they've realized that innocent people might get caught up in it if a psychopath targets the church... but it would be nice if they realized that all the church's members happen to be "Innocent", too.... though I guess they may have a ticket for illegal garbage burning in their future.
Yeah, ooh, I said "garbage" when I was talking about the Koran. But exactly how much am I supposed to revere an item that's mass produced and sold in retail stores? I get that it contains the immutable words of Allah or Superman or whatever, but I promise that if one gets burned, you can grow the fuck up and go buy a new copy with the exact same words printed inside. If it bothers Allah so damn much that a copy of his bestselling novel isn't more resistant to fire, then maybe he should cave in to the pressure and just buy himself a fucking e-reader.
But, joking aside, people don't seem to realize that "Oh, right, burning a copy of a book that far and away the majority of all people who are now and have ever been alive think is total fucking bullshit doesn't actually affect the message inside the book, or even how easy it is to acquire a copy of said book for themselves to read." Seriously, burning a Koran carries the same emotional weight for me that burning a pile of "Archie" comics would... it's kind of a shame, I guess, but only because I could have used that paper to line the floor of my hamster's cage.
So don't get mad because some guy burned a book to make a statement. That's not the aspect of our modern world that needs to be changed. What we need to change is the idea that "homicidal temper-tantrums" is the cut-and-dry logical response to disrespecting something. I'm not saying people condone the response in Afghanistan... but that anyone would even suggest that the problem was that the Koran was burned in the first place means that lots of people seem to understand the response, even if they don't agree with it. And saying to someone lobbing flaming bricks over a YouTube video filmed thousands of miles away, "I understand why you feel this way".... that's seriously fucked up, you guys.
It's not like he's burning all Korans. He burned one. To make a point. That doesn't warrant a death sentence.