Thursday 15 June 2017

The Times

While reading novels by Poul Anderson and SM Stirling, we find that we are living in times as eventful as those described by these authors. I can apply the word "exciting" to their accounts of pitched battles in which many are killed but cannot apply the same adjective to a terrorist atrocity or a burning building. There is a sense of human solidarity and also a feeling that at least some of the conditions generating such events can and should be changed without delay. Maybe there is a better future ahead.

3 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Also, there is honor in soldiers and warriors fighting each other openly and up front, face to face. Such people generally volunteered for the soldier's life, and knew it was dangerous. There is nothing honorable in terrorist atrocities designed to kill as many civilians as possible.

Sean

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Sean,
However, the burning building results not from terrorism but from negligence in high places. This should be easier to address by legal means.
Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Broadly, a building burns from two different causes, accident or arson. If accidental, that too has two subdivisions: sheerly accidental and all reasonable precautions were taken to prevent or minimize harm from a fire; or carelessness and negligence. The latter will slide over to become crimes like "depraved indifference," etc. Arson, of course, is always and every where a crime carrying stiff criminal punishments.

Sean