The Lemon Fool

bungeejumper wrote:

XFool wrote:What I was asking was not so much "Is this silly" (I think it is) as, how much, if at all, does it really matter to our society if we continue doing these kind of things?

So, let me see. It's been 215 years since we abolished slavery, and 300 or so since we stopped burning people alive for witchcraft.

Quite rightly, we don't whitewash the memory of the former atrocity. So maybe it's not so illogical that we don't write off the latter as just a colourful whimsy?

Indeed not. The suggestion to erect a monument to commemorate the fate of the witches would be fine by me. But, unlike the 'apology', that would be a real decision, made by us in our time. One that would have a real outcome for us in our time, which is related to our past. Who can speak against that?

bungeejumper wrote:Whoops, this is in danger of falling into seriousness.

Nothing wrong with that - if it matters.

XFool wrote:Indeed not. The suggestion to erect a monument to commemorate the fate of the witches would be fine by me. But, unlike the 'apology', that would be a real decision, made by us in our time. One that would have a real outcome for us in our time, which is related to our past. Who can speak against that?

I'm sure someone can.

Next controversy please: what angle to take on such a monument? How to characterise witches?
Macbeth's hags?
Old crones on broomsticks?
Modern self-proclaimed witches?
Humorous - c.f. Pratchett's witches?
Seductive - c.f. La Strega?

Hard to see any of those takes as true to the history.

Come to think of it, could there ever be a better monument than Miller's Crucible?

I must admit I've always admired Granny Weatherwax and am a fan of TP. If they really had a course in it I'd love to study Headlogy.

R6

XFool wrote:Does this actually matter, or not?
Women executed as witches in Scotland set to receive pardons
The Guardian
Three centuries after repeal of Witchcraft Act thousands tried as witches could get official apologies

Yes it does matter because it is an utter waste of Scottish parliamentary time.

The unfortunate ladies' descendants will, I imagine, have no knowledge of them or feel kinship. Personal pardons would be akin to praying for the dead, and in the Scottish Calvinist (Presbyterian) religion then widespread, this is barred* (much earlier they would, I suppose, have been RC or pagan or pantheist or panentheist).

An apology or memorial would be a somewhat different cauldron of fish.


* the C of E does not pray for the souls of the dead either, although the RC does

stewamax wrote:Yes it does matter because it is an utter waste of Scottish parliamentary time.

I think that is the least of the concerns. Apart from Covid is there anything that it does that actually matters?

Dod

Dod101 wrote:

stewamax wrote:Yes it does matter because it is an utter waste of Scottish parliamentary time.

I think that is the least of the concerns. Apart from Covid is there anything that it does that actually matters?

Dod

independence? seems eminently important a Scottish topic.

social issues ? (CF minimum alcohol pricing )

education in Scotland?

that's three for starters

didds wrote:

Dod101 wrote:

stewamax wrote:Yes it does matter because it is an utter waste of Scottish parliamentary time.

I think that is the least of the concerns. Apart from Covid is there anything that it does that actually matters?

Dod

independence? seems eminently important a Scottish topic.

social issues ? (CF minimum alcohol pricing )

education in Scotland?

that's three for starters

It doesn't do independence. It doesn't do education. It has wasted a huge amount of time talking about irrelevant social issues. Minimum alcohol pricing was sensible although it is just leaving a bit more money in the pockets of the supermarkets.

Dod

who looks after the scottish education suystem then? geunioine question?

becasue it has a different system of school and post 16 qualkifications, and its degree system is also different fornm the typical 3 years, batchelors form an English university I thought?