We have been following the increasing crackdown on passengers wearing T-Shirts on airlines deemed offensive or threatening. These cases often raise free speech questions, but also raise serious questions of the increasing irrationality of airline staff and some passengers. The t-shirt of Wynand Mullins is a good example. Mullins wore a t-shirt on a Qantas flight from Sydney with the well-known quote from Princess Bride by character Montoya (played in the film by Mandy Patinkin): “My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father, prepare to die.” Some passengers became alarmed by the t-shirt, presumably convinced that a terrorist would not only advertise his intent but choose a fictional character from a children’s book to represent his deep homicidal beliefs. Flight staff insisted that he change his shirt. Presumably, there was a passenger with five fingers that felt personally threatened by the quotation.
After he boarded his flight home to Auckland, New Zealand, a flight attendant took on the role of Count Rugen who insisted he did not like the line and told Montoya “Stop saying that!”
In this case, however, the flight attendant told him that the t-shirt was unacceptable for travel. He was only allowed to continue after he established that he did not have a change in shirts. You can see Mullins and his t-shirt at this site. I simply do not get how some passengers are so fearful that a joke t-shirt triggers such alarm. These are the same people presumably favoring greater and greater limitations on passengers and citizens under anti-terror laws. Fear has been wiped up to such a frenzy that passengers believe Al Qaeda is going into suicide missions wearing quotes from Rob Reiner films.
I only wish that when he was asked to change his shirt, Mullins pulled out a shirt quoting the character Vizzini: “you are friendless, brainless, helpless, hopeless!”
The alternative lines may not be much an improvement for general acceptance of the passengers:
Westley to Buttercup: “Death cannot stop true love. All it can do is delay it for a while.”
Westley: “DEATH FIRST!”
Westley: “We are men of action, lies do not become us.”
Vizzini: “Never go against a Sicilian when death is on the line”! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha… “
Of course, Montoya was warned that his “over-developed sense of vengeance is going to get you into trouble some day.”
Source: Daily Mail
I chose the Amazon UK available one by Thomas Cleary. His author page is full of all manner of classics (I Ching, etc).
Wonder who translated your edition. Translators are so important I have found.
Indigo,
You indicated that one of the issues on the T-Shirt was FEAR in your comment up-thread.
I linked to world renowned scientist Joseph E. LeDoux:
(Joseph E. LeDoux, Wikipedia, emphasis added). The video I posted up-thread is of a lecture he gave at The Copernicus Center concerning the brain.
He understands how fear would make people afraid of T-Shirts under certain types of conditioning.
GeneH,
I had gone to bed before this was written and scroll down from it now to answer.
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Gene H.1, January 25, 2013 at 5:35 pm
id707,
If you want to know a source for a large part of what I said, read Miyamoto Musashi’s seminal work on the art of kendo “The Book of Five Rings” (“Go Rin No Sho”). He says quite a bit about fear. Notably, he’s famous for saying, “No fear, no hesitation, no surprise, no doubt” which is a much subtler saying than it appears on the surface”———
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I will have to think long and well just to understand the last quotation.
.
Malisha wins
Inconceivable.
Great Movie! Bought the shirt for my daughter for Christmas. I told her she is not allowed to wear it out of the house in case it offends.
She asked if she could wear her Scarface tshirt…”Say hello to my little friend!” Ummmm……
shano,
And I don’t doubt that. Our understanding of the role of microbes both in the environment and in the human microbiome is really (pardon the pun) growing right now. I just don’t buy the argument from the extremists in the symbiosis camp of microbiology being the dominant driver in evolution. Conversely, the extremists in the genetic determinism camp think genes are everything. Evolution is essentially a probability matrix with multiple feeds from environment (including symbiotic organisms) and genes. No one factor is more important in shaping evolution than the other and a skew from any one factor can mean the difference between selecting in and selecting out.
There are very good reasons cheese makers preserve and cultivate certain bacteria for centuries. These bacteria not only preserve excess milk, but they also help our own bodies create nutrients. And are nutrients themselves most of the time.
Brewers yeast is a highly nutritious substance, for example. People used to drink beer all day because the good microbes in fresh beer made it much safer to drink than sometimes dubious water sources.
Well, I think this whole field of micro biology is going to be the key to determining the health of all people in the future. We evolved nurturing a biotic ‘terrain’.
On modern farms we are seeing micro biology labs- I stayed at a eco farm in Costa Rica that used microbiology and enzymes to keep facilities clean and animals healthy in a closed carbon loop.
Having the right ‘bugs’ in your ‘terrain’ is the key to all the parts working together. This is probably true in the human body as well.
No, Dredd. I don’t doubt what the science says. I think you don’t understand it in a proper context so you conflate it to be something it is not. They aren’t ignorant. You are.
GREAT sayeth Tony the
TigerC upon observing Gene H advocate for the selfish genes.The T-Shirt control genes.
The two GREAT scientists take out the scientists:
Gene H. 1, January 25, 2013 at 7:35 pm
Dredd,
You are only serving to prove that you don’t understand what you are talking about. What I’m talking about is common knowledge for those who understand evolution as a process. Cite all you like. It doesn’t mean you understand what you are citing in any kind of rational or scientifically valid context.
But please, foam at the mouth some more. It’s funny, code monkey.
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I understand what you are talking about, Gene H and Tony C obliviate the scientists who Dredd quotes from the most respected halls of science.
Your impishness is ok for those who have no scientific reasoning other than their own fear and ignorance based dogmatism.
“Cow farts cause global warming” type of science.
Cool … don’t fall off the edge of the flatulent Earth … I like having you around so I can see you squirm in your denial.
Your “long live grandpa’s dictionary” wormy squirmings are cute.
Dredd,
You are only serving to prove that you don’t understand what you are talking about. What I’m talking about is common knowledge for those who understand evolution as a process. Cite all you like. It doesn’t mean you understand what you are citing in any kind of rational or scientifically valid context.
But please, foam at the mouth some more. It’s funny, code monkey.
Tony C and Gene H T-shirt factory vs. The American Society for Microbiology.
The bugs don’t stand a chance against those selfish genes.
Gene H. 1, January 25, 2013 at 7:11 pm
…
Just because parts of the human microbiome share DNA with humans does not mean that microbes control our biology
98-99% part for microbes, 1-2% for humans
That does not mean that microbes do not control either … whatever you mean by control … (bully?)
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only that the genes show how these microbes interact with our biology. It’s essentially another form of environmental influence simply on a smaller scale. It’s not microbial overlords.
Oh, I see you are scared of overlord bugs.
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That’s merely the fiction you’ve bought in to because it gives you a way to explain away parts of human behavior you don’t like and can’t explain otherwise.
Yep, I am always saying the bugs did it huh?
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You’ve replaced religion with a bad misunderstanding of science that you garnered from reading but not fully understanding what you read.
Oh, I see the bug religion is it Gene H?
Great diagnosis.
Tony the authority will see that as GREAT like the cereal.
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Your religion is your business.
But I didn’t buy L.Ron’s drivel and I’m not buying yours either.
L.Ron vs. Tony ….
Grade B movie at best Gene H.
Carry on.
What does “Qantas” mean? I would be afraid to board an airline if the staff had that word on their shirts and certainly if they had it on their skirts.
Gene H. 1, January 25, 2013 at 7:11 pm
Again, as Tony …
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That is better, quoting a noted authority now.
Gene H. 1, January 25, 2013 at 7:01 pm
The proper quote is “I think both sides are ridiculous and the fight isn’t about understanding evolution better, but about funding.”
I would say the better quote is “I think [Gene H think]” but I am not an authority.
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You seem to be under the impression that what I’ve said doesn’t comport with common knowledge amongst people with a proper education about biology, the evolutionary process, and a knowledge of how academic/scientific funding works, Dredd.
More “I think [Gene H think]” but I am not an authority.
Why do you think that your think is authoriative?
It isn’t, it is more Grandfather’s Dictionary preservation society mumbo jumbo that missed the last science research train in 1901 when social darwinism raised its very pitiful pseudo-scientific head and headed into intellectual oblivion.
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You’re a biological partisan, Dredd.
Again, more “I think [Gene H think]” but I am not an authority.
It is you who project your own imagination or worse.
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Where’s my degree in microbiology from? Where’s yours from, Dredd?
The difference is that you only quote Gene H, the selfish gene, and I quote noted authorites.
Got degree?
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I’ll just start laughing now to save time.
That would be some scary psychotic laughter in celebration of your self image.
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What part of the “No competent scientist I am aware of disputes that 98-99% of “human” genetic code is microbial” makes you not want to comment on that consensus of science?
At least you could comment on that fundamental.
Is it the incompetent scientific “side” you created with your exalted evolutionary understanding crayons?
Again, as Tony and I have both pointed out previously, you demonstrate that you don’t understand the term “microbial DNA” in a proper context. Just because parts of the human microbiome share DNA with humans does not mean that microbes control our biology, only that the genes show how these microbes interact with our biology. It’s essentially another form of environmental influence simply on a smaller scale. It’s not microbial overlords. That’s merely the fiction you’ve bought in to because it gives you a way to explain away parts of human behavior you don’t like and can’t explain otherwise. You’ve replaced religion with a bad misunderstanding of science that you garnered from reading but not fully understanding what you read.
Your religion is your business.
But I didn’t buy L.Ron’s drivel and I’m not buying yours either.
The proper quote is “I think both sides are ridiculous and the fight isn’t about understanding evolution better, but about funding.”
You seem to be under the impression that what I’ve said doesn’t comport with common knowledge amongst people with a proper education about biology, the evolutionary process, and a knowledge of how academic/scientific funding works, Dredd. There is no dominant input for evolution. It’s a confluence of factors that yield a net result. That’s simply how natural selection works. That is if you’re not a blind follower of “midichlorian overlords” madness or “your genes are everything” madness.
You’re a biological partisan, Dredd. And like a political partisan, it blinds you to the reality of some processes, in your case, evolution and how it actually works (as opposed to how you want it to work). If you want to believe microbial life is more important to evolution than it is? Be my guest. Just don’t expect me to buy yours or any other partisan’s bullshit.
Where’s my degree in microbiology from? Where’s yours from, Dredd? That’s right. You don’t have one either. You’re a code monkey. So if you want to start playing that game? I’ll just start laughing now to save time.