Monday, October 19, 2009

Bad Logic

The rest of the Genesis series is still to come, BTW. Many duties call.

NPR had a report on the Elgin Marbles from the Parthenon. The British Museum has them, the Greeks want them.

I have no dog in this fight. I saw the Elgin Marbles at the British Museum and wasn't impressed. They probably would look better in situ, but I'm never going to Greece. I don't care who ends up with them.

I do care about logic. The Greek art representative was protesting that this was a moral issue in the art community because "they don't belong to anyone. They belong to history." If they belonged to history it wouldn't matter where they went, would it? Clown. What you mean is you think they belong to your guys but you want to look more noble than that. Why else would you go on about the beginning of democracy, and Athens, and so forth? You are making the case that because your ancestors - well, actually not your ancestors, because things are pretty mixed more than two millennia later - invented this idea, which you guys haven't done anything with since, thank you very much, but you think this gives you a moral claim.

The British claim is basically that they cared when no one else did, and paid money. Which isn't a rock solid claim, either, but it's something.

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