Carry on (mocking) Camping
Now that another prophesy regarding the end of the world has been confirmed as lunatic raving, is it appropriate for us to mock Harold Camping and his followers? While there are certainly some innocent victims in these situations, who we would not want to mock, it’s legitimate to ask whether mockery and ridicule might dissuade others from taking these sorts of predictions seriously in the first place.
On respect, and whether Errol Naidoo is a fool
When someone presents themselves to you as having near-universally foolish views, are we entitled to call that person a fool? Or does “respect” always entail only addressing their arguments, while refraining from applying such labels to them? Errol Naidoo’s call for a boycott on e-TV recently led to a brief debate on this issue.
Why we should reject the Bill of Responsibilities
Rejecting Primedia and LeadSA’s Bill of Responsibilities does not have to mean rejecting the values of respect, equality, and dignity. On the contrary, it is the Bill of Responsibilities itself that is a threat to some of our Constitutional values, in that it attempts to dictate a certain way of life to us – thereby undermining our freedom to choose.
The Bill of Responsibilities for the youth of South Africa
The Bill of Responsibilities, being launched in South Africa today, is a list of purported responsibilities that flow directly from the Bill of Rights. But they don’t – it’s an aspirational, paternalistic, religion-infused list of virtues and values that could have been written by Oprah, and which in some cases run completely counter to the commitment to liberty enshrined in the Constitution.
Martin Amis on religion
To be clear: an ideology is a belief system with an inadequate basis in reality; a religion is a belief system with no basis in reality whatever. Religious belief is without reason and without dignity, and its record is near-universally dreadful.
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