The video of Saddam Hussein's hanging

Since I know some search engine may have brought you here, be warned: I don’t have the video of Saddam’s death. I know where I could find it, but I’m not interested.

As Marco says

“We can all argue in public about whether or not we agree with the death penalty, whether it is justice on one hand or society’s revenge on the other. But everyone will hide their face so as not to confess the shame of having to reveal the “private vice” of desperately hunting for a link where they can watch the fatal moment, anonymously and pleasurably, behind a keyboard, hopefully at the highest resolution possible, ideally with audio. There is not much difference from the Jacobin mob that stoned and insulted those condemned to the guillotine on the way to the Place de la Concorde, or the bourgeois dressed up in a Phrygian cap who paid fortunes for a place on the balconies. The differences disappear at the moment of cheering and applauding as the heads roll into the basket.”

It truly sickens the soul. If you want to watch it, go ahead, but if it stirs nothing in you, or if, on the contrary, watching it gives you pleasure, then I want nothing to do with you.

Against the culture of death, let’s set a new beauty

If you’re looking for something that does your soul and your intelligence some good, I suggest watching the videos and episodes of Belleza Nueva (the Chilean TV interview show Una Belleza Nueva).

By a strange coincidence, this Sunday it will interview Pablo de Jolly, “a 21st-century poet who sings to Louis XIV, the Sun King”. Who also has something to say about the horror of the time when the guillotine took hold of the French soul.

I have never read anything by this gentleman. But I’m going to watch his interview. Not only because it strikes me as provocative, but because this is what we have to learn: to get to know others, their motivations, why they care about what they care about, and why they can come to think so differently from us. I will probably dislike his ideas, but I’ll learn something from this interview.

Talking frankly, arguing, but without losing respect for the other person, and accepting their legitimacy, is the only way we can manage to avoid conflicts like what is happening in Iraq.

I quote my friend Marco again:

The soul is the kernel of our operating system, but it can’t be fixed with a patch or an upgrade. When the soul gets corrupted, all that’s left is to reinstall.

via sushiknights.