Taboo

We live in the free world, or one where we may openly dream, speculate, question, compare, express etc. within certain boundaries of libel, slander, taste and intellectual property. I was amused to read in two different UK newspapers the following phrases over the weekend, relating to the war in Lebanon. Sadly, I did not purchase the periodicals or have the opportunity to make detailed notes at the time so I must paraphrase. The subject, however, is taboo (hence the heading, and the use of blanks).

"We are soon reaching a point where it has become exceedingly difficult to tell people off for making ludicrous comparisons between the _______ and the ________ in after-dinner conversations."

".....there are those who have started to make shameful comparisons between the _______ and the _______"

I shall not fill in the blanks, but it did amuse me that guardians of the truth treat some subjects with kid-gloves, resorting to treating even comparisons with words like "shameful" and "ludicrous". I wonder what words they would use to talk about clueless people being killed, in the first instance, and Stalin style justification for the removal of doctors, in the second? This was just a "comparison". When people start equating the two blanks above (and they already have - to an extent), I wonder if our good journalists will use the words "despicable", "horrendous", "disgusting", or even "abominable".

I, on the other hand, would love them to use the word "untenable", followed by a reason why, in the opinion of the writer, such a comparison does not hold water.

(A tough call indeed, for we are already in the realm of morality, where one opinion is as good as another)