D'oh - Fotog shatters ancient statue

[matthew_moran]

The idea that some objects are too

culturally valuable to be owned is not

one that can be made after the fact.

Otherwise, what's to stop some

busybody from deciding that my

(hypothetical) collectible camera is too

culturally significant for me to be

trusted with it?

 

If you think something is historically or

culturally significant and must be

preserved, then offer to buy it. Don't

imply that the current owner is

somehow obligated to surrender it.

[._kaa]

<i>Kaa, in all fairness, I don't think JDM believes people shouldn't be able to own really valuable things. I doubt he would feel the same way about a brick of gold.</i><br><br>

 

A brick of gold is <b>expensive</b>, but not really valuable (given appropriate definition of value), in part because it's no different from any other brick of gold.<br><br>

 

Let's try this: should police knock on Bill Gates' doors and confiscate his Codex Leicester, which is one of the most famous Leonardo da Vinci's journals? Isn't it too valuable to allow (note: think about who's doing the allowing) him to keep it?

[JDMvW]

<p>Should Bill Gates be empowered to buy the Statue of Liberty? Why not?</p>

<p>It's not the monetary value of a Nok figurine, but its cultural significance, especially to Nigeria.<br>

ditto for the Elgin Marbles and the Greek nation.</p>

<p>But I forget, we live in a bourgeois and philistine environment where private property trumps all collective values.</p>

<blockquote>

<p><strong>Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake</strong>:<br>

Colonel... that Coca-Cola machine. I want you to shoot the lock off it. There may be some change in there.<br>

<strong>Colonel "Bat" Guano</strong>:<br>

That's private property.<br>

<strong>Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake</strong>:<br>

Colonel! Can you possibly imagine what is going to happen to you, your frame, outlook, way of life, and everything, when they learn that you have obstructed a telephone call to the President of the United States? Can you imagine? Shoot it off! Shoot! With a gun! That's what the bullets are for, you twit!<br>

<strong>Colonel "Bat" Guano</strong>:<br>

Okay. I'm gonna get your money for ya. But if you don't get the President of the United States on that phone, you know what's gonna happen to you?<br>

<strong>Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake</strong>:<br>

What?<br>

<strong>Colonel "Bat" Guano</strong>:<br>

You're gonna have to answer to the Coca-Cola company.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>BTW, I think even Bill would agree that he holds the Codex in trust, not as his personal plaything.</p>

 

[jcuknz]

<p>That the original owners sold these things, if only for a cigarrette or a few beads, doesn't come into it? Now their decendants want them back for nix?</p>