Unbelievable! WTF!?

Excerpted from:

media.guardian.co.uk/broadcast/s … 14,00.html

[quote]Channel 4 was yesterday back in the dock over plans to broadcast a programme showing a performance artist eating the flesh of a dead baby.

The documentary, Beijing Swings, which looks at the extreme practices of some artists in China, also shows a man drinking wine that has had an amputated penis marinaded in it.[/quote]

WTF??? :shock: Anyone want to guess what “statement” the Artist is trying to make or convey with these performances?

WTF??? :shock: Anyone want to guess what “statement” the Artist is trying to make or convey with these performances?[/quote]

My guess is “Let’s see if any of you rugrats want to kick the back of my airplane seat now.”

A year or two ago those photos were being sent around in junk e-mail messages along with text claiming that dead babies were a popular snack in Taiwan (see Urban Legend: Fetus Feast and another one here.) At least people who see that film will realise that that so-called artist Zhu Yu lives in Shanghai, not here.

As to the penis in the wine - is it a human one? More likely that of a deer or a dog, I should think.

I’ll be watching the programme and taping it so when I come out we can show the infant sushi / schlong soup fest at the next Segue piss-up. Delightful. (I would be very surprised if baby eating wasn’t covered in Leviticus somewhere - obviously Mr Zhu is a New Testament Christian. For pedants: the offence in the UK is abuse of a corpse, appears from time to time at the bottom of a homicide charge sheet in case the victim was already dead when attacked, five years inside, if I remember right. Is there a similar offence in the US or Taiwan ?)

I guess after years of oppression of the arts, Beijing’s artistes are trying to be as shocking, open, and adventurous as possible. The ironic thing is that they end up doing a kind of pastiche of traditional chinese society - lawlessness, infanticide, penis-drinking. I guess the communist leaders let it go because in the end it reminds everyone that the Party did put a stop to many of these things (or at least tried).

“Pastiche?” I need a coffee…

Why doesn’t the “artist” Zhu Yu, just call up Jeffrey Dahmler and invite him and Hanibal Lector over for dinner. What every cannibal needs “dinner guests”…

Yuk :frowning:

Is cannibalism any worse than eating other entient animals - cows? What if you were able to set up a human meat farm, would that be any more morally repugnant than farming beef? If so, why?

Only differences I can see is that the cows can’t complain about being eaten in a language humans can understand, and don’t have the organizational skills or freedom to rally or protest about it, write their congressman or start a support group. The second one is that the cows aren’t going to be voting anytime soon, so whether they like being eaten or not is really irrelevant.

Be kind to animals by not eating them.

Human beings are carnivores. That said, I do respect vegetarians, even I have no plans to join them.

I think I’ll have a big bloody steak tonight.

One certainly might think that growing up in my hometown.

I’ll eat almost anything that can’t communicate with me. That pretty much excludes people, Coco the monkey, parrots, and that cow in the “Restaurant at the End of the Universe”. I like to think of it as giving animals an incentive to learn another language.

The best place for a cow is on a plate, but please don’t breed any more when you’ve finished.

Actually, after 20 years I’m thinking of ditching vegetariansm and becoming a humanitarian instead. :wink:

[quote=“hsiadogah”]
Actually, after 20 years I’m thinking of ditching vegetariansm and becoming a humanitarian instead. :wink:[/quote]

Perhaps that is Zhu Yu’s position as well.

[quote=“hsiadogah”]Only differences I can see is that the cows can’t complain about being eaten in a language humans can understand, and don’t have the organizational skills or freedom to rally or protest about it[/quote] So, imagine a farm of infants, kept in a barn, with no exposure to language or logic or reasoning or routine. Would they develop language any more sophisticated that cows? They certainly wouldn’t come up with anything intelligible to the outside world. What would be the problem with eating them?

Well, I’ve raised beef cattle (Black Angus) and I can tell you, they are detestable creatures. I’ve also raised a baby human and seen many others too, and while I don’t want any more of my own, I find them mostly nice and sometimes very cute.

I haven’t any idea what babies or adult humans taste like, but I’ve heard that lions and other animals dislike the taste of human flesh. Beef, on the other hand, when well raised and cooked properly, is delicious. And cats, dogs and other carnivores all seem to be in agreement on this matter :wink:

That may be the harshest denouncement of Taiwan bushibans I have ever seen. You really don’t think much of the students or the teachers, do you? You might want to rethink your career as an English teacher.

[quote=“tigerman”]I haven’t any idea what babies or adult humans taste like, but I’ve heard that lions and other animals dislike the taste of human flesh. Beef, on the other hand, when well raised and cooked properly, is delicious. And cats, dogs and other carnivores all seem to be in agreement on this matter :wink:[/quote] Which puts Mr T. squarely in the Anti-Cannabilist Party’s radical “gourmet” faction.

That may be the harshest denouncement of Taiwan bushibans I have ever seen. You really don’t think much of the students or the teachers, do you? You might want to rethink your career as an English teacher.[/quote]
And Mr C as shadow Minister for Education.

Other species have cannabilism. Why not man…? Do lions rationalise non-cannabalism by saying that “I understand humans agree that Lion meat is too chewy.”

Hmmm … and I guess there have been cannabalistic tribes in the human species. So, why not?

[quote=“imyourbiggestfan”]Other species have cannabilism. Why not man…? Do lions rationalise non-cannabalism by saying that “I understand humans agree that Lion meat is too chewy.”

Hmmm … and I guess there have been cannabalistic tribes in the human species. So, why not?[/quote]

I suspect you have already answered your question. Humans can rationalize anything… be it cannibalism or a disgust for the same.

AFAIK, lions do not rationalize such decisions… but act on instinct.

But how is it that “instinct” is seldom irrational? Can it simply have come into being without following some logical, cognitive process to refine such “instinctive” behaviour?