[Noisebridge-discuss] [Build] 2169 shrine

[Ceren Ercen]

Christoph Maier wrote:
> On Thu, 2009-08-27 at 19:01 -0700, Ceren Ercen wrote:
> [...]
>> tl;dr: This "god" isn't necessarily "divine", it's more a focal point to 
>>    illustrate a facet of human existence.
>>
>> There is such a thing as disrespectful Cultural Appropriation, but the 
>> flexibility inherent in Buddhist historical figures ends up giving us a 
>> character that I find amusingly appropriate to our "be excellent" 
>> philosophy. 
> 
> Hmmm ... Guan Yu was a general, which implies that his shrine implies an
> endorsement of military values.
> Not orthogonal, but opposite to what noisebridge stands for (I hope!)

Don't make too many assumptions - some of us may be war and/or weaponry 
geeks, and several of us have happily worked for or with the DoD and/or 
the military of the US or other countries.

And no, him being a general is pretty much NOT the point of what the 
figure represents, from what I've read, and that's the most common 
misconception.

>> (There's probably even a different historical figure who's 
>> more appropriate, but, whatev.)
> 
> Speaking of generals, one could just as well put up a memorial for Kemal
> Atatürk (maybe I'm playing Devil's Advocate here) :-P

Oh, you did NOT just go there. ;)