October 19, 2004

ANTI-CHRISTIAN:

The Stain on a Speck in the Sea: Tiny Pitcairn, home to descendants of Bounty mutineers, is in turmoil as Britain charges that raping girls has become part of the culture. (Richard C. Paddock, October 19, 2004, LA Times)

When Fletcher Christian and his crew of Bounty mutineers landed 214 years ago on tiny Pitcairn Island, its remote location halfway between New Zealand and Peru made it the perfect place to hide. Its isolation has protected the little colony's customs — some quaint and some sinister — ever since.

Now the Pitcairn way of life is being challenged by a modern world that believes basic legal standards, including laws against rape, sex with underage girls and child molestation, should be enforced in even the most inaccessible places on Earth.


One of the better tests of whether you're preternaturally conservative is that you root for Captain Bligh as a kid.

Posted by Orrin Judd at October 19, 2004 8:42 AM
Comments

Fascinating to watch the modern British
state have to deal with "Noble Savages."

Posted by: J.H. at October 19, 2004 9:23 AM

Between Bligh and Christian, there's no choice. Bligh all the way.

Posted by: David Cohen at October 19, 2004 9:28 AM

Also, when you watch It's a Wonderful Life and you root for Potter and when you watch Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Fatcory and you root for Slugworth.

Posted by: Governor Breck at October 19, 2004 10:30 AM

I'd say that George Bailey was more of a compassionate conservative, though. Didn't W talk about increasing the number of home owners as a method to bring about his ownership society? Bailey wasn't talking about letting them live rent free.

Posted by: Buttercup at October 19, 2004 10:35 AM

Gov:

Not those, but the dirty little secret of the counter-culture era is that most left the film Easy Rider feeling justice had been served.

Posted by: oj at October 19, 2004 11:34 AM

I've always said "Easy Rider" had a happy ending.

Posted by: Raoul Ortega at October 19, 2004 12:09 PM

All I remember about Easy Rider was that we immeadiately cancelled our plans to go to Madi Gras.

Posted by: Robert Schwartz at October 19, 2004 12:51 PM

This goes on in all remote rural cultures, including the most militantly Christian ones, the ones Orrin claims are going to reclaim morality for the decadent West.

Posted by: Harry Eagar at October 19, 2004 1:48 PM

When I saw 'Barbarians at the Gate', I rooted for KKR.

Posted by: Bart at October 19, 2004 1:53 PM

No to all the above. But I did root for Billy Zane's character to kill Leonardo DiCaprio in TITANIC.

Posted by: Chris Durnell at October 19, 2004 2:56 PM

How could you not root for Bligh? He pulled off one of the greatest feats in the history of the sea after the mutiny. And the mutiny was all about wanting to stay in Tahiti rather than doing your job, which one can sympathise with but isn't exactly noble.

Posted by: brian at October 19, 2004 3:01 PM
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