What’s your tolerance?
These signs have started cropping up around my neighborhood in LA, close to the Simon Wiesenthal Museum of Tolerance. I laughed out loud the first time I saw one, followed closely by one of those moments of epistemological dissonance in which “tolerance” suddenly lost all meaning. The basic story is that the Museum of Tolerance is expanding to Jerusalem, in a Frank Gehry designed fruitbowl, built on top of a muslim cemetary. Haven’t these people seen Poltergeist? In their defense, the graves were apparently moved, but you know how it is.
I wish I had something interesting to say about this, but given Nadia Abu El-Haj’s experience speaking about Israel-Palestine, I think I’ll just say nothing.
Christopher Kelty does anthropological and historical research on science and technology, free and open source software, intellectual property and open access, the history of software, and the ethics and politics of nanotechnology. He also teaches classes about all of these things. From 2001 to 2008 he was assistant professor of anthropology at Rice University, in Houston, TX. He know teaches at UCLA and splits his time between the Information Studies department, the Anthropology Department and the Center for Society and Genetics.
Not sure how moving a muslim graveyard to build a museum of tolerance constitutes a defence. But I guess we could say these signs are intolerant to the intolerant tolerant.
ps. spot the rougue neighbour…unmowed lawn, peeling paint, archaic fence… how long before the ‘burb beauty committee’s tolerance runs out?
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I can’t fail to think about the _South Park_ episode “The Death Camp of Tolerance.”
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Even the Union for Reform Judaism opposes this museum:
http://blogs.rj.org/reform/2009/02/dont-build-wiesenthal-museum-o.html
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The neighbor is going for that new look that’s sweeping the nation: foreclosure chic. Unfortunately the back to nature movement isn’t employing so many landscape architects or gardeners.
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Cute neighborhood. But I think you and your neighbors should form a committee and begin working to get your overhead utilities undergrounded.
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