From: tahonen@katk.Helsinki.FI (Timo Ahonen)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.celtic
Subject: Re: Sinead O'Connor's cute little performance
Date: 13 Oct 92 12:49:08 GMT
Organization: University of Helsinki, Computing Centre

In article <1992Oct9.192734.24179@morrow.stanford.edu> silva@pangea.Stanford.EDU (Holly Silva) writes:

> tahonen@katk.Helsinki.FI (Timo Ahonen) writes:
>>jk@spock.retix.com (John Keegan) writes:
>>
>>>My only reaction to the actions of Sinead O'Connor in the above mentioned
>>>incident and her recent performance on Sat. night live is -  
>>>Who the f*** does she think she is ?
>>
>>Who would decide what's constructive and what's not? In my opinion IT would 
>>be constructive if only a person's opinions were critiziced, not the person 
>>him/herself. Disagree with her if you want, but attacking her person doesn't 
>>make your opinions any more convincing, on the contrary.
>>
>       The only flaw in this argument is that, in shredding a picture
>of the Pope up on live television, Sinead committed exactly the same sin/
>faux pas that you've chastising John Keegan for. Her attack was not exactly
>fraught with honorable, logical discussion of the issue she purported to
>address.

But I haven't denied that! In another post of mine (have you read it?) I 
wrote that I more or less agreed with a Finnish reporter who thought that 
Sinead's action wasn't very well thought through and was probably missing 
its intended audience. I would have written the same thing to her as I wrote 
to John. Sinead's 'performance' just plainly wasn't very good, although it 
did have the intended shocking effect, which normal 'political' message 
wouldn't have had. The content of her message is, however, not under 
criticism here, is it?

>       This sort of grandstanding by a leftist-chic radical is
>injurious to the Pro-choice cause in this country. She is exactly the
>sort of person whom the pro-lifers most like to see 'supporting' the 
>other side -- given that the more offensive the other side appears to the
>average American, the better it is for the pro-lifers. 
>       Any argument that she was merely protesting current conditions in
>her own country through the US media is frankly, too weak to respect, given 
>that her stunt made little impact back in Europe. Her only impact was here,
>in the US, and it was overwhelmingly negative. 

I seriously doubt that she was thinking of the USA as the main target area 
of her act. it was another platform for her to say what she feels, and a 
reasonably good one due to its publicity value. The motivation behind the 
act was still most certainly Ireland and its problems, so I do agree that 
IMO, again, it was not one of her best ideas.

>======================================================================
>|| Holly Silva                 I have nothing terribly clever to say||
>|| Applied Earth Sciences      today.  You're in luck.              ||
>|| Stanford University                                              ||

Timo Ahonen                        "Sometimes I think the surest sign that
University of Helsinki             intelligent life exists elsewhere in the
Finland                            universe is that none of it has tried to
Timo.Ahonen@Helsinki.FI            contact us." Calvin by Bill Watterson
Newsgroups: soc.culture.celtic