Monday, May 30, 2011

Human Rights Mausoleum Puts Cart Before Horse

Canada's "human rights" museum (the one that plans to assault visitors with graphic depictions of mass atrocities galore) has signed an agreement with the University of Manitoba to conduct crucial research--and not a moment to soon:
U of M law professor Karen Busby said there are several initiatives underway at the university to complement what the museum plans to do.
"We have more than 160 experts in human rights at the U of M," Busby said. "The exhibits at the museum are just the tip of the iceberg. Good museums do research and they do books. We can help them."
For example, Busby said some sociology and English professors are already working on a project to see if people will empathize with atrocities when exposed to them, while in the school of art they're working on programming to explore human rights.
Er, isn't that something the mausoleum should have looked into before it decided to go with a "Mass Atrocity" zone? And if, post-project, it's determined that instead of eliciting empathy, exposure to said atrocities elicits, say, numbness/indifference or even delivers a perverse jolt of pleasure to some, does that mean mausoleum powers would consider shelving the zone?

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