Engineer joke
Jun. 18th, 2004 09:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
zdashamberI very much like the idea of engineers, thanks to a steady diet of books like E.E. "Doc" Smith's whilst growing up... And in practice, I still haven't seen anything to dissuade me from my liking. Also, my grandfathers were both engineers. I think this is a joke my mom told...
It's the French Revolution, and they've hauled up a priest before the crowd. They lie him down and drop the blade of the guillotine, but it stops halfway down. "Huh," say the executioners, "It must be the will of God that you be spared. You can go." And the priest skedaddles, and they bring up the next prisoner, a doctor. But when they drop the blade on him, it stops around three-quarters of the way down. "Will of God, you can go," is the verdict of the miffed executioners, and the doctor dashes away as fast as his legs will carry him. The next guy up on the block is an engineer. They drop the blade on him, and it stops a few feet above his neck. "Very well, God wills that you go free as well." But the engineer is craning his head around and he says, "Wait!! I see the problem!!"
Edit: And now, suddenly, that joke is in incredibly poor taste. Maybe I was subconsciously thinking about the engineers in the Middle East who are up shit creek... Goddammit. I try to keep this LJ either 1. Light or 2. Gaming-related... Who can see the problem over there? I mean, as always, on every level, the problem is that some people grabbed hold of an excuse to act like slime. Killing an engineer to try to get your dudes busted out of prison... Killing an engineer because he's a member of the oppressive bourgeois... There would be people who would argue both were righteous. I'm not actually sure if honor is an absolute, if butchering innocents is absolutely wrong, no matter the cause. I suppose all I can do is make the call based on what I think is right... And I'd call it dishonorable to the point of anathema.
Poor bastard.
It's the French Revolution, and they've hauled up a priest before the crowd. They lie him down and drop the blade of the guillotine, but it stops halfway down. "Huh," say the executioners, "It must be the will of God that you be spared. You can go." And the priest skedaddles, and they bring up the next prisoner, a doctor. But when they drop the blade on him, it stops around three-quarters of the way down. "Will of God, you can go," is the verdict of the miffed executioners, and the doctor dashes away as fast as his legs will carry him. The next guy up on the block is an engineer. They drop the blade on him, and it stops a few feet above his neck. "Very well, God wills that you go free as well." But the engineer is craning his head around and he says, "Wait!! I see the problem!!"
Edit: And now, suddenly, that joke is in incredibly poor taste. Maybe I was subconsciously thinking about the engineers in the Middle East who are up shit creek... Goddammit. I try to keep this LJ either 1. Light or 2. Gaming-related... Who can see the problem over there? I mean, as always, on every level, the problem is that some people grabbed hold of an excuse to act like slime. Killing an engineer to try to get your dudes busted out of prison... Killing an engineer because he's a member of the oppressive bourgeois... There would be people who would argue both were righteous. I'm not actually sure if honor is an absolute, if butchering innocents is absolutely wrong, no matter the cause. I suppose all I can do is make the call based on what I think is right... And I'd call it dishonorable to the point of anathema.
Poor bastard.
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Date: 2007-08-01 11:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-03 12:03 am (UTC)