Saturday, January 19, 2013
Schlecht und Böse
Another pair of news items leading to another random thought.
I learned German (sort of) by reading Luthers Bibel, and by singing along with Schütz and Bach. In Luther's time German made a distinction between schlecht and böse. Both words mean bad or evil, but they belong to different classes and connote different mindsets.
A peasant who snatches a piece of bacon to feed his kids is schlecht. Ein König oder Graf who snatches a peasant's land to feed his pet peacocks is böse. The peasant's schlecht actions will probably hurt someone, but he's not consciously trying to do harm, and may have no honest choice available. The König's böse behavior is fully conscious and completely gratuitous. Most of all, the König is above prosecution and knows it.
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Schlecht news:
Spokane Valley Fire had responded to a transformer fire at the substation and saw the fence surrounding the station had been cut open. Deputies arriving on scene found a large opening in the fence and saw footprints leading to the substation. An Avista employee told deputies a ground wire had been cut and removed from the transformer, causing it to ignite. The employee said the cutting of the ground likely burned the suspect(s). 2,165 Avista customers in the area were without power for a short time because of the incident.Epitome of schlecht crime. Methheads work hard to acquire a few feet of copper; the crime creates its own punishment. Fun to imagine, though. "Lessee. I'm gonna tromp through the snow; then I'm gonna cut this wire; then pull it out and take it to the recycler. Sounds like a good plaBBBBBZZZZZZFFFFFZZZZZZZFFFFZZZZZ" = = = = = Böse news: Lance Armstrong. Michael Mann. Lloyd Blankfein. Jamie Dimon. Julia Gillard, Julia Gillard, Julia Gillard, Julia Gillard, Julia Gillard. Nuff said. = = = = = ¶ 2:27 AM
