It would be very wrong of me to prolong this futile dialogue: Ignorance is a delicate exotic fruit; touch it, and the bloom is gone.

Ignorance?

Let's see, there have been 4 votes cast in the poll you sponsored in creating this thread. 3 votes offered support for the "Saint-like tube worker under enormous stress", and 1 vote offered support for the "Stupid old git who stuck his arm in the train doors".

Check, all accurate.

The tube worker who you describe as "saint-like" can be heard at the end of the video saying of the "stupid old git", "sling him under a train".

Check, accurate.

As I assume you did not vote to support the stupid old git, you voted to support the tube worker who said of the stupid old git, "sling him under a train".

Accurate?...I would guess so. Check, accurate.

You're quite popular around these parts.

Check.

The majority who voted(save for one), rather than being appalled by the unprofessional and abusive behavior of the tube worker, they instead agreed with your support of the "saint-like" tube worker, who said of the stupid old git "sling him under a train".

Check.

So, where does the ignorance bit works it's way in? Please explain.

I think there are legitimate and curious questions to be examined by what in my view is the abandonment of what I would consider righteous condemnation for obvious poor behavior on the part of the tube worker for reasons none other than "online friendship". But some people obviously feel no compunction about compromising their own inner sense of right and wrong in support of a friend. Personally, I think a true friend is willing to risk a friendship by being honest. It's not easy to tell a friend when he is wrong. But a true friend would not begrudge the honesty, and might just learn something in the process.

Can we still be friends, Eddie?

BTW, someone should start such a thread to examine this type of moral dilemna. It might help us more ignorant posters understand the finer points of, say, how Hitler used his popularity to compromise the moral compass of virtually an entire nation. That's probably a bad example. I should probably just let someone else expound on the subject.

Playing the Hitler card is usually a sign of desperate trump.

I will say, I didn't vote coz I thought they were both in the wrong, both understandabl so, and if you got em off together in a room I'm sure there'd be mutual apologies. But that would involve lowering the temperature, rather than escalating with Eddie as Hitler, so I'm sure you're not interested.

Oh come now, John. I did not say Eddie was hitler. I just offered that it is a curious thing when people alter their own sense of right and wrong out of loyalty to a friend, or group, or cause.

I also did not vote. A bias was evident, and wasn't worth indulgence. Check the wording of the solicited poll. Is it your opinion that there was any room left for gathering the two together to discuss the matter? Nay, the tube worker is saint-like, and the commuter was a stupid old git....a sign of desperate trump? Decide for yourself.

True, they were both in the wrong. Both stressed. One with having to actually work all day in a stressful job, and the other possibly just as stressed from his job and stressed with the commute. But at that moment, who was required to conduct himself in a professional manner, stress be damned? Who made a decision which endangered his own safety, and which apparently suggested that, not he, but others "sling him under a train"? He didn't say "I" would like to sling him under a train. He was inciting violence against the old man. No? And if the vote count here is any indication or was representative of the crowd on the platform that day he may have gotten his wish. But no, by all reports the people on the platform were appalled at the tube worker's behavior. But of course, they probably don't know our good friend Eddie.

You can expect someone to conduct himself in a professional manner, and if he doesn't do it you can suspend him or get him to resign, which they did. So the case is over. You can also sympathize - if you wish - with the stress he was under on a day to day basis (as you note, you could say the same about the old guy). And you can also cool things down by letting it go, or you can up the ante by going on and on about how Eddie's popularity here was like Hitler's popularity in getting Germans to suspend their sense of right and wrong. That's precisely what you said, and I think it was uncalled for. OK? Calm down. It was far away, and it's over now. It may happen again, of course, and if it does I hope cooler heads will get in between the stressed out subway worker and the agitated customer. If only. If not, it'll be a replay of a very unfortunate scene, and we don't need to replicate it online.

Calm down?...jeese John, I am calm.

It was already over, the loud mouthed and abusive crybaby union tubewoker had already been suspended and then resigned. I wasn't the one who started the thread after the fact. I thought threads were started so we could discuss issues and such, be we in agreement or otherwise, rather than to just join in the chorus.

I didn't necessarily say this was like Hitler, and though I clearly stated it was probably a bad comparison, it met the requirement for illustrating the point. And for further clarification, the comparison was not intended to suggest as you have stated that Eddie's popularity is like Hitler's, that would be uncalled for as well as ridiculous. It was more directed at groups of people who blindly follow, not Eddie. But really, it goes even further than that...they do not follow blindly. No, they willingly suspend what they know as the difference between right and wrong. I would tend to think they lose something in the process, as do we all, as a group, as a civil society.

Sorry to have spoken out of turn. The tubeworker is a saint, the stupid old git should be slung under a train....happy now?

.oO(does anyone else feel a bit soiled?)

although Mac Doobie is dragging this out a bit, he does have a very valid point.....logical if you will......my first reaction was to vote for the tube worker but after reading his posts, I suppose the tube worker doesn't have a leg to stand on....I admit my sympathy for Eddie made me lean towards that vote.....so even though it's unpopular, Mac Doobie's analysis is quite sound....

Hah...funny you should mention. I recently contemplated buying a historic home on the water down in NC...and opening a restaurant in the house, as it was zoned business as well as residentual. The thing was, the house had no electricity, plumbing, heating/air conditioning, it was built in the mid 1800's. The house also needed a tremendous amount of work. The home would also have to be enlarged by additions to accomodate a restaurant/business, and all changes would have to be approved by the historic foundation thing. My wife said I would probably not deal well with such an intrusion into my personal matters...she's probably correct. It really does break my heart to say that it's just too much work...too many ifs. I'm still keeping my eyes open for a similar property, but one not needing quite as much work and a bit more land.

Tomorrow never knows...

It's not difficult to see why Monty Python could never have been created in the US.

If you don't "get" the ironic, hyperbolic nature of this poll just by reading the terminology of the given options, you never will.

Two nations divided by a common language.

I should add...

I should add....

I love to cook, and the idea of opening a restaurant seems appealing. However, would I love to cook if I had to cook every day, for strangers no less. Plus, living in the same building as the restaurant which one owns, probably not the best idea. So, I had also thought of something else on the property, living the farm life. I thought it might be a cool idea to get a bunch of goats, and make cheese....really good cheese. I'm not a huge cheese fan, but lots of people love cheese...really good cheese. But as I said, there just wasn't enough land on that particular property. Oh well, I really would like to retire and do something else before I get too old too enjoy that something else. I don't think I would enjoy retiring and doing nothing...not that at 46 I have the nest egg to pull that off anyway. I just want to get out of the city, live the good life....

Eddie wrote:

It's not difficult to see why Monty Python could never have been created in the US. .

As delicious as your English tarts are, there is nothing from England that can top the American born flippin' awesome scrumptious pizza pie.



Mmmmmmmmm, pizzzzaaaaaloha...