Neulich bei der Tugend...

"Quam difficilis est virtutis diuturna simulatio!" - Cicero

(Wie schwierig ist doch das ständige Vortäuschen von Tugend!)

Das Streben nach "Tugendhaftigkeit" ist wahrscheinlich so alt, wie die Menschheit selbst. Sobald wir soziale Strukturen beobachten, wird verhalten in "gut" oder tugendhaft und "böse" eingeteilt. Ganze Religionen basieren auf dieser Art von Dichotomie, die größtenteils aus Binsenweisheiten besteht.

Die berühmten 10 Gebote lassen sich auf "sei tugendhaft und bring keinen um" zusammendampfen. Die darin enthaltene Ächtung z.B. von Diebstahl ist bei genauerer Betrachtung ein no-brainer. Es lässt sich keine Gruppe auf der Basis stabilisieren, dass jeder jedem alles wegnehmen kann.

Gottesfurcht (über den dahinterliegenden Frame, dass Gott gut sei und wenn man diesen fürchte und nach dessen Regeln lebte, wäre man eben auch gut) war über Jahrhunderte eine Tugend. Man konnte diese gleich morgens beim ersten Gebet unter Beweis stellen und ging abends mit dem Nachtgebet tugendhaft zu Bett.

Circumcision Rallye reloaded...

Since 2007 I'm offering 50 € for a good argument pro circumcision. Unfortunately this page was in German and so did not attract too many readers. Further, I think that 50 bucks are not interesting enough for someone to dig for an argument on this topic. Therefore I decided after 14 years to raise the amount significantly and offer

1.000 € (in words: onethousand Euro)

for a valid argument to generally cut off babies and little boys parts of their penises.

Just to get things straight, not valid arguments are:

1. Arguments from religion or ancient books. Even if one boy "believes" in a deity which he was tought by his parents and "agrees" to the procedure, this is not an argument for generally circumcising little babies & boys.
   
   
2. Arguments from sexually distributed deseases. Babies & boys of young age have a more severe problem than circumcision, if such a desease is an argument.
   
   
3. If you argue with studies, they must be made available to me (not behind a paywall or something) and must be either in English or German. Posting just articles and/or i.e. facebook posts is not enough. Also remember that a study must provide evidence for a general mutilation of children. Reducing the percentage of getting HPV or HIV for a few percentage points is not enough to recommend this as a common and best practice approach to prohibit diseases.
   
   
4. A medical intended removal of the foreskin to prevent more serious harm (i.e. due to a birth defect) is not meant with this prize, only the cosmetic surgery.
   
   
5. I'm only referring to non-adults. If a person reached adulthood, he can do whatever he wants with his penis.

And last but not least some legal stuff:

You cannot sue me for paying or not paying the prize - it's a voluntary offer and I can withdraw it at any time. I'll also pay this amount only once (since I'm not a Millionaire) to the first person offering a valid argument for general genital mutilation of children.