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On incest

Tuesday 8th April 2008 15:31 in Human Relations

“Disgusting! We should cut off their heads!” said my barber today as he cut my hair here in Balham. “I’m not sure about that…” I replied, not wanting to be too contrary since his passions were obviously running high and he was the one holding the scissors. He modified his position: “We should burn them with acid”.

He was talking about an article on the TV news about an Australian man who has a child with his daughter and they’re both now in a perverted kind of relationship. My barber is not English, of course. He is possibly Moroccan and more than likely Muslim. I didn’t enquire. “Don’t you think it’s wrong?!” he demanded of me. “Yes,” I replied, “it’s unhealthy”. “It’s not just because it’s unhealthy!” he said, “It’s because it’s disgusting!”. “No,” I said, “it’s interesting to think about why it’s disgusting, and it’s disgusting probably essentially because it’s unhealthy, and it’s accordingly wrong”.

“Is it illegal here?” he asked, snipping away again. I told him it was, and in America. “Does the bible say it’s wrong?” He was obviously aware that the Koran outlaws it and wondered if what he assumed was my moral guide did too. “Yes”, I reassured him, “the bible outlaws it”. I didn’t mention the fact the bible also advocates stoning people to death in the street, because I realised this would hardly condemn it in the eyes of a man who accepted the Koran and had already recommended beheading and burning with acid. I did however mention that some cultures encourage the marriage of nine year old girls and below and that I considered that wrong too. His view was that after the first time a girl menstruated, she was then “fair game”. I also mentioned the fact that the British royal family are very inbred.

Incest isn’t unnatural, because it appears in nature, but it is rare, repulsive to well balanced people and inadvisable. But then so is burning with acid and beheading, and reacting with the remarkable ignorance my barber (and doubtless many thousands of others) did today.





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