Note to Self: Only Piss on the Living

There was a bit of a furore recently about some video footage showing some US Marines abusing the bodies of dead Taliban fighters; specifically by urinating on them.  I agree it was rather gross but it does make me wonder about peoples priorities.  I, personally, would have been more disgusted if they had done it while their victims were still alive.  Apparently you can kill people, waterboard them, lock them up in Gitmo indefinitely but piss on one corpse and suddenly you're beyond the pale.

It has often occurred to me that we tend to treat the dead a lot better than we treat the living.  A group of corpses get a golden shower and its called an outrage.  If it happens to a porn actress its called an extra twenty bucks and a chance to wash up in a hand basin after shooting finishes.  Of course this is a grossly unfair comparison; the video of the marines doing their thing had much better production values for one thing.

There are cultures where it is traditional to eat portions of the deceased to ensure the continuance of desired family traits and give a beloved ancestor a form of immortality.  I can certainly understand those people being upset at pissing on corpses from a hygiene aspect alone.  Such cultural sensitivities aside I find it difficult to get too upset at such things being done to corpse while much worse things are being done to the living who might actually have an opinion about it.  Given a choice I would permit the whole world to piss on my corpse in return for a guarantee that they will check to make sure I'm actually dead before they start.

Before you get the impression that I'm some corpse abusing psycho I would like to point out that I don't actually support the wanton desecration of human remains.  I just think that if you have to wantonly desecrate somebody then a dead person is probably the most harmless place to start.  Judging by the reaction to the video, especially amongst those who might normally be expected to support the marines, I suspect I'm in a small minority (please don't send me links to internet sites, I'm not that interested).  Still I suppose on balance the reaction is a hopeful one.  If people can get that bent out of shape about atrocities committed on dead people it is just possible that one day they will extend their concern to the living as well.