Date: Fri, 11 Feb 2005 13:27:24 -0800 (PST) From: Mike Brown <mike@hyperreal.org> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Beastie logo *is* a li'l devil, ya gotta admit Message-ID: <20050211212725.84736.qmail@hyperreal.org> In-Reply-To: <18467378.20050211080756@wanadoo.fr>
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Anthony Atkielski wrote: > Bob Johnson writes: > > > I work in an office largely populated by born-again Christians, and some > > of them very definitely object to the BSD logo. Even after I explained > > the "daemon" thing, they still didn't think BSD should use "The Devil" > > as its logo. > > It doesn't help that some people use "devil" and "daemon" > interchangeably. Daemons were originally morally neutral entities; the > Devil (or devils in generally) have been mostly evil creatures > throughout history. Of course, Judeo-Christian tradition turned daemons > into fundamentally evil creatures (instead of just metaphysical > helpers), too. All of these people who try to rationalize that daemons are actually benign, helpful creatures and that it was the nasty bad religious nuts who associated them with malevolence seem to be overlooking the fact that the mascot's red color, pitchfork, spiked tail, and pointy ears are hallmarks of the modern/"wrong" interpretation of what a daemon is: a "li'l devil", so to speak. It seems a bit absurd to suggest that the original artists were trying to represent the metaphysical helpers. The mascot is clearly a toned-down, cartoony rendition of the fundamentally-evil end of the supernatural, like Casper the Friendly Ghost, or the kind of devil that sits on Jerry the Mouse's shoulder and suggests mischievous things to do to Tom the Cat.
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