I think a lot of Americans completely missed the subtle critique behind the plan to burn a Koran. Basically, they were telling the pastor, “hey, you have the right to burn one and all, but you really need to hold off, just out of sensitivity to others”—not realizing that this was the exact argument people were making about the mosque near ground zero, and getting an unsympathetic ear. Instead, they just saw it as a crude shock-based attempt to get attention.
But game-theoretically, these two situations are not parallels at all. In particular, the pastor who wanted to burn the Qur’an actually wanted to offend. In contrast, the people behind Park51 want to integrate Muslims into American society.
I think a lot of Americans completely missed the subtle critique behind the plan to burn a Koran. Basically, they were telling the pastor, “hey, you have the right to burn one and all, but you really need to hold off, just out of sensitivity to others”—not realizing that this was the exact argument people were making about the mosque near ground zero, and getting an unsympathetic ear. Instead, they just saw it as a crude shock-based attempt to get attention.
But game-theoretically, these two situations are not parallels at all. In particular, the pastor who wanted to burn the Qur’an actually wanted to offend. In contrast, the people behind Park51 want to integrate Muslims into American society.