Enigma Variations

[steepholm]

Gosh, I had no idea that Randolph Quirk was either alive or a lord. My mother remembers him as one of the more frighteningly intellectual of her peers at university, and to me he's the author of the University Grammar of English, which stood me in good stead for my linguistics exams as an undergraduate. But up he popped yesterday, arguing that Alan Turing should be given a pardon - or rather, that the Government should be asking his pardon.

Good point - but why this is truer of Turing than of any of the other 49,000 men convicted for similar offences is beyond me. If Turing deserves a pardon, why not them? If his crime wasn't a crime after all, why is the same not true of theirs? On the other hand, if outstanding service to the country is enough to wipe out what would otherwise be a lawful conviction, then don't many thousands of patriotic criminals have a similar claim? Solve a cipher, invent a clever machine, do enough charity work, and no court can touch you.

It makes about as much sense as getting time off purgatory by following the Pope on Twitter. Oh, wait....

Comments

[kalypso]

I suppose I'd see it as a symbolic act, with Alan Turing standing for all of them. But I might not feel that way if I were a close relative of one of the others. (In fact, as far as I know, my two degrees of separation from Turing - via Roger Altounyan - is as close as I get to any of those persecuted in this manner.)

[steepholm]

The trouble with that is, a) what need for a symbolic act, when you could actually pardon all of them just as easily as one? and b) much of the debate (what I heard of it) centred on Turing's exceptional qualities, rather than his being a representative case.

[sovay]

If Turing deserves a pardon, why not them? If his crime wasn't a crime after all, why is the same not true of theirs?

I just had this conversation!

Honoring Turing is awesome. I am all for it. I try to contribute. If the government really thinks it was unjust to convict anyone of gross indecency for all those years, apologize to everybody and overturn all the convictions.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Yes, I can't see why this would be harder than making an exception for him.

[eglantine-br.livejournal.com]

Good point.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

Indeed, I agree with what you said. At the time Turing was convicted, he broke the law. We can't alter that fact, however wrong we may now think that law was. There is no reason to treat one person differently. It would have to be all or none.

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

Hear hear!

Nine