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Comment by maushu | Hacker News Reader

I always thought this was only to avoid public urination. I wonder if they added the anti-crime as PR excuse.

A nice example of Hegelian Dialectic (if we're being XIX) or Robinson Resolution (if we're being XX), involving public defecation being a crime, occurred recently in Catalunya:

Thesis: the guy pooping is a traditional element of the nativity scene

Antithesis: government sponsored nativities shouldn't depict crime

Synthesis: keep the guy, but add a police officer, writing the guy a ticket

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caganer#Controversy_surroundin...

This is such a Zizek-esk kind of example of the dialectic, but I haven't heard him reference this as a classic example.

What do you mean by XIX and XX?

Thanks for the link to the caganer!

Holy crap, that is amazing.

Perfect summary, well done.

XIX: nineteenth century; XX: twentieth century; we're in the XXI now (even if we don't seem to be acting much like it)

[nb. this notation is (without red ink?) unsuitable for dates before the Age of Pisces]

Is this some occultism thing?

Roman numerals denoting centuries is a historian thing.

I mentioned "Age of Pisces" just because it seriously annoys me that years go from 1 BC to 1 AD with no 0. (inspired by: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38761574 )

That's so stupid! I love it!

> I wonder if they added the anti-crime as PR excuse.

Having now done a bit more research than I care to admit to, this book, particularly the page 14 sample, suggests nuance rather than pretext, particularly that reduction of public urination was a secondary benefit that became a primary benefit after public lighting:

https://www.lespressesdureel.com/EN/ouvrage.php?id=11065

Like London's later urine deflectors

https://web.archive.org/web/20231001094443/https://londonist...

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