i mentioned that we did thomas more in grade 8, although i've since found some evidence that this may have been grade 13. that is indeed a large space in time, which goes to uphold my point that i am having difficulty ordering these events chronologically.

and, i did attend catholic middle and high schools in the meadowlands area of ottawa, which is historically an italian district, even if the schools were at that point overrun by irish kids from barrhaven.

is thomas more mentioned in shakespeare's henry VIII? that might be the source of the confusion. i'll figure this out...

if i read about more as a teenager, i should have sympathies with the religious minorities being forced to choose between their ideology and their career, right? quite the opposite... 

while i can't place this in time, i do remember my reaction, which is quite visceral: i thought that thomas more was a complete fucking idiot, and that his death was entirely his own stupid fault. all he had to do was cite a fucking pledge; he lost his head, instead. what a moron. we're not even talking about some deep theological point of debate, here, although if we were it would be equally damning to his intellect; anglicanism, and especially at that time, was theologically identical to catholicism, so there was no clash of ideas here. thomas more died solely for his allegiance to the pope, a murderous and tyrannical despot that was driven by conquest and plunder; he was a serf that could not free himself from his master, not even when threatened with death. that is not valour, it is stupidity, and he should be pitied rather than revered. even now, merely thinking of it, i remain enraged by his idiocy, and rather disappointed in the teaching decision, which lionized him as some kind of saintly martyr, who was marched to the lions for the sanctity of his beliefs. what nonsense. you might even make the argument that teaching such a thing mere kilometres from the border with quebec is politically irresponsible. vive le quebec stupide.

likewise, i have little sympathy for the person who is so stupid as to make the conscious choice that adherence to their silly religious beliefs is more valuable than their own self-interest in secular society; i may pity such a fool, but in the end i will only condemn their for their own absurdity. they have this choice in front of them between the past and the future, and if they choose the past then we must move on without them.