Naked Rambler walks free from prison - and walks away nude

[Stu2630]

Sanslines

It's not "prejudice" for someone to dislike or be offended by nudity. Prejudice literally means "pre - judge" - everyone knows what nudity is, so it isn't pre-judged - it is a culturally derived reflex.

In Gough's case, he is not being crushed for his beliefs - he is being punished for his behaviour. If he spends the rest of his life behind bars, then I'm fine with that. I would much rather one stubborn and egotistical man spend the rest of his days in prison than the the rule of law undermined.

You say: "There really needs to be a degree of tolerance but people only seem to become more intolerant as time goes on" - he has shown no "tolerance" of people who find his behaviour deeply offensive: his b'view is they must get over it because he is going to do as he likes.

When you say "You don't seem to understand that some nudists can not just put on clothing to meet society's demands anymore then blacks could just change their appearance to white in order to gain acceptance by the rest of society. Society did not like blacks and segregated them" - I don't buy that. Almost all nudists are happy to wear clothes when it suits their purpose, and most nudists wear clothes most of the time. Nudity is a preferred state of (un)dress. A black person, however, is black from the moment of birth until they die - and they can't do a thing about that.

Society does not like nudists and for the most part, does not even want to segregate them................society wants to PROHIBIT nudity in it's entirety with just a few basic exceptions.

I don't know how true that is in your society, but it certainly isn't the case where I live. As I have told you, I have a nudist beach just 10-minutes drive from my home, and the Swedish coastline has many such beaches - plus we have designated areas around many of our lakes where nudity is permitted. Come and see for yourself-

Stu

[Sanslines]

prej·u·dice
[ préjjədiss ]

• opinion formed beforehand: a preformed opinion, usually an unfavorable one, based on insufficient knowledge, irrational feelings, or inaccurate stereotypes
• holding of ill-informed opinions: the holding of preformed opinions based on insufficient knowledge, irrational feelings, or inaccurate stereotypes
• irrational dislike of somebody: an unfounded hatred, fear, or mistrust of a person or group, especially one of a particular religion, ethnicity, nationality, sexual preference, or social status

Synonyms: bias, preconception, prejudgment, predisposition, partiality

Stu,

So you are saying that society's reaction towards nudity is not prejudged? I disagree.............take two nude art models.......one is a young, beautiful woman and the other is an old, flabby man? I guarantee you that the male artists in that room will respond favorably towards the woman and not favorably towards the man. Most men are programmed to respond this way and respond they will. If Steven Gough was a young, very attractive woman, then I am certain that men would have no objection to him (her) being nude and women would be outraged not because of the nudity, but because of jealousy concerning competition - another programmed trait in our society.

Your comments about nudity are misinformed. Most nudists would spend much more time nude if they only lived in a world which tolerated them. The issues is not about preferences to be nude or not nude............the issue is about being crushed by an oppresive system that does not tolerate nudity (at least in the USA).

[Stu2630]

Hot off the press:

'Naked rambler' Stephen Gough arrested once again


The naked rambler, Stephen Gough, has been arrested again just three days after being released from Perth Prison.


Gough, 53, a former marine, spent six years in prison after being repeatedly arrested upon leaving prison for refusing to wear clothes each time he was allowed to walk free.
On Tuesday Gough was given the opportunity to walk out of prison without being rearrested despite his insistence on remaining naked.
He said as he left on Tuesday that he would not begin wearing clothes just to stay out of trouble with the law.
As such, Fife Constabulary responded to complaints from members of the public which led to his arrest for breaching the peace at 2pm today.
He is expected to appear at Dunfermline Sheriff Court on Monday.


http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk...n-7962273.html


So I was right. I wonder if those who said it was a "great victory" would like to comment on this.

Yabber Dabber Stu

[Mosquito_Bait]

^^ He'll win this time too!

[Sanslines]

Good news for Stu that the Naked Rambler is re-arrested so he can gloat. Then again, the arrest comes as no surprise as the rambler is never going to capitulate to the authorities and so the authorities might as well get used to keep arresting the man all the while running up a huge bill for the taxpayers.

From the Telegraph:

"Yet for all its unsightly complications, the Naked Rambler case prompts us to consider the question of why stripping off in public remains such a taboo.

And why, in greater or lesser ways, so many people continue to do it anyway. Anthropologists disagree on when humans first started wearing clothes - 100,000 years ago seems a reasonable guess - but broadly concur that for 99 per cent of our history, nudity has been the norm, and that dressing for the sake of decency is an almost wholly modern phenomenon.

The early Christian moralists appear to have made the first connection between nakedness and sin, dwelling in particular on the "shame" felt by Adam and Eve at the realisation of their nudity in the Garden of Eden.

Centuries later, as Europe grew, prospered and expanded its reach, nudity came to symbolise the primitivism and savagery of the rest of the world, and by the mid-Victorian era almost any display of flesh, especially by women, was frowned upon.
"The naked body," wrote Kenneth Clark of Civilisation fame, "ceased to be a mirror of divine perfection and became, instead, an object of humiliation."

Thus established, the obligation to wear clothes has proved fiendishly hard to overthrow. Laws against public nudity exist in virtually every country, and while the French, Germans and Scandinavians are generally said to have fewer inhibitions than most, history shows that it is the British who have the greatest readiness to strip.

The world's first naturist club was founded by Charles Crawford, a British circuit judge serving in Bombay under the Raj in 1891.
Faithful to its motto Vincat Natura ("Let nature win") the club required its members to be stark naked at all times, with exceptions made only for wedding rings and false teeth.

At the start of the 20th century, the Germans briefly took up the running with the publication of a celebrated series of philosophical papers on the benefits of nudity, written by the social reformer Dr Heinrich Pudor.

But the rise of the Nazis effectively drove the practice underground, while Britain's naturist clubs flourished, leading to the launch in 1932 of Health and Efficiency, the world's first naturist magazine.

Today the Central Council for British Naturism employs a parliamentary adviser, a commercial manager and a media consultant. It oversees the activities of more than 70 individual clubs, and says that the habit has never been more popular.

To its core devotees, however, the appeal remains just what it always was - the heady sense of freedom, innocence and communion with nature. Feelings, they suspect, that were never fully savoured by Mr Gough, as he rambled around the country scattering old ladies and proclaiming his "right to freedom of expression".

Now, with nowhere left to ramble, and the prospect of indefinite detention hanging over him, he sits in his cell - bare not only of clothes, but of arguments."

The Telegraph, London

[NakedGary]

Naked Rambler Stephen Gough Arrested Again In Dunfermline

PA | Posted: 20/07/2012 17:43 Updated: 20/07/2012 17:43

Follow:

Dunfermline, Fife Constabulary, Naked Rambler, Perth Prison, Stephen Gough, Uk News, UK News


The "naked rambler" has been arrested three days after he was released from prison.

Stephen Gough, who hikes across the country naked, was arrested in Townhill, Dunfermline, this afternoon by officers from Fife Constabulary.

The 53-year-old was released from Perth Prison on Tuesday and was allowed to walk home naked.

A spokesman for Fife Constabulary said he was arrested following complaints from members of the public and has been charged with breach of the peace.


Naked Rambler Stephen Gough at John O' Groats after walking from Land's End to John O'Groats nakedThe former marine, from Eastleigh in Hampshire, earned the nickname by walking unclothed from Land's End to John O'Groats after quitting his job as a lorry driver.
He said earlier this week that he planned to walk to England to see his family.
He told the Sun: "My children are teenagers so I expect they are embarrassed by me. If I was them and my dad was walking around naked, I suppose I would be embarrassed."

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[ibrahim]

Perhaps it was mentioned somewhere, but I haven't noticed - was he naked in prison too all the time?

[Stu2630]

^^ He'll win this time too!

I think the word "too" must be a typo. This man has spent the past six years in prison, having been convicted many times and having lost his appeal.

Do you not think you might have been a premature in declaring his "great victory"?

Sanslines

I admit I am pleased he has been stopped. However, I would he happier is he were to reflect upon what he is doing and recognise that his position is not just pig-headed . it is supremely arrogant and selfish.

We all have to make compromises in life for the sake of others and, if we don't, then we can expect conflict and we suffer the consequences.

Ibrahim

Yes, he was naked in prison - but he was in a segregated wing away from other inmates.

Stu

[Sanslines]

Sanslines

I admit I am pleased he has been stopped. However, I would he happier is he were to reflect upon what he is doing and recognise that his position is not just pig-headed . it is supremely arrogant and selfish.

We all have to make compromises in life for the sake of others and, if we don't, then we can expect conflict and we suffer the consequences.

Stu

If we are not willing to accept those compromises, then we battle on and don't ever give up. In the end, it will be the taxpayers who will be the biggest losers as the expenses to keep locking up Mr Gough keep piling up. One million pounds anyone??

[tiger79]

In the end, it will be the taxpayers who will be the biggest losers as the expenses to keep locking up Mr Gough keep piling up. One million pounds anyone??

A million pounds? I'd imagine it will be much more than that. There doesn't seem to be an easy solution, as he's determined not to fit in with the general rules of our society. So I guess it will be an endless stream of solitary confinement sentences, unless the authorities decide to take a mental health approach and lock him up indefinitely in a secure hospital (which would cost even more!). However, we in England can take some comfort from the fact that it will be the Scottish authorities which will be picking up the huge bills!

And what on earth does his girlfriend make of it all?