On Wed, 11 Feb 2009 08:40:14 -0500, (gu)stav <no@hushmail.rightnow>
wrote:
>Thank you for the thoughtful and historically erudite response a couple
>of days ago. I'm relieved that you aren't offended.
>
>As before, I take your points about the web of factors -- from
>hyperinflation during the Weimar era to (possible) child abuse -- that
>created the epochal circumstances in which the crimes of the Third
>Reich were perpetrated. And you seem to get my counter-point that,
>ultimately, the chief criminal himself bears the blame -- not his mean
>daddy, not the Brits and French exacting harsh reparations for a war we
>Germans started.
>
>That said, you make an important argument. It does take a village, and
>thus the village bears responsibility. It's something to think about.
>Didn't Dostoevsky remark that you could judge a nation by how it treats
>it prisoners? Sure you can judge a nation by the way it treats its
>youngest citizens.
My Dear Gustav,
I so thoroughly enjoy your essays and encourage you to "call me to
task" if you feel I've misspoken or obfuscated an issue.
In the final analysis, all must be ultimately responsible for the
horror they do, irrespective of what circumstances had put them in the
position to do such horror. Yet that does not, nor cannot not ever,
expunge the guilt of those who stretched the canvas for such a
terrible painting. To assert that a malevolent soul is indelibly a
monster is simply a convenience ... the logical extension being that,
as a result, citizens and nations are somehow absolved of any
responsibility.
Yet, it is very sad to see that even to this day, such rationalisation
continues ... most recently in Gaza, in Iraq, Iran, Georgia ... how
one could simply go on and on!
The only philosophy I consider indelibly evil is that of "the ends
justify the means."
And how very popular it still is!
Sincerely,
HMS Victor Victorian
God Save the Queen!
God Preserve the Prince of Wales!
Rule Britannia!
|
| Follow-ups: | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 |
|