BAH!
A mistake people constantly make when talking about things such as genocide is an assignment of guilt from past sins to a contemperary national identity. I hear it constantly in every facet of arguements: "well you think the nazis are horrible, just look at what we did to the Japanese in World War 2!" or "When some people attack Islam for inciting struggle in the name of justice, they forget the Boston Tea Party and the American Revolution" or "you think that what happened in darfur is bad, just look at what we did to the indians!" The thing is, WE didn't do any of those things, our ancestors did, and our ancestors are (for the most part) dead. The moral character of a country is defined by those currently alive, not by those who are dead. Although we think of a country as a person, it is not, and we cannot allow our psyche to be burdoned down with the sins of the dead. If we do this with conviction, then we as a country need have no guilt for slavery, or lesse fair capitalism, or any of the labor conflicts. Germany should (in about 20 years) have no guilt for what it did to the jews. WE, who are alive and breathing today, did none of those things. And while we must remember, we must leave useless guilt behind.
posted by Abraham at 12:51 AM
3 Comments:
I've been trying to argue this for years.... but no one will listen to me.
What you say is true ... But, members of each culture are in part made by the matric of their own culture. Thus how a German remembers (via history alone for latter generations) about the Holocust will be different from how a Jew or an Brittisher does.
This process of developing a collective memory among individuals about their own societies is one of the ways a culture makes itself. Thus there is a personal responsibility to examine the stories one tells oneself about the past. This should not be an invatation to guilt, but to examination and to acknowledgement of one's own role in being a part of building ones own culture. The stories and Myths collectively told are of vital importance.
"Human being live by stories. Chose your story wisely. For as you tell the story it begins to happen" (Source believed to be Elizabeth Cogburn).
would i sound like a push-over if i said i think everybody is right? i forgot who said, "those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" but that quote applies directly to this topic. while i don't think we should feel guilty for what our ancestors did, i think we can learn from it... and if we make the same mistakes again... the we're just idots.
-steve
p.s. ok i looked the quote up: it was Santanya
Post a Comment
<< Home