Journal bhima's Journal: Remembrance of Kristallnacht 1
Earlier this week remembrance of Kristallnacht was observed here in Austria. Overnight just under 100 Jews were murdered and about 30,000 were arrested and deported to concentration camps. Coincidently (perhaps) a talk given by Samantha Power at Ted 2008 about Genocide and the life and death of Sergio Vieira de Mello called "Shaking Hands with the Devil". This reminded me of book with a similar title: "Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda" by the Canadian Senator, Lieutenant-General Roméo Antonius Dallaire.
The culmination of these thoughts has me reaching a few conclusions: The common Western mythology of the solemn pledge of "Never Again" is an impossibility and the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide a farce. The vast body of humanity absolutely does not care about Genocidal events in places even modestly distant from their homes; involving people who they do not share a common heritage or language or skin colour or even religious or political ideology. More over, a substantial portion of humanity holds the capacity to revel in incitement of and to participate in the execution of genocide.
I read the political news of several countries: Austria, United States, United Kingdom, and Zimbabwe and I am routinely amazed at the language which is commonly used in the political arena. It's as if the absence of violence creates a pressure which must eventually be relieved. I have many friends in the US and the UK and to a man they have a confidence, in the fact that the social unrest or military action which creates the possibility of genocide can not happen to them or by them or their proxies, which is absolute.
I can't decide which I find more alarming the people who agitate for it or the people who do not believe such things are even remotely possible.
cognizant dissonance/cults/propaganda/brainwashing (Score:1)
I guess people who have never experienced "social unrest" or heinous governmental acts being passed as "law" and "enforcing the law" up close and personal don't really realize how thin the veneer of civilization is, nor do they appreciate the government can and will absolutely go nuts when and if they feel like it (I am lucky or unlucky as it were with regards that, hence why I have my viewpoints). Here's another example: Our "heroes" were the ones who trained (and worked with) the south american "heroes" w