[extropy-chat] 'History' and the fulcrum of 1945

[Samantha Atkins]

On Jan 31, 2005, at 2:04 AM, Hubert Mania wrote:

> Dear Amara,
>
> the subject of collective guilt was suppressed in public discussion 
> til the
> 1980s when the us tv movie series "Holocaust" had a tremendous impact 
> on the
> german society. Since that event and after some better documentations 
> - like
> Claude Lanzmann's "Shoah" video - the complete horror of the holocaust
> creeped into the public discussion. Reasonable persons tell you that 
> there
> is no such thing like a collective guilt, even holocaust survivors say 
> it.
> Instead, contemporary german citizens should play their individual 
> role to
> prevent this from ever happening again. Well, I guess everybody has to 
> find
> his own answer if he feels gulity being born into a society that has
> permitted Ausschwitz to happen.


Surely it is irrational to assume guilt for that one had no part in and 
no choice about, especially for things that occurred before birth.   
Rationality leaves no room for original sin.

-samantha