From: Patrick van den Berg (cirandar@yahoo.com)
Date: Thu Jan 09 2003 - 14:23:32 GMT
Hi Platt,
> I guess our difference revolves around the terms "strong" and
> "absolute."
> IMO, the Holocaust was not merely a strong evil but an absolute evil,
> not broadly true that it happened, but absolutely true. In my
> imagination
> I can think of no extenuating context that would render using absolute
> in
> that case "incorrect." Can you?
I've been thinking about this, the Holocaust as an absolute evil,
because no context can be imagined in which this would have been a 'less
evil' or even 'good' thing.
Of course, my immediate reaction is the same as yours, but I can come up
with two comments.
The first is the same as Mari (I believe it was her) essentially, who
told an anecdote of a farmer who was spared his sons from having to go
to war ('good' thing) because his sons had previously broken a leg or
something. Applied to this context, nowadays every year in Holland we
hear the prime minister or someone else say "Never, never again." (the
Holocaust). We know it was such a horrible thing, that we cannot and
must not forget it, so that it never happens again. So we have learned
to value our freedom and lives more because we've seen how it can be
treated in evil ways in the second world war.
One sometimes hear people, in discussions about hate or discrimination
for/against some minority in our society (still in many ways an
important issue today), draw an analogy between this hate nowadays vs.
anti-semitism in the late thirties. This makes -I hope- some people
realize that discriminating and hating some cultural or religious group
is wrong- because the realize to where it can lead to. And this
realization in people, I think is a 'good' thing.
The second point is more personal. When I was 18 I went to russia, and a
russian psychologist analyzed the people's personalities in our group
(international volunteers for a project) through interpreting drawings
we had to make. I'm not a fan of this kind of 'pscyho-analysis',
nevertheless I was very impressed by what she said. One thing she
repeatedly said to me was: "you're good from the inside." Since then I
decided to believe (so to say) that ALL men are good 'from the inside',
deep in their hearts.
In this respect I often have wondered how people like Hitler or Stalin
could commit such hideous crimes to humanity. Hitler was a human being.
Stalin was a human being. You and I share over 99.9% of our genes with
them. What does that say about who we are? The 'shadow' part in us (a
term from Ken Wilber) was put to reality in high extent by Hitler, but
don't we all carry this 'shadow' part in us?
I must say that the last few months, I've started to doubt the premise
that all men are good in principle, because of personal experiences and
what I see in the media. Actually this shaking of my 'faith' so to say
has quite an impact on a deeply rooted static quality in me.
Do you believe in the 'good' of men?
I have to go, Greetings, Patrick.
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