Re: Syndicate: recriminations versus prognostications

[honor <honor@va.com.au>]

just a brief adjunct to bruce sterling's endlessly instructive and guileful
comments on the moral responsibility thread :

>"Australian" people, for instance, can only wring their hands
>over a mere three or four centuries' worth of various national-identity
>enormities.  If "Australia" were eight centuries old instead, would a
>newborn baby Australian be twice as weighed-down with Australian historical
>guilt (perhaps even as badly-off morally as "Austrians")?   When do we get
>to draw two red lines under history and bury that which is dead within us?

as a former (no doubt hand-wringing) resident of "australia", and an
indigene of the even more juvenile (and perhaps, by the above logic, less
weighed-down with historical guilt) "new zealand", i would suggest that it
may be somewhat simplistic to analyse the antipodean collective
ackowledgment of historical occurances, as a mere product of the
comparative brevity of our histories. 

the lesson it is taking new zealand over 150 years to learn (australia over
200), is that with each oscillation of an historical epoch, there is need
for cultural reflection and evaluation.  i don't think conveniently atoning
"red lines" ever preclude the necessity of this appraisal.

the difficulty of socially actuating this examination is perhaps one of the
causes of the infuriating looping of history that we constantly see unfold
- evidenced most vividly and lamentably within the balkan region. 

>At this historical point, personally, I feel quite inclined to grant the
>"German people," whoever the heck they are, a blanket moral amnesty for the
>twentieth century.  

err, great.  i'm sure all "germans" will be eminently relieved - nay elated
- to hear this.

>NATO may well "lose the peace" if one too many Marines
>steps on a punjee stick.  

are we getting our wars mixed up again?


regards


honor

<in transit>

honor@va.com.au
http://www.radioqualia.va.com.au
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