cdbeck
Posts: 1374
Joined: 8/16/2005 From: Indiana Status: offline
|
If there was an award for how badly a thread has derailed, I would say this one wins in perpetuity. Seriously, this thread started as a JOKE and is now bookended by the rape of Nanking! I think that Treale probably cries himself to sleep at night, thinking about the horror he has unleashed on the world. Wow, funny how things can change direction on a dime! I'm not making a judgment on anyone here, just humorously observing the progression of this 7 page beast. I would like to say one thing. I am a historian, and I study the Middle Ages. I can, in 100% confidence, state that bad things, horrors, tragedies, and terrible acts have occurred and been committed nearly everywhere by many different types of people. They are difficult to judge from the present day, the reasons behind these actions are typically only understandable by those in the time period within which they are committed. While judgment on the past may be difficult, we should, as human beings, deplore any loss of life as citizens of the planet (not as citizens of a certain country, state, city, etc.). Thus is isn't "ok" when the "good guys" kill people and bad when the "evil people" kill people - like in the movies. We should feel the same sorrow for the use of the atomic bomb against Japan as we do against the Holocaust. We should deplore all these actions as being preventable, were we to live in a world where all humanity acted in concert with one another, we would not have had to experience these things. You can excuse one negative action with the negative action of another country. West and East, North and South are all relative to where you are. I recently flew over Europe, and you know what, there really AREN'T giant black border lines existing between countries. Nationalism is a state of mind, a construct to support certain regional political claims. I think now, more than ever with this current economic crisis looming, we understand just how connected the world is. History typically IS written by the winners, or at least the dominate culture. This puts a certain bias when viewing events in the past. I believe that the problems encountered in this thread are part of this bias and those that oppose this bias. I am not agreeing with Ike, in fact I disagree with the way he views the world. I am just saying that this thread might be best just ended, as it has degenerated into a clash of cultural, nationalistic, and ideology that will never be rectified. SoM
< Message edited by Son_of_Montfort -- 10/14/2008 11:25:02 AM >
_____________________________
"Neca eos omnes. Deus suos agnoscet!" (Kill them all. God will know his own.) -- Arnaud-Armaury, the Albigensian Crusade
|