Posted by Racer on July 14, 2005, at 22:45:17
In reply to Lou's response to an aspect ofthis thread-kwcauses » Racer, posted by Lou Pilder on July 14, 2005, at 20:06:57
> Friends,
> It is written here,[..it cheapens the real suffering of people in the Holocaust...].
> I am requesting that when you read that that you consider that:
> A. I feel that the knowlege of the causes of the Holocaust could raise the value of the suffereings of those mentioned. B. I feel that there are lessons for all in knowing the causes of the Holocaust. C. I feel that if one knows the causes, that they could be better able to be more sensitive to humanity in general, and to others here also, and perhaps see how current world events might parallel those of Hitler's ideology. Do we want that to happen again? If not, how better is there to prevent another Holocaust than to be aware of its causes?
> LouFor what it's worth, I don't think that anything I wrote is about whether or not historical knowledge of the factors and events leading up to the Holocaust is a good thing or a bad thing. I wrote that I, personally, felt offended when I read your posts, which I interpreted as comparing Dr Bob's comments with the events leading up to the Holocaust.
Also, Lou, I don't think you're talking about understanding the causes of the Holocaust, so much as the effects those causes had on events. The actual causes of the Holocaust go back to the Dark Ages in Eastern Europe, and have many, many threads which all came together in the 1930s to create one of the worst horrors in modern history.
Also, for the record, I was very uncomfortable when I read this post of yours, which doesn't read to me like a response to what I wrote. I'm uncomfortable first with what feels like an assumption that I do not know about the Holocaust. I also react badly when anyone tells me what I "should" know about, what I "should" study -- it smacks of all the things I was told for years were "for my own good", etc. I do not believe that it is anyone's place to tell me what I should know, unless I have asked that person for his or her opinion. That's not just you, Lou, that's anyone. Yes, when I went to my college advisor, I asked for his opinion about what I "should" take. That was appropriate. But when someone at a cocktail party tells me that I really "should" study, say, entomology, I become more than a little edgy.
As for whether or not knowing the history of Eastern and Central Europe would make this place "better", more tolerant, more civil, well, that's rather a moot point, really. If everyone here at Babble followed the civility guidelines, thought for a moment about how others might interpret what they've written, thought of how they would feel themselves to read what they've written about others -- in short, if everyone here followed The Golden Rule, THAT would make things a lot more comfortable.
Finally, I notice that when I finally brought up teh fact that references to the Holocaust upset me, a number of other people came forward, too, to say that they became upset by those references as well. I can't speak for anyone else here, but I will say that I would feel a little better about this whole thing if I felt as though you had taken that in, if you expressed some sort of regret for the fact that your words had caused someone else pain. Can you understand that?
poster:Racer
thread:527560
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/admin/20050628/msgs/527824.html