In article ,
"EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque)" wrote:
> Well, you must realize that, although I was alive during WW2, American
> kids (especially in a predominantly WASP town in the middle of the
> country) were pretty well insulated from much of it. (Especially if we
> had no relatives in the armed services.) I knew what I read, but was
> more into the "derring do" of playing "war" and "fighter pilots" on our
> bicycles than the actual events. We knew Hitler was a "bad guy", but
> living in a part of the country where many of us had German
> grandparents, we didn't really relate to how he had corrupted the
> Germany they knew.
I didn't have actual German grandparents(dead great-grands), but
everything in the above paragraph describes my childhood, too, so I can
see the argument in the one below. And as one who has studied and
taught German for several decades and has friends there, I can attest
that they have learned from the past. It doesn't have to repeat itself,
but
>
> And I still maintain that, unless they are directly affected, most
> "average" people, anywhere, find it easier to close their eyes to
> objectionable acts by their governments than actually SEE what's
> happening and do something about it before it's too late. It's easy to
> judge the German people after the fact, but how different would most of
> us behave, placed in similar situations? (Abu Ghraib, Guatanamo, the
> erosion of our freedoms in the name of "anti-terrorism".....) The
> specifics change, but how many people are willing to disturb their
> comfortable status quo to go out on a limb and ACTIVELY protest what
> they perceive to be wrong, unless it directly affects THEM?
Some will go out on that limb and others will cut it off, unfortunately.
--
Mary Loomer Oliver (aka Erilar)
You can't reason with someone whose first line of argument is
that reason doesn't count. --Isaac Asimov
Erilar's Cave Annex: http://www.chibardun.net/~erilarlo
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