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Originally Posted by Seaver
But take the same microscope to yourself before you apply it to others.
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To address this briefly: please see my previous post. I was a hard-core evangelical for a long time. I walked away, consciously but with great sorrow. I am no less of a person for doing so, and I do not believe those who remain evangelical are any less of people for staying there. That was my point.
In any case, this is not the thread to start talking about the miracles of nature; we're talking about effing Hezbollah and Israel bombing each other to shit, for crying out loud. If you want to translate that into good vs. evil, so be it. But take it to Philosophy or something. This is not the forum to haul out personal moralities based on religious interpretation.
/threadjack.
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you could link it to good old fashioned american racism deployed in a western film mode--the function of arab women and children is to die in great anonymous numbers--the heroic American Destiny unfolds across piles of anonymous bodies, less than human, less than us--History Will Absolve Us--see we pay for films that absolve us---we pay for press that absolves us----we are absolution itself----we forgive us...
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Well roachboy, I'd have to say that I pretty much agree 100% with you here. You said it beautifully. And yet... has any country been able to avoid getting blood on its hands, at some point in history? Are there completely "innocent" countries anywhere on earth? Every nation takes part in a kind of collective 1984... and yet, we Americans seem especially skilled at doing so.
Sometimes I think it would be better if we weren't so good at forgiving ourselves... look at Germany, how 60 years after their own collective sins against humanity, they still labor to forgive themselves. They never destroyed Dachau, never tried to lift the burden of that sin on their land and history... to me, that is the responsible thing to do. It doesn't change the past, but at least the responsible parties own up and admit they were wrong. They keep a long memory of their own guilt... quite the opposite from American consciousness of our actions, both domestic and international. The sad thing is, most Americans are not even aware of our guilt, our complicity. I don't know if that will ever change.
/another threadjack?