As Eli Wiesel says so succinctly, “We do not live in the past, the past lives in the present.”
And what a better image to encapsulate that thought than the vandalized tombstones...
I often contemplate the sort of hate required to justify not just the murder but the systematic slaughter of masses of people. We all feel hate of others at some time in our lives but the hate is usually directed at an individual rather than an amorphous mass of people who can be categorized by their skin color, religion or tribe.
It must be a unique trait of the human species (and we think of ourselves as superior to all other species) to have the capacity and will to exterminate fellow individuals on a mass scale, indiscriminately and without any conscience, remorse or guilt.
I suppose some people would turn to religion to understand the nature of evil. For others who aren't religious like myself, the answer is more difficult and elusive.
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7 comments:
Catholicism, which in no way, shape, or form should ever be confused or conflated with Christianity, has always had a consistent anti-Semitic bent. Sure, "Vatican II" removed blatant anti-Semitism from their catechisms in 1962, but there's still a generation walking the Earth taught about "the natural perfidy of Jews" in the pre-Vatican II catechisms that have gone on to raise anti-Semites who subsequently are raising their own anti-Semitic children.
But, you can read editorials produced by the Vatican's newspapers and still find Jew haters at work. The Catholic reaction to the Beslan school massacre in Russia in 2004specifically blamed Jews, not Muslims for the atrocity.
When the Egyptian ex-patriates that call themselves "Palestinians" took hostage the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem in 2002, the Vatican criticized Israel despite the Palesimians vandalizing and trashing the church, stealing gold artifacts and ornamentations, and leaving dozens of booby-trapped bombs behind.
And of course, you know how Muslims feel about Jews.
I have no use for Catholics, who are little more than Shia Muslims making shrines of water stains that "look like Mary."
Mr. Ratzinger, or Pope Benedict XVI if you have to subscribe to protocol, can go get bent.
But anti-Semitism is also a staple feature in left-wing socialist economic and political philosophy. Proudhon, Marx, Bukanin all lively Jew haters (yes I know Marx was Jewish) like their students Hitler, Stalin, and Trotsky (yes I know Trotsky was Jewish) were all unabashed Jew haters. Marx even equates capitalism with Judaism in his "world without Jews" utopian fantasy expounding on the stereotype of Jews being "international bankers" and such.
What does it take to exterminate fellow human beings on a mass scale without remorse or regret?
A left-wing mind.
The Catholic Church and the left certainly have a lot to answer when it comes to antisemitism. I think the issue is bigger than that. Consider Rwanda, consider Bosnia, and of course let's not forget the Muslims. Evil exists within all of us but not all of us give expression to it's urges.
Rwanda's "Hutu Power" crazies are predominantly "Liberation Theology" Catholics or Sunni Muslims.
Slobodan Milosevic was a Communist.
Quite a theme to explore here...
Saddam Hussein... Baath Party (socialist amd Muslim)
Armenian genocide... Ottoman Turks (Muslim)
Osama Bin Laden... (Muslim and left-wing "climate change" activist)
etc.
Left-wing minds, all.
OK, you've started something here...
Anti-semitism has always left me speechless.
I hope I never do understand why or how such acts of evil are possible...
Robespierre and the Reign of Terror... the original left-wing...
Yup yup.
The further left you go, the bloodier it gets.
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