From: joedees@bellsouth.net
Date: Wed 07 May 2003 - 17:08:43 GMT
> <And if you had a gun to the head of Hitler in 1935
> > and knew what the next ten years would bring if you didn't pull the
> > trigger, how would you explain your principled nonaction to the
> > families of all the Holocaust dead?>
> >
> Saying you had a gun to his head already presumes that the only way to
> prevent the holocaust you know is coming (temporal paradox aside) is
> to shoot him dead.
>
Yes, let's presume that. Now, try again.
>
> Don't forget an assassination in effect started
> WWI, and a presumed assassination triggered the Rwandan genocide.
> Assassination can martyr people, and may have made things far worse.
> Pre-emption is the lazy person's way out. How about debate,
> discussion, efforts at persuasion and so on? How about going back a
> decade or so and treating post-WWI Germany better, diffusing the
> appeal of hitler, asuming he might still emerge, to a disenchanted
> German public? How about killing the guy who killed ferdinand, which
> might have stopped WWI, then hitler wouldn't have spent all that time
> in the trenches that clearly deeply traumatised him? It's all a game
> of what if that can't be solved by a simple solution. The Romans did
> kill Jesus didn't they, but it didn't stop christianity. Important as
> he was, nazism wasn't ever just about hitler. Finally, if you have to
> resort to their level to defeat your opponent- kill them before they
> kill you- you've already lost.
>
> On a slightly lighter not, any other list members note the problems
> that Germany is having in holding a 'Great Germans' contest a la the
> BBC's Great Britons? They've included Austrians as possible
> candidates, but of course have had to ban people from voting for
> Hitler. I believe Goethe is a strong contender.
>
> Vincent
>
>
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===============================================================
This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
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