On the Dismantling of American Culture. It's received a lot of attention due to being written by a long-time liberal who finally met and talked to some conservatives(and read some books) and realized that he really liked what they had to say.
Some interesting reading, and some bits in particular rang a bell with me. For instance:
about two years back I made a post on the Senate, apparently having nothing important to do, making an apology for slavery. In comments a guy argued that it was a Good Thing, and that we should all apologize for it, and I called bullshit; base of argument being "What the hell good does it do for me to apologize for something I did not do?"(followup here) I see doing that as nothing but posturing for forgiveness by people who also had nothing to do with it; usually politicians sucking for votes and/or liberals who think they have to apologize for damn near everything this country does/has done*, in the name of 'healing' or such garbage.
So when I ran across this, I thought I'd post it here:
This illogical sentiment, which can only be called “racism,” is found again in the Liberal love of the idea of “apology”- that the Government should apologize for Slavery, Japanese Internment, Coolie Labor, and so on. But the Rabbis teach that no apology is legitimate unless the offender (a) expresses remorse stating specifically what he has done; (b)makes restitution; (c)refrains, in similar circumstances, from again committing the offense.(bold mine)
But even upon the first of these, a governmental apology founders. For who is the “we” and who the “they” of the apology?
Is the American Government of today guilty of slavery? If so, are those African American members of the Government equally guilty? Or, are the American People alive today guilty? If so, which citizens? The Black as well as the White?** Is the guilt heritable, or not? If so, then would not those(the great majority of) American whose ancestors did not arrive until after slavery be exempt from apology? Are the ancestors of the 300,000 white males who died to defeat slavery excepted from apology? If not, on what basis are the descendants of slaves entitled to it?
Is one entitled to apology by genetics? If so, then those making the apology must be tainted by their own blood. Is this an American concept?
How is it that, sixty-some years after the West defeated Nazi Racism, we are enmeshed in a race-based culture, and making governmental decisions on the basis of genetics?
A damn good question, I think.
A few years back I was a regular at a Scottish country dance group. There was a lady who hadn't come in quite a while, and the guy who ran the group and I were informed that she'd been insulted by something we'd said or done, and we needed to apologize to her. No, he didn't know WHAT we'd said or done, but we ought to apologize anyway.
I said that if I'd done something to insult her I had no problem apologizing, but I wanted to know exactly what it was I was apologizing for; otherwise, forget it. I didn't say at the time, but thought "What good is apologizing for something when you don't know what is you're apologizing for? What the hell good IS such an apology?"
Unless you're a politician sucking for votes, or a liberal desperate for forgiveness for something; then we know what it's good for...
*note that they won't apologize for the damage done- in particular- to minorities by their feel-good policies
**And let's not forget the Indians who owned slaves; in the case of some Cherokee, for example, to work their plantation. If I've got something to apologize for, THEY damn well do.
'Course, a lot of the tribes were practicing slavery for long before the nasty Europeans came over; so I guess they get a break for it being their Sacred Ancient Tribal Custom or something.
No comments:
Post a Comment