Date: Tue, 24 Mar 1998 07:58:22 -0600 From: "Paul S. Rhodes" <sadecamus-AT-sprintmail.com> Subject: Re: Smirking at Nihilism >Whether one believes that there is an absolute opposition here is very much >to the point. One need not believe in an absolute oppostiion in this sense >in order to categorically reject the Holocaust. On the other hand, it seems >to me that by demonizing the Nazis, etc., we risk saying that we are not it. >They are evil, we are not, in other words. The real point, I think, is that >the Nazis were not really, when you get right down to it, that very much >different from most other human beings. If evil exists, it exists as an >utter banality. > >Paul hasn't got a straight answer because, quite frankly, he doesn't want one. > >Best, > >The Uebermutt > I Write: My thanks to Yair Mahalalel for the support, although I must point out that I do not know that my faith is demonstrably false as Yair Mahalalel suggests. In fact, I believe it to be true, although not demonstrably. Mr. Callihan is wrong that I do not want a straight answer. If such actions as the T4 Operation, the Endloesung, the Mei Lei (sp.?) massacre, the slaughter in Burundi and Rwanda, the Inquisition among countless others are not evil, then I want to know what they are. Tell me, Mr. Callihan, was Crassus' slaughter of a thousand slaves on the Appian Way evil or an instance of Master Morality. To call all this slaughter, all this suffering inflicted upon defenseless innocents for the sadistic pleasures of Masters a "Complementarfaerbe" (Nietzsche's foppish definition of "schlecht") simply is an irresponsible act of a superficial dandy. One does not deal with problem of evil by denying it. It is real, banal or no. Circumspice. One does not deal with it either by calling it a Complementary Color. I don't think Kafka's sisters experienced Auschwitz as a Complementary Color. Mr. Callihan, praytell, how can you categorically reject anything? A categorical rejection is absolutist, don't you know, and your own philosophy (if one can call it that) bars you from any absolutist stance--absolutely, I might add. (you cannot twist free of that performative contradiction, nya nya na nya nya). Paul S. Rhodes N.B. That Mr. Callihan persists in addressing me by my first name does not mean he is a friend or close associate of mine. _____________________________________________________________________________ My friend, you would not tell with such high zest To children ardent for some desperate glory The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori. --Wilfred Owen Patriotism is the last refuge of a scroundel. --Samuel Johnson Rush Limbaugh is a big fat idiot. --Al Franken --- from list nietzsche-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
Display software: ArchTracker © Malgosia Askanas, 2000-2005