Friday, February 6, 2004
You know when I said in my last post on this subject that it was a "final update?" I guess I lied. The discussion continues.
The discussion, not surprisingly, has lost its original context of the Mel Gibson remarks and has gone on to the general question of Holocaust uniqueness. I'm not excerpting anyone. If you're interested in this ongoing discussion (and it is interesting), go ahead and follow the stepping stones.
First, there is this thoughtful post at Jumping To Conclusions pointed to by David Bernstein back at Volokh who also jumps back in to the discussion.
Teleologic Blog takes a stab at the subject, as does Judith at Kesher Talk (very good post there). Judith also points out this post by Jaako at Rye Beer who recaptures some of the Gibson context. The Truth Laid Bear has some comments, too.
Teleologic, Kesher Talk and TTLB are all pointed to in Sasha's latest reply. Sasha continues to try to tease out a formulaic answer to the question. I think the problem he's running into is actually a flaw in Utilitarianism - matters of Good and Evil are notoriously difficult to quantify and plug into formulas, i.e. Take Goods A and B and compare them to Evils C and D and look which is greater. The world just doesn't work that way, particularly with regard to events as huge as Genocide.
And that's why this discussion will probably continue.
Continued: Meryl points to posts at Back Seat Drivers and Damian Penny.
And Lynn B. has posted again with yet another resource.
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: Continuing the Holocaust discussion.
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Meryl has more, here and here. And Judith Weiss blew me away with her update to this post, which elaborates eloquently on the uniqueness theme.... Read More
Over at The Volokh Conspiracy, a lively discussion has been going on about whether the Holocaust was a morally unique event. Sasha Volokh believes it was not; that the murder of six million Jews was no more of a moral Read More
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Bernstein's 2nd post and the post he cites says it all. Sasha's reply to that is to longwinded and meandering. If he'd just cut to the point it would be easier to try and understand his point.
The bottom line is whether or not the Holocaust is unique for 2 reasons. There was no reason to murdering anyone with "Jewish blood" other than pure racist hate. There was no land, political or regional disputes to be gained here. In fact as during the Eastern Campaign and at the end of the war when they knew they were losing and sped up the Hungarian Genocide the extra resources severely hurt the quest for land gains and victory.
The other point is that it was done across different countries and continents not in a localize area. As was pointed out with Russia and other places.
If you don't think that makes it unique not to mention the systatized efficiency and speed of it, then you just don't. AND THAT'S THE REAL BOTTOM LINE.
If you want to hear a libertarian or Marxist wax on the universality of man, etc... that's fine. I don't totally disagree with all of that, but the above easily makes the Holocaust unique.
Mike