[Foundation-l] New project proposal: Soviet Repressions Memorial

[Jussi-Ville Heiskanen]

Fred Bauder wrote:
>> Well where will it stop? If we have a project, we should have a memorial
>> project for all disasters. I echo Mr. Bimmler in his concerns about the
>> motives behind this proposal.
>>     
>
> I think half a dozen might do, one for the victims of Hitler, one for the
> victims of Stalin, one for the victims of Pol Pot, one for the victims of
> Mao, one for victims of the inquisition, etc,
>
> We would not need to mess with small time killers like Osama bin Ladin.
>
> Fred
>
>   

It's a bit more complex than that, actually. (Granting, arguendo
that this idea had merit in the absolute, which is a position I
do not actually hold)

First in the case of the inquisition, certainly the Albigensian
crusade would be fairly clear-cut. but what would we say
about the stories of widespread torture by the inquisition,
- which at least have been claimed by some to merely be a
black legend, in terms of their widespreadness. Would we
take a POV position on the side of widespreadedness of
the Spanish Inquisitions abuses, or go for the more
conservative stance of concentrating on the atrocities
at the village of Alba for instance?

In addition, your listing is clearly not nearly exhaustive.

What about the jewish pogroms that predate the
holocaust in Nazi Germany? I think that it is poignant
that the wonderful play by Elie Wiesel by the name
The Trial of God, while inspired (allegedly) by a real
experience in the Nazi concentration camps, in fact
uses as its dramatic back-drop, the pogroms.

How about Christian persecutions in ancient Rome?

Eradication of native Americans by bio-warfare.
That again is a hard question in terms of choosing
a stance. Just as in the case of the Spanish Inquisitions
abuses, really genuinely thoughtful and sincere and
insightful people radically disagree on the validity of
those claims.

Even if you rule out one-timers, like the Al-quaida,
there is still the question of the more protracted
case of the Palestinian people, that again was/and
is ongoing in a fashion that is an extended conflict,
and equally as with the case of the Spanish Inquisition
and the Native Americans, a point of genuine and reasoned
argument as to the validity as an atrocity of the unmitigated
sort, and these denials are not merely the province of some
lone nutters, without any touch to reality.

To me these decisions about what to include, would not be
merely the "simple" one of choosing the "clearly right
perspective", I would personally claim there are always
going to be shades of gray, no matter which way you cut
it.


Yours,

Jussi-Ville Heiskanen