4/29/96, Greg Ehrig wrote:
>Is there a statute of limitations for historical crimes?
>
>For instance, do people of Anglo descent owe restitution to people of
>Saxon descent for the centuries of slavery and exploitation suffered
>by the former at the hands of the latter? How do you determine what
>reparations are "Just"?
As Bob Dylan said: "Show me someone who's not a parasite and I'll
go out and say a prayer for him."
Or as Joseph Campbell observed: life is AT-ROOT a self-consuming
bloody cannibalistic beast. (Big fish eat the little fish, and so ad
infinitum.)
This is the human condition -- we got where we are partly (or
perhaps largely) via warfare, despotism, genocide, and injustice.
The miracle of human conciousness is that it is possible to CREATE
the concept of justice, to GENERALIZE inborn familial-tribal caring to the
brotherhood of man, and to COMPREHEND the ecological interconnection of
species, resources, and energy.
This is a creative process, not a deductive one. Let's just admit
that we ALL share in the guilt of history, if ANYONE is guilty. The useful
question is how we can collaborate in creating more just societies, more
equitable distribution of wealth, and sustainable economies -- NOT how we
should allocate guilt.
When a Hindu admitted to Ghandi that he killed a Muslim child,
Ghandi's "justice" was for that man to raise another child to be a "good
Muslim" -- NOT to go out and hang himself.
Some of the worst injustices have been carried out in the name of
correcting past injustices. Wasn't The Holocaust itself justified by an
alleged ancient crime of Jews? Isn't the present persecution of the
Palestinians justifed by ancient land-ownership claims? (bolstered by a
misplaced urge to "make up" for the Holocaust?)
Let's clear the books and start anew. Our collective debt is
unrepayable.
-rkm