Quote of the week
[T]he moral point of the matter is never reached by calling what happened by the name of ‘genocide’ or by counting the many millions of victims: extermination of whole peoples had happened before in antiquity, as well as in modern colonization. It is reached only when we realize this happened within the frame of a legal order and that the cornerstone of this ‘new law’ consisted of the command ‘Thou shall kill,’ not thy enemy but innocent people who were not even potentially dangerous, and not for any reason of necessity but, on the contrary, even against all military and other utilitarian calculations. … And these deeds were not committed by outlaws, monsters, or raving sadists, but by the most respected members of respectable society.
Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on The Banality of Evil
History cannot be written (or spoken about) to make the current generation feel good about the present. Societies cannot live in peace unless they are prepared to delve into all that has gone before — to ask the uncomfortable question, point the accusing finger, challenge the sacred myth. This is why, sadly, during this, the country’s centenary year, we have lost an opportunity to build deeper understanding of each other. – Prof Peter Vale in Business Day
