A side-thought: both the American South and Germany did, in the aftermath, accept themselves as being at fault (as a 'group', in a sense). I wonder if that sort of movement -- which, yes, is valuable and important to beginning the process of rebuilding/restoring communications with other groups -- also opens the door to these reactions by other groups. Those who may not want to go through the same soul-searching as is required by group-members who've accepted fault and/or made retribution may defend themselves (against seeing any blame in themselves) by continuing to shift blame onto the faulted-group. I mean, whether I like it or not, whether it's comfortable to admit or not, the fact is that for both the US Civil War and for Germany... there are a lot more factors at work than just "these are guilty people", like it's in some kind of vacuum. There's a lot of wrong done, and it applies to a lot more than just this one group, yet having one group take blame means the rest can wash their hands.
The questions you get aren't all that off from what Southerners will get: "so, you miss owning slaves?" and comments about the South rising again (or just as bad, rising again and failing anyway). Like either of us were even alive when our respective groups committed, and accepted blame for, the various crimes, whatever they were. The thing is, if another (non-Southerner) is going to tell me that I must still accept blame and/or work to provide retribution for something my great-great-grandparents did (own slaves, or even just live in a slave-owning society)... then it's an issue of carrying sins of the father. I get that. I think what you and I are twigging on is that this is also essentially hypocritical -- that another would accuse us per sins-of-the-father while simultaneously denying that that the person him/herself carries no blame for previous generations' complicity.
But I think the worst part is exactly what you put a very fine finger on: that the assumption throughout (up to and including such offensive comments) is that by dint of our inclusion in a group, that we -- even personally -- did something to deserve it.
If you did think at length about how such notions apply to Germany, I'd be really interested in reading. Obviously it's a human pattern to play this scapegoating game, and maybe we (personally, and group-wise) might learn from each other of ways to combat it, and to start undoing it. Or at least begin to understand, as a first step towards undoing the patterns.
no subject
Date: 12 Jan 2011 10:08 pm (UTC)The questions you get aren't all that off from what Southerners will get: "so, you miss owning slaves?" and comments about the South rising again (or just as bad, rising again and failing anyway). Like either of us were even alive when our respective groups committed, and accepted blame for, the various crimes, whatever they were. The thing is, if another (non-Southerner) is going to tell me that I must still accept blame and/or work to provide retribution for something my great-great-grandparents did (own slaves, or even just live in a slave-owning society)... then it's an issue of carrying sins of the father. I get that. I think what you and I are twigging on is that this is also essentially hypocritical -- that another would accuse us per sins-of-the-father while simultaneously denying that that the person him/herself carries no blame for previous generations' complicity.
But I think the worst part is exactly what you put a very fine finger on: that the assumption throughout (up to and including such offensive comments) is that by dint of our inclusion in a group, that we -- even personally -- did something to deserve it.
If you did think at length about how such notions apply to Germany, I'd be really interested in reading. Obviously it's a human pattern to play this scapegoating game, and maybe we (personally, and group-wise) might learn from each other of ways to combat it, and to start undoing it. Or at least begin to understand, as a first step towards undoing the patterns.