Sunday, June 27, 2021

Who is responsible?

At the end of "Night and Fog" Resnais asks "Whis is responsible?" as Nazi officer and Kapo one after another at the Nuremburg trials say he was just following orders - https://lisathatcher.com/2013/02/04/night-and-fog-resnais-asks-who-is-to-blame-and-reminds-us-we-have-to-know-film-review/ After the insurrection on Jan 6, 2021, we should be asking the same question ... who was responsible? We should be asking ... not answering ... but some do not even want to ask. Reminds me of the four sons and the four questions at the Pesach seder .... a wise son, a wicked son, a simple son, and one who does not know how to ask ... we have four or more groups in the USA ... some who are wise and want to understand, some who are wicked and were perpetrators, some who are simple and only accept simple-minded words, and some who do who want the others to even talk about the question. And then there are the daughters who become mothers and do not want their sons and daughters to die needlessly or in vain. We have not come far from that Birmingham Sunday in 1963 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQ0y-vO9QLE For what it's worth, we have not learned much from history - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gp5JCrSXkJY Confucius - "He who learns but does not think, is lost! He who thinks but does not learn is in great danger." Socrates - "If a man is proud of his wealth, he should not be praised until it is known how he employs it." Aristotle - "At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst." Nietzsche - All things are subject to interpretation whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth." Washington - ""It is better to offer no excuse than a bad one." Marx - "History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce." Camus - "One must imagine Sisyphus happy." Wittgenstein - "The world of the happy is not the same as the world of the unhappy." Mao - "The people, and the people alone, are the motive force in the making of world history." Trump - "A little more moderation would be good. Of course, my life hasn't exactly been one of moderation." Well, then, who is responsible? The answer, from Jewish prayers asking for forgiveness, is that we all are responsible. We are all responsible for each other. See https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/confessing-our-sins/ and https://www.aish.com/h/hh/yom-kippur/guide/Exploring_the_Al-Chet_Prayer.html Enter, stage left, the chorus singing the words of the Rock - see https://www.poetrynook.com/poem/choruses-%C3%B4%C3%A7%C2%A3the-rock%C3%B4%C3%A7%C3%B8