Saturday, June 05, 2004
Bizarre. Bizarrer. Bizarrest.
Maybe forgiveness isn't such a great thing. I'm lightly tracking the celebrations over in Europe surrounding the 60th anniversary of the "liberation" of Rome and the Normandy invasion. Weird stuff, folks. Really.
Don't get me wrong: I mostly like the Italians. But listening to them chirp about the "liberation" of Rome is a little like listening to O.J. Simpson angrily criticize the wife he killed. You just want to box your own hears to make sure they're working correctly.
For one thing, the Italians elected the Fascist government that we toppled. Mussolini taught Hitler about Fascism. And was his mentor at the beginning. We "liberated" Italy in the same way cops "liberate" a bank robber by knocking him down and cuffing him.
And the French. Ohhh, the French. It's almost to the point where I don't even react with anger anymore about the next asshattery they embarrass themselves with. And the next. And the next. Years ago, when considering the re-writing of history that both the Germans and the Japanese have indulged in about WWII, I thought that it was probably harmless, maybe even necessary, that they do this. Kind of a way to stitch back together their society by "skipping over" a faux pas they really can't deal with in the light of day.
But for France this kind of intentional historical blindness isn't necessary. It's just convenient. This way they get to escape not the guilt for serious and tragic wrongs, they get to escape the one thing you should never ask of a Frenchman: gratitude. That is a cup way too bitter for them.
But weirder still is the current German thinking about WWII. Now they think of their defeat as a "liberation," too.
I think I was wrong to grant Germany the latitude to escape their guilt by massaging history into the shape that better pleased them. They've abused that privilege in order to place themselves in the "victim" category. Frankly, I don't know whether this error of theirs will result in the usual problems such "beneficial" forgetfulness usually leads to. Will they once again tip over into unreasoning authoritarianism? I doubt it. Will they fail to see the next threat coming down the road at them, and thereby not react quickly enough to save themselves?
Well, that's more likely than the authoritarianism. But let's get serious here: the Germans are not the French. They may have a weird longing fondness for socialism, but they're not the limp-wristed, effete cultural pansies the French are. The German thought patterns are more testosterone-driven, not to put too fine a point on it.
Still, to call themselves "victims" of WWII by claiming that they, too, were "liberated," is pretty discouraging.
In times past, Germany learned from Italy. Are they now taking lessons from the French?
Maybe forgiveness isn't such a great thing. I'm lightly tracking the celebrations over in Europe surrounding the 60th anniversary of the "liberation" of Rome and the Normandy invasion. Weird stuff, folks. Really.
Don't get me wrong: I mostly like the Italians. But listening to them chirp about the "liberation" of Rome is a little like listening to O.J. Simpson angrily criticize the wife he killed. You just want to box your own hears to make sure they're working correctly.
For one thing, the Italians elected the Fascist government that we toppled. Mussolini taught Hitler about Fascism. And was his mentor at the beginning. We "liberated" Italy in the same way cops "liberate" a bank robber by knocking him down and cuffing him.
And the French. Ohhh, the French. It's almost to the point where I don't even react with anger anymore about the next asshattery they embarrass themselves with. And the next. And the next. Years ago, when considering the re-writing of history that both the Germans and the Japanese have indulged in about WWII, I thought that it was probably harmless, maybe even necessary, that they do this. Kind of a way to stitch back together their society by "skipping over" a faux pas they really can't deal with in the light of day.
But for France this kind of intentional historical blindness isn't necessary. It's just convenient. This way they get to escape not the guilt for serious and tragic wrongs, they get to escape the one thing you should never ask of a Frenchman: gratitude. That is a cup way too bitter for them.
But weirder still is the current German thinking about WWII. Now they think of their defeat as a "liberation," too.
I think I was wrong to grant Germany the latitude to escape their guilt by massaging history into the shape that better pleased them. They've abused that privilege in order to place themselves in the "victim" category. Frankly, I don't know whether this error of theirs will result in the usual problems such "beneficial" forgetfulness usually leads to. Will they once again tip over into unreasoning authoritarianism? I doubt it. Will they fail to see the next threat coming down the road at them, and thereby not react quickly enough to save themselves?
Well, that's more likely than the authoritarianism. But let's get serious here: the Germans are not the French. They may have a weird longing fondness for socialism, but they're not the limp-wristed, effete cultural pansies the French are. The German thought patterns are more testosterone-driven, not to put too fine a point on it.
Still, to call themselves "victims" of WWII by claiming that they, too, were "liberated," is pretty discouraging.
In times past, Germany learned from Italy. Are they now taking lessons from the French?
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