I wonder how many achievements in science, literature, music, and medicine boarded the trains to Auschwitz and the other death camps; how many starved to death when Stalin was eliminating the kulaks; or were lost in the gulags or during the mass of wars and butchery which so characterized the twentieth century.
We'll never know but if it were only one the effects could be immeasurable.
2 comments:
These are tragic images, because Auschwitz and Stalin are well-known cultural shorthand. The problem is that they--specifically--can't hurt us now. The things that rob us of those minds and talents now are things usually not recognized by most people as dangerous and probably as bad or worse in their ultimate effects than murderous communist or fascist thugs. (Two things not so different from one another in any case.)
Larry,
And when you consider that many people didn't recognize the threats of Hitler and Stalin, it is more difficult to sound an alarm about subtle dangers.
Michael
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