[Leica] Documentary Photography Book Review

[kitmc at acmefoto.com (Kit McChesney)]

We can debate all day long about how the Nazis could have been prevented
from coming to power. It was no surprise to those who saw it coming, and to
those who helped it along (what about Henry Ford and IBM?). If we had
leaders who weren't so reactive about everything, and weren't so cowardly
(think of all the appeasers who did not stand up to Hitler) we might have
avoided many things that only war could "solve" in the end, after all other
more reasonable means might have prevented. To argue that the only thing
that would have, or could have, stopped Hitler, was the war we ended up
with, is absurd to the point of insanity. 

We haven't learned how to prevent anything. We are still operating in the
most primitive modes of being, flight and fight, rather than to use the
neocortex that we have evolved on the front end of our skulls to think of
better solutions to the problems of the world. Even our medical system is
based on the language and philosophy of warfare. We'd rather sit around and
eat pork rinds and then take anti-cholesterol drugs after we've poisoned our
bodies and not take responsibility for the sorry state of our health. The
world, its people, and everything on it is a single organism. Until we come
to a place where we can recognize that "they" is also "us," we'll continue
to dehumanize everyone who ain't "us" because we refuse to realize that but
for the grace of something, we could be "them." It's all very arrogant. As
for "sanity," I would say that most of the things our land is doing these
days would not, in most catalogues of human behavior, qualify for anything
remotely resembling sanity. Please!

Kit


-----Original Message-----
From: lug-bounces+kitmc=acmefoto.com@leica-users.org
[mailto:lug-bounces+kitmc=acmefoto.com@leica-users.org] On Behalf Of Adam
Bridge
Sent: Tuesday, May 18, 2004 4:12 PM
To: Leica Users Group
Subject: Re: [Leica] Documentary Photography Book Review

The idea that non-violent means can overcome all is, well, not connected to
the
real world because it assumes that all parties are sane. I would submit that
societies, as well as humans, can be sociopaths. Certainly Nazi Germany was
not
a sane society: focused: yes, ideals clearly delineated: yes. Sane? No.

I submit that, as for human beings, insanity often requires the use of
force.

Rwanda, Cambodia, the Holocost -- these are the results of tangible evil in
the
world. Evil which no normal response could alleviate. I can argue that Iraq
had
the same problem - but that no single nation or small coalition should have
been
involved either in resolving the situation nor in the process of
nation-building
which happened afterwards.

Alas, the horrors of the Middle East will inflict themselves upon us all,
probably for the duration of this century.

Adam Bridge


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