Originally posted by JimmyCracksCorn
But what you're saying is that its part of your "collective memory" to be averted to war? Well isn't that noble, but "memory" is a function of an organ inside your head called your brain, and last time I checked countries don't have brains, and therefore can't remember anything. People have brains, and everyone is different, and for you to assume that just because YOUR brain happens to be averted to war, that the brains of your countrymen must be as well (simply by virtue of them being your countrymen) is a dangerous assumption, which borders on ethnocentricsm and even narcicism.
But what you're saying is that its part of your "collective memory" to be averted to war? Well isn't that noble, but "memory" is a function of an organ inside your head called your brain, and last time I checked countries don't have brains, and therefore can't remember anything. People have brains, and everyone is different, and for you to assume that just because YOUR brain happens to be averted to war, that the brains of your countrymen must be as well (simply by virtue of them being your countrymen) is a dangerous assumption, which borders on ethnocentricsm and even narcicism.
I guess nobody educated you, nobody taught you your language, your values, your faith if you have one, in short the contents of your brain. You just happened to speak English by the grace of birth, and you just had an innate ability to evaluate and enjoy the video we are talking about.
Countries aren't human beings and don't have brains. But countries, cultural groups etc, do influence the contents of individual brains. When I'm driving next to Verdun or the Somme, the cemetaries I see have no brains. Yet for some reason, they ring a bell in mine, as in the brains of all those who pass there. When a person living in Le Havre sees the only remaining pre-1944 building, the building doesn't have a brain, yet it rings a bell in this person. When a geezer who has lost his home and family during the war tells his story to children, he is contributing to the collective memory as well.
Even you Yanks should have an idea of what a collective scar is. 140 years after, we still see the rift between southerners and northerners in the US. We still see pissing contests, and even here on 'Poly we have our share of threads reviving the old grudges. This is collective memory too. Too bad you Yanks didn't keep in memory that war is horrible. I guess the fact that you hadn't any war on your ground ever since is a reason to that.
Comment