Apparently, this post appeared in one of the newsgroups:
"There is none so full of hatred as those (who) draw their daily nourishment from thoughts of how badly they have been treated. Never mind that it cauterizes every wellspring of joy within the human soul. Never mind that every other human being thereafter becomes either a target or a tool for wreaking redress. It is the original Faustian bargain.
From such fires billows as smoke an unquenchable thirst for revenge, a source of infinite resolve, a sword of unflagging energy, and a shield against the debilitating vapors of self-doubt and self-incrimination."
Whereupon our cyber cyclone, Matt Giwer, expanded as follows:
But what really gives them their power is to be able to hide behind groundless allegations of "Nazi" and "anti-Semitic". The person accused can not prove they are not - and the person making the accusation can not be harmed by it.
THEREFORE it is a moral imperative to take away the condemnatory power of those words or to create a penalty for false labeling - preferably both.
For example: It is obvious on the face of it that anyone fearing "Nazis" over a half a century later has a screw loose. Anyone believing "Nazis" are a gas chamber away from world domination is afraid of the boogyman.
The argument goes: "If you do not believe in gas chambers they will happen again in the future." Similar reasoning would be: "If you do not believe in the US Civil War then slavery will return."
If you try to talk about slavery in the context of the time, it is certain that someone will accuse you of hating Blacks, suggest you are in favor of the KKK, and maybe even suggest you are a "Nazi".
It does no good pointing out the facts to people making quantum inferential leaps. Their superstitions are too deeply engrained for facts. Their holocaust is the talisman against "Nazis" - no different from what the Christian cross is for protection from the devil.
No amount of reasoning can separate the superstition from the talisman. No amount of reasoning can convince them there is no threat - and if you try, you are in league with the vampires or the "Nazis" trying to make them vulnerable to certain evil, death, and destruction.
But there is no cause to put up with their superstitions in this day and age. Sure, if they want to believe it, fine. That is their business. It is, however, not incumbent upon us to comport with their beliefs.
It goes back to the question, what is the worst thing you can do to a paranoid? And the answer is: Agree with him. It is not possible to agree with a paranoid. You cannot add to the mindset, since you are not into it. If you try to add and get it just a little bit wrong, you are one of the enemy. The only thing you can do with a paranoid is to accept upon faith everything they say.
We cannot apply arithmetic to any form of paranoia. I assume we have all noticed we cannot apply arithmetic to their holocaust. If it does not agree with their conclusion, it just does not register. It is not so much their hatred - it is superstitious fear: fear of what does not exist. Fear of what never existed. Fear of what did not happen.
It is fear of legend and myth.
It is fear that drives them to lash out in blind, unreasoning fury at those who tell them their talisman is worthless - for to say so must mean that the truthsayer must be in league with the devil. Take away hell from a devout Christian, take away the secular hell from devout Holocaustians - and the result is the same.
But there is no reason to put up with either superstition. Reason alone is sufficient cause for dismissing both hells for the health of body and spirit of all involved.
It is terrible to see a mind trapped in myth and superstition. Their sensibilities are their own - and if practiced in private, remain their own. But any public activity is open to comment by all of the public.
We are that public."
(Submitted to the Zundelsite by Matt Giwer)
Thought for the Day:
"The vow that binds too strictly snaps itself."
(Tennyson)