(urth) (no subject)

[Lee Berman]

>James Wynn: Still, Huckleberry Finn is not a book written for Elementary or Middle 
>Schoolers, so I don't understand the need for a bowdlerized version.
 
A good point. High schoolers ought to be intellectually advanced enough to discuss 
racism, including the word "nigger". If a student asks why it is okay for Mark Twain
to use the N-word and not him, a high school teacher ought to be able to explain and
encourage discussion.
 
OTTH, Tom Sawyer is written at elementary school/middle school level and it also uses
the N-word. I dunno. I read them when I was young and they didn't never do me no harm.
 
>in WWII soldiers were encouraged to hate the Nazi society and the Imperial Japanese society 
>and the armies that protected them. Many never got over it... Still, I don't know if one can 
>argue this is 'sin' if he simultaneously argues that war can be a necessary evil.
 
I am not religious and don't operate with a working definition of sin. Still I can recognize
that perceptions vary based on history and culture. What many Americans consider a justifiable,
even necessary action is considered one of the worst crimes ever against humanity by most of
the rest of the world. Only in the last few years have I started to notice a recognition in the 
USA of what many in the rest of the world call "Hiroshima Day".
 
Can war be a necessary evil? Some would say yes, in self-defense (opening the door to every
military campaign becoming defined as self-defense). Others might say no. Isn't the technique 
of the Annese a legitimate counter-invasion alternative strategy to war?
 
The Normans invade England and end up losing their Frenchness to become English. Mongols 
invade China with similar results. Closer to home, the net result of Martin Luther King's
non-violence stance (and martyrdom) is that American society has become far more influenced
by African-American culture than you'd expect from only 10% of the population. (Perhaps that's
what Jeff's family had always feared...)