Xref: utzoo news.misc:2299 soc.culture.jewish:8609 Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!rutgers!cmcl2!yale!engelson From: engelson@cs.yale.edu (Sean Philip Engelson) Newsgroups: news.misc,soc.culture.jewish Subject: Re: How Many (x) Does it Take to Change a Lightbulb? Keywords: sensitivity, sensationalism Message-ID: <44972@yale-celray.yale.UUCP> Date: 6 Dec 88 20:21:08 GMT References: <358@sulaco.Sigma.COM> <494@Aragorn.dde.uucp> <568@redsox.UUCP> Sender: root@yale.UUCP Reply-To: engelson@cs.yale.edu (Sean Philip Engelson) Followup-To: news.misc Organization: Computer Science, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520-2158 Lines: 42 In-reply-to: campbell@redsox.UUCP (Larry Campbell) In article <568@redsox.UUCP>, campbell@redsox (Larry Campbell) writes: >The Jews do not have a monopoly on persecution. They are in the unique >position, among victims of (attempted) genocide (I say "attempted", because >if the Nazis were successful, there would be no Jews left), of having been >persecuted: > > - Recently > - Somewhat successfully (in central Europe, anyway) > - On a massive scale over a short period of time (modern technology) > - And -- sadly, I think this is very important -- by a regime that > provoked a world war and *lost*. > >English settlers did much worse to the American Indians. But it took longer >(300 years), finished less recently (1880 vs. 1945), and guess what -- we >*won*. History is always kind to winners. True. But, another difference being that the Amerinds were not _exterminated_, they were just persecuted. That is to say, the intent of the English settlers was to get as much as possible for themselves; if the persecution of the Amerinds hadn't filled that goal, it never would have happened. The attempted genocide by the Nazis was precisely that--- not persecution incidental to other pursuits. The truly unique facet of Jewish persecution is the fact that it ALWAYS happens. There is no country in history which has had a significant, sustained Jewish presence which has not had widespread anti-semitism. This is not to say that it was always sanctioned by the government, but that's faint comfort to its victims. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Sean Philip Engelson, Gradual Student Yale Department of Computer Science 51 Prospect St. New Haven, CT 06520 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- G-d, according to Einstein, does not play dice with the world. Well, maybe; but He sure is into shell games. --Jerry Fodor in "Modules, Frames, Fridgeons, Sleeping Dogs, and the Music of the Spheres"