From: Mark Steven Heyman (markheyman@infoproconsulting.com)
Date: Tue May 03 2005 - 01:44:31 BST
Hi all,
To me, this thread can be read in parallel with DMB's "Hurricanes,
earthquakes, and genocide." I think both threads have at their
hearts an understanding of Pirsig's battle between the Social and
Intellectual levels, which is most clearly expressed in Chapters 21
and 22 of LILA.
My point in starting this thread is that the "winners" of WWII, in
executing certain German and Japanese leaders for crimes against
humanity, commenced a display of moral hypocrisy that has lasted for
almost 60 years, with no end in sight.
RMP, in reference to his own Moral Hierarchy, has written: "A
society that tries to restrain the truth for its own purposes is a
lower form of evolution than a truth that restrains society for its
own purposes." (LILA 21)
I submit that this hypocrisy is a clear example of how Society
subverts Intellectual truth for its own purposes. And I am willing
to provide and discuss historical evidence supporting this immoral
subversion on the part of the USG for any decade following the trials
at Nuremberg.
Feel free to stop reading here, and pick your decade, Or read on to
get some historical background, and factual basis, for my position.
As usual, any thoughtful input will be appreciated.
_________________
Some Background
Listen to the fine opening words of Robert H. Jackson, one of the
main prosecutors at the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg:
"We must never forget that the record on which we judge these
defendants is the record on which history will judge us tomorrow. To
pass these defendants a poisoned chalice is to put it to our lips as
well... The wrongs which we seek to condemn and punish have been so
calculated, so malignant, and so devastating, that civilization
cannot tolerate their being ignored, because it cannot survive their
being repeated..."
When the IMT rejected the contention that it was not justified in
charging sovereign leaders with crimes against peace, it stated that
aggression was "the supreme crime" and that leaders who conspired or
planned aggression must be held accountable since "crimes are
committed by men, not by abstract entities."
Later, Telford Taylor, as Chief of Counsel at the IMT, worked to
establish a record of Nazi criminality while reaffirming existing IL
and moral standards on which, he believed, all human societies
depended. He said, in 1947, "Judicial recognition of the long-
established and universal conviction of civilized men that aggressive
war is a crime is a milestone in the development of international law
and a new foundation stone of civilization." He concluded:
"It should not be beyond the resources of human ingenuity to
establish an appropriate judicial mechanism for the prevention and
punishment of crimes against humanity, even in time of peace...and if
the nations of the world can establish a permanent jurisdiction for
their punishment, based on practical, enforceable, and enlightened
principles, we will indeed have reached a turning point in the
history of international law."
As a possible first example for discussion, let's focus on USG
crimes against humanity, during the 60's and 70's, in Southeast Asia.
Telford Taylor, 25 years later, traveled to North Vietnam and
sharply criticized his own government for having forgotten the
lessons it tried to teach the rest of the world at Nuremberg. He
thought the publication of the Pentagon Papers made it imperative to
have a broad, high-level inquiry into US actions in North and South
Vietnam He said that the bombing of Hanoi in 1972 was "immoral and
senseless" and that the court-martial of Lieut. William Calley, who
led American troops who massacred civilians at My Lai, did not go far
enough. Lieutenant Calley's guilt should not have made him a
scapegoat, said Taylor, who noted that punishment did not go out to
higher-ranking military and civilian officials responsible for the
training of troops, the overall conduct of the war and, THE FACT THAT
THERE WAS ANY WAR AT ALL. (Emphasis mine, of course.)
Finally, more from RMP:
"Victorians repressed the truth whenever it seemed socially
unacceptable, just as they repressed thoughts about the powdery horse
manure dust that floated about them as they drove their carriage
through this city." (LILA-21), immediately after the lines quoted
above.
The chapter ends with:
"With Victorian spirits atrophied and their minds hemmed in by social
restraints, all avenues to any quality other than social quality were
closed. And so this social base which had no intellectual meaning
and biological purpose slowly and helplessly drifted toward its own
stupid self-destruction: toward the senseless murder of millions of
its own children on the battlefields of World War I."
Best ,
Mark Steven Heyman (msh)
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