Of course there's a big difference between 500 and 50 yeards, no doubt about it, but someone said that time didn't matter in a previous posting, something I didn't agree with. I don't like to use statistics or counting dead people in order to categorize the evilness of a determined political leader. If we go in numbers, then Hitler is certainly at the top of the "podium". BUt I think that perhaps, and only perhaps, the audience attending a Masada show in Germany is not the right people to shout at about the country's dull past. I've been there and have made lots of friends and all I saw with regards to Holocaust was shame, even if they were totally unrelated to those events. I don't think there's a growing anti-semitism in Europe. The US are much more used to immigration than we are here, and the first reactions are of fear and rejection. It's a natural thing (not positive, certainly) that has always happened everywhere. Probably in a couple of generations nobody will be surprised to see a district completely inhabited by Arabs, but now people find it disgusting, specially in countries where unemployement is high. People feel it as a threat. OK, that's how things like the Holocaust started, but I guess this is a completely new and different situation, hopefully. With regards to Jews, I think there's a terrible mistake going on: people are automatically relating the Jews with the crimes committed in Israel. I think we tend to take certain events in history, give them an exceptional relevante (that they have, of course) and forget about others. Although many countries in the world have suffered terrorism for ages, the epitome will always be Sept 11 from now on, despite of the fact it has been a constant in Russia, Ireland or Spain for ages. But that's very different from denying the existance of the Holocaust, which is totally ridiculous and reprehensible. To avoid any misunderstanding, my father comes from a Jewish lineage. --- Peter Gannushkin <shkin@shkin.com> escribió: > Hi Efrén,
I think there is a big difference between 500 years old history and 50 years old history. And, much more important, there is no way we can compare Sharon, Bush or even Stalin to Hitler. 6,000,000 Jews were killed, more than a half of all at that time. Think about it for a second. I know, it is a new trend especially in Europe either to pretend that nothing remarkable really happened or that it was Jews' fault that it happened. It is a dangerous trend, don't you think?
BTW, people can make their statements about the things which are important for them. There should be no logic like "if he says this then why he didn't say that". Dave Douglas was talking about Yugoslavia, Marc Ribot - about the crisis in the Middle East, so why Zorn cannot talk about Nazis?
Friday, February 20, 2004, 4:11:18 PM, you wrote: EdV> If every non-American musician cried out on stage EdV> against everything that the US government has done EdV> against civil rights, freedom, democracy, etc, Zorn's EdV> statements in Germany would be justified. I think it's EdV> a bit of a simplistic attitude, to say the least, to EdV> raise your fist against Nazi Germany 50 years later to EdV> an audience that probably was a small spermatozoid EdV> swimming peacefully back then, or even less than that. EdV> Did he say anything when he presented Masada in Israel EdV> against Ariel Sharon's massacres? Did he say anything EdV> in Sevilla about the way the Spanish kingdom treated EdV> Arabs & Jews 500 hundred years ago? Or about terrorism EdV> in Spain? (Because we've suffered a bit of that for EdV> over 30 years and nobody moved a finger) Come on.
-- All the best, Peter Gannushkin URL: http://downtownmusic.net/
_______________________________________________ zorn-list mailing list zorn-list@mailman.xmission.com To UNSUBSCRIBE or Change Your Subscription Options, go to the webpage below
http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/zorn-list ___________________________________________________ Yahoo! Messenger - Nueva versión GRATIS Super Webcam, voz, caritas animadas, y más... http://messenger.yahoo.es