"A Place Fit For Human Habitation"
Dear Café Clatch--
Thank you so much for joining me. To paraphrase Bob Dylan, you can be on my truth commission, if I can be on yours.
I wanted to leave you with the final thought, borrowed from Hannah Arendt, about why this business of getting the truth, and preserving it, is so important particularly in the darkest times. Before quoting her, let me also make the obligatory point that nothing the Bush Administration has done is remotely equivalent to the Nazi period. That said though, I think her point resonates in less horrific times too. In Eichmann in Jerusalem, she argues that one of the goals of police states is to establish "holes of oblivion into which all deeds, good and evil, would disappear." It is our duty, according to Arendt, to preserve history by descending into those holes, rescuing those individual deeds and recounting them to ourselves and our children. As she put it:
Under conditions of terror most people will comply but some people will not, just as the lesson of the countries to which the Final Solution was proposed is that 'it could happen' in most places but it did not happen everywhere. Humanly speaking, no more is required, and no more can be reasonably asked, for this planet to remain a place fit for human habitation.
History is not cyclic, although people often would prefer it to be. The accumulation of data and effective models is why science is not in the same place it used to be, but is a powerful tool.
History also has more real information than in times past, and the hope of learning more about ourselves and achieving justice for the largest number requires as much truth as possible.
October 3, 2008 6:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
So everyone's agreed. Someone else, at some later time, with some more/better information, and some not-currently-existent political will, is gifted with the responsibility of DOING some damn thing.
We await the "emerging solution" with bated breath.
So, just to shout at wind for a bit...
THE TRUTH is that there is nothing to "make known," or "legislate," or "restore." Plenty is already known -- about long-existing federal and int'l laws -- that are not vanished, but simply violated.
The well-informed public has been demanding impeachment for literally years. Still, the horrific screaming continues in not-really-secret places.
Without impeachment -- even a failed vote as objection; to separate the opponents from supporters of torture -- the atrocities will be in your name, and mine, and the once-great American People. And no history of it can be preserved.
For their part, the torturers giggle with delight, as impeachophobia allows them to ponder their next "reality." Safe in the knowledge that "recounting" is as easily manipulated as it was in Florida 2000.
One man's "hole of oblivion" is another's Cafe Clatch.
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October 3, 2008 6:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Extremely well written summation. In my opinion the process of impeachment has effectively been erased from the Constitution. We didn't impeach Bush, and it is highly unlikely that any future President will ever surpass Bush in committing impeachable offenses. This is perhaps the final fallout of the impeachment of Clinton.
I would like to thank Jan Mayer profusely for appearing here and leading what I found to be a very interesting and important discussion. I will be watching for her book in my public library, so I can read that too.
October 3, 2008 8:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
The comments from "thedeanpeople" rang true with me; torture has been committed in "your name, and mine, and the once-great American People". For me in a very personal way, the commission of torture by agents of the USA is a profoundly filthy, immoral embarrassment.
The issue of torture really hit my radar when it was evident that it was more than renegade actions of a few at Abu Ghraib. I've read and read and read...and your book was the culmination of my fears and anger. Thoughtful, reasoned, and not as dark or angry as Naomi Klein's recent effort (though important!)...your efforts are the beginning of a blueprint for advocacy and hopefully, prosecution.
October 4, 2008 1:24 PM | Reply | Permalink