I'm reading "The Book Thief" by Markus Zusack. It's a good book in a distractedly-stream-of-consciousness kind of way. I like the aspect of the narrator being death, or the Grim Reaper or whatever way you wish to describe the gatherer of souls. I've been reading in short bursts and I feel that that is an appropriate strategy for attacking this book. I must confess though that I'm tired of Nazi-Germany-struggle- of-WWII books. I am totally convinced that Nazi's are bad. Not that this belief was up for debate before but I can solidly put myself in the Anti-Nazi category. My question would be this, after countless books have been written on this subject, after many stories of hope and tragedy have been told, have we learned anything? I will add another confession and that is, I don't think so. The more I read the Book of Mormon, books like "Night", "Number the Stars", "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" and then today's news I'm not convinced. Human beings just repeat the same cycles over and over. I think that the question is not "have we learned anything" but "what kind of participant we will be"? Will we choose the side of protagonist or antagonist? I'm thinking that there will be many fooled into thinking they are the former and it won't be until the conflict is over and the books are written that the clarity will come.
We'll see.
2 comments:
Last night I read the paper, watched the news and then watched two commentaries on Obama's trip abroad.
I think that I am sick of the whole mess!
To answer your question, No we don't learn. Your abservation is correct. Until each of us, person or country, church, organization, or business is willing to take responsibility for our own actions and choose to live in a way that honors every honorable thing, we will continue to be pushed around by anyone or anything that is strong enough to promote an agenda.
I think that I need a nap.
Very interesting commentary... and a thought provoking question. I want to think that we have learned something, but most of the time that's not being very realistic. A thought on the "Book Thief".... I liked that it gave a different perspective on the Holocaust... Germans who didn't believe in the Nazi agenda yet were forced to participate anyway. I really liked the way it was told from Death's perspective. Thanks for the good food for thought.
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