--- In [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > In a message dated 2/13/2004 2:28:49 PM Eastern Standard Time, > [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: > However, your view seems to me to be a bit of a simplistic one. > Political winds change, different groups with different opinions move > in and out of power. Just because one set of leaders allows a > practice to be legal, does not mean that the next group of leaders > will accept this. Yes it did build to the breaking point, in much the > same way as what happened to the aristocracy in France. Revolutions > have a tendency to be grotesquely violent. (This is one reason > democracy is so important.) > > The question then becomes, was this done on purpose to build support > for the persecution, or was the persecution a result. One describes a > dastardly plot, the other simply history. But knowing which it was is > really not important to understanding the beliefs and feelings of the > common gentile at the time. They _were_ getting screwed, and they > knew (at least in part) who was doing it to them. This was not a case > of blind racial hatred of the sort you get from modern skinheads, and > it was not the racial superiority white slave owners felt. It was a > class of people who felt they had been wronged by another class. In > their simple ignorance they attributed the wrong-doing to a race, or > religion, rather than to individuals. Humans can be very dumb and > very horrible in this way.
___reply from Bemmzim > Once again this is the most absurd line of reaoning possible. The jews were > hated and the whole jewish banker thing was just an excuse for most people. You assume that Millions of average people had a blind hatred, and had found justification any way they could, simply to persecute a group they had blind hatred for. That sounds a bit like raceism to me. Have you not vilified a whole people? >By > the way no one was getting screwed. The jews did not loan money at outragous > interest rates. That is besides the point. At the time lending at all was considered sinfull. Not only that but it introduced time value of money. Basicaly then, if one did not participate in what they considered to be sinfull, there money would become worth less and less. To the average person of the time, this looked like theivery. For if their money was loosing value, where was it going? They were being forced to sin, or have money taken away. >They were the necessary glue of international commerce. They > were able to do this because jews were widely dispersed spoke the same language > and felt a sense of community that allowed for safe and fair trade. Now why > was this? Because jews were intrinsically smarter about money more greedy. Are you saying that Jews are or were some how supperior? sounds like raceism again. Yes they did not have some silly religious restriction on the way and manner the handled money, they also had a strong comunity sense. Yes they made more money in this way than others. Does that make them supperior? To the average person of the time, it was clear that they were makeing money, and devaluing money doing somehting the average person could not (in good faith) do. >Here > is another explanation. The jews never assimilated because the christians > would not allow them to. They spoke the same language and maintained the same > customs because they were excluded from the larger christian society. Look at > history. >Whenever jews were allowed to assimilate they did so. Not all but many. > In the process they either converted or lost there attachment to ancient > rituals. The sense of community did not disappear because there was and is always a > place where jews were persecuted for being jews. Once again we can argue over the reality of that. I am not talking about how it all turned out, but how the average non-jew of the time felt, or thought. You see, to stop it from happening again, we have to empathize with them as well. We have to know why those who simply id nothing, simply did nothing. We have to understand the whole situation. If we don't, it might happen again. A people might start believing that they have been so wronged for so long, that anything they do in retaliation, or frustration is justified. What is worse, a large number of that group may simply do nothing and let it happen. _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
