Some Events Are Beyond Comprehension
What is the meaning of life? Are we meant to work hard and enjoy life or are some of us destined to suffer horrendously at another’s hand? Who has the right to decide we are not worthy to live? The answer should be no one can make that choice for us, but throughout history many have decided that they do possess this power and what has ensued have been the worst tragedies in all of mankind’s history.
I need to take a step back from the over arching topic of my blog for this post. This posts focuses on the holocaust during WWII and although technology was used as a means to carryout the extermination of “those not worthy of life”, nothing that could be used to cause such tragedy and murder deserves to be talked about. Doing so would glorify its existence, and thus give support to the horribly misplaced ideologies and beliefs that lead to their use.
In class we recently viewed a documentary that compiled footage taken when the allied forces liberated concentration camps, such as Dachau and Auschwitz. Although I have seen many videos of the camps, this footage horrified me beyond what I thought possible. It consisted of over an hours of videos of dead bodies, sickly men, women and children, and worst of all the expressions on the faces of those Nazi officers that ran the camps. They did not show any remorse or guilt for what they had done, as they were forced to burry millions of the dead. I seemed like they didn’t feel anything, and instead of being horrified they acted like they were just moving around sacks of flour. No emotion, no sorrow, no fear, how could it be easy for them?
This could very well be mankind’s darkest hour, it seems unthinkable now that this occurred in our world only 65 years ago, but the same kind of brutal killing is going on right now. From Saddam Hussein’s massacre of the Kurds because of their difference in religion, to the recent massacre that took place in guinea because of protests to the Junta’s rule of the country keep happening every day. This is almost impossible to believe because of how “civilized” our planet has become, but the truth is that many places are still living hells for those that live there. Our vision is blurred because we are sheltered in our high class countries and protected by distance from the events. Sure, we can see and hear about them on the news, but they don’t really affect us, seeming like they occur a world away, seen through a small box of light.
There is an easy and somewhat elegant way to describe time and history, events endlessly repeat themselves in cycles. Peace, war, conflict, progress, evolution and tragedy, are repeated over and over again almost as if mankind is dancing a majestic waltz. So, knowing that humans are capable of such horrible things and that these events are not limited to our past and present, why can’t we learn to live without creating horrors for our descendants to remember?
I once again leave you with a question, if life is so precious and fragile, and mankind has so many terrifying mistakes in its past, then why do these mistakes keep being repeated? Why are we trapped in this cycle, dancing our waltz forever?
WWII-Nazi Holocaust Video (part 1/8) by Alfred Hitchcock
Youtube
Guinea’s Junta Leader Denies Masterminding Massacre
By: Peter Clottey 08 October 2009 VOA News
By: Peter W. Galbraith 11 August 2002 The Washington Post
