I do not believe that it is possible to discuss history in a vacuum.? While I agree that discussing current events can be a slippery slope, events that affect the re-telling of history is an important and even necessary debate we must have.? Political control of the content of museums, written history and all other forms of memorializing the war or any other event is a trait we universally criticize in totalitarian regimes.? Why then should we be shy of discussing similar (even mild) such attempts in Poland or any country?
Stefan is right in that politics and history do not mix.? This does not mean that we should be silent when the telling of history is overtaken by politics.? We should, as a matter of policy, resist the intrusion of politics influence on that telling.? This is vastly different from a normal political discussion.? To believe that KS or Poland are somehow immune from the same ills is be naive and we dishonor the lives of our ancestors by pretending that we are.
I refer you again to Orwell, this time to his satire "Animal Farm" Chapter VI.
"Muriel," she said, "read me the Fourth Commandment. Does it not say
something about never sleeping in a bed?"
With some difficulty Muriel spelt it out.
"It says, 'No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets,"' she announced
finally.
Curiously enough, Clover had not remembered that the Fourth Commandment
mentioned sheets; but as it was there on the wall, it must have done so.
And Squealer, who happened to be passing at this moment, attended by two
or three dogs, was able to put the whole matter in its proper perspective.
"You have heard then, comrades," he said, "that we pigs now sleep in the
beds of the farmhouse? And why not? You did not suppose, surely, that
there was ever a ruling against beds? A bed merely means a place to sleep
in. A pile of straw in a stall is a bed, properly regarded. The rule was
against sheets, which are a human invention. We have removed the sheets
from the farmhouse beds, and sleep between blankets. And very comfortable
beds they are too! But not more comfortable than we need, I can tell you,
comrades, with all the brainwork we have to do nowadays. You would not rob
us of our repose, would you, comrades? You would not have us too tired to
carry out our duties? Surely none of you wishes to see Jones back?"
The animals reassured him on this point immediately, and no more was said
about the pigs sleeping in the farmhouse beds. And when, some days
afterwards, it was announced that from now on the pigs would get up an
hour later in the mornings than the other animals, no complaint was made
about that either.
Bernie
