>actually, i assume that most people on this list have some notion of
>this. but i made the point for a reason: why do we consider the
>nazi's aryan rhetoric bizarre and the largely american created
>fiction of the white race not so bizzare? why is it that we can
>chuckle when people talk about the aryan race but we don't chuckle
>when we talk about the white race, a notion that is no less silly
>but with even more staying power?
Perhaps, because any oppression short of the Final Solution is considered normal, "the way things are," so to speak.
***** The tradition of the oppressed teaches us that the 'state of emergency' in which we live is not the exception but the rule. We must attain to a conception of history that is in keeping with this insight. Then we shall clearly realize that it is our task to bring about a real state of emergency, and this will improve our position in the struggle against Fascism. One reason why Fascism has a chance is that in the name of progress its opponents treat it as a historical norm. The current amazement that the things we are experiencing are 'still' possible in the twentieth century is not philosophical. This amazement is not the beginning of knowledge -- unless it is the knowledge that the view of history which gives rise to it is untenable. (Benjamin, "On the Concept of History," <http://www.tasc.ac.uk/depart/media/staff/ls/WBenjamin/CONCEPT2.html>) *****
Yoshie