Yes dead people aren't alive. Mr. Mark Pavlick brought up the issue of the Nazi *argument* for genocide, not the end result.
>***** Yossarian says, "You're talking about winning the war,
and I
>am talking about winning the war and keeping alive." "Exactly,"
>Clevinger snapped smugly. "And which do you think is more
>important?" "To whom?" Yossarian shot back. "It doesn't make a
damn
>bit of difference who wins the war to someone who's dead." I
can't
>think of another attitude that could be depended upon to give
greater
>comfort to the enemy." "The enemy," retorted Yossarian with
weighted
>precision, "is anybody who's going to get you killed, no matter
which
>side he's on." *****
>
>Now, here's a false dilemma in philosophy of history: either you
are
>with Hegel (= Hitchens' view of historical progress) or you are
with
>Joseph Heller in the world of Catch-22. Identify another
option.
>The length of your essay should be approximately 800 words.
>--
>Yoshie
Hitchens isn't with Hegel on this point as far as I know. He's said teleology is no longer considered true, i.e. that there's some sort of endpoint which history is making its predetermined way towards. In that column Doug posted, he mentioned what Marx had said about India, a point that wasn't teleolgical.
I'm mostly with Yossarian and right now Al Queda or one of its later incarnations are most likely to set off a dirty bomb or whatever in Chicago and kill me. So screw them!
However, I saw a film called Bread and Roses tonight - it's at the video stores now - and it certainly gives you hope if not optimism. Sort of a Norma Rae for the 21st century. A must see. Alan Brody stars in it; he was in Summer of Sam and A Thin Red Line. And Tim Roth makes a cameo; Roth was in Planet of the Apes and Resevoir Dogs and also made a film with Tupac Shakar. And there are some wonderful performances by actors I'm not familiar with.
Peter