> Collective guilt is way too nationalistic for my taste. There's no
> class
> analysis to it. It ignores class difference, the psychological
> effects of
> class domination and power and a whole lot more. It's lazy thinking
> based
> on reified notions of "a people" doing this or that.
My experience suggested that the sense (of collective guilt) was more poignant in a young and untrained mind - chris' mother, perhaps?
The collective guilt experienced by children with roots in german culture may be an argument against repeating the mistakes of imperialism and damaging generations with roots in US culture (which makes such a big deal about protecting the children.)
There is also the notion of what a people _didn't_ do collectively to stop the events that shamed them - events that were done 'in their name'. This seems much more powerful as a cause of guilt than the actions themselves which were executed by a relatively few sociopaths.
Martin