In addition to being a technologist and living on the west coast of the US, I am also the first-generation American son of Holocaust survivors, born and raised in NY. Does Nick have any insight into my thinking? Clearly not.
So Dave Winer brings in his own family's suffering to the discussion. What does one say to that? I do believe that Jews bring an awareness of the genocidal tendencies beneath seemingly civilized societies. If the Holocaust is to have meaning beyond its tragedy for the Jewish people, Jews do have to bear witness to the persecution of other ethnic minorities, as well as their own history. Dave Winer's anxiety about another Holocaust is noble.
But we should despair were only Holocaust survivors and their children, themselves growing older and fewer, capable of insight into genocide. And bringing in an emotion-laden family history, unless it's simply to introduce some fact, can have the perverse effect of closing down a discussion. You can't know how I feel: it is an argument at once unanswerable, and unpersuasive. Here's the exchange, in reverse chronological order:
·Son of Holocaust survivors [Dave Winer]
·Dave isn't there yet [Glenn Reynolds]
·Winer and the warbloggers [Nick Denton]
·That's where holocausts come from [Dave Winer]
·Nick Denton is sounding like a warblogger today [Glenn Reynolds]
·Why make war on Iraq [Nick Denton] #
