Re: After spending the weekend...

Post #116,693 by Nightowl 9/4/03 10:53:24 PM Reply	Re: After spending the weekend... You can't live it through them if you don't, and that is what I do.. I read the history to "live" the history in some way with those that made it. This can 'mean' many things; one thing is called vicariously: an implication of "living through others' actual Experience" - that which you never can 'have'. Yours may be a different sense, of course. As for the loss, nothing could be more true. We lost so much that day, lives, security, peace of mind, a sense of invulnerability that once existed... the buildings were simply a piece of a much larger puzzle that was ripped apart that day. Again, all realize (but shallowly, and only via whatever their personal experience had been) ..some emotional sense of the fact that - many died. Hmmmmm Well, I "live it" in the sense that... (thinking how to describe this), Not sure how to explain. When I do historical writing, I attempt to "feel, understand, read, experience" all I can to enhance that. I took a band rifle and raced breathlessly through a heavy snowfall in the woods once, to simulate a civil war experience... granted, I know I can't completely recreate the feelings and emotions and experiences, but I do my best, anyway. I was told by my creative writing teacher that I wrote about the Civil War, and World War II like I'd LIVED it. I even received honorable mention for the short story I wrote (using the snowy race as an example). So, because I like to write..., I try to absorb ALL the information I can, to be able to, well, experience it in any way I can. Does that make any sense? (and.. is there ever some Good Way of experiencing random intentional death? or simulating it in imagination?) But re security, peace of mind, a sense of invulnerability that once existed... - insofar as all three of these concepts are illusionary in nature: are you failing to see the possible 'positive' aspects? (as most every tragedy also contains - if we look closely) Oh no, I see lots of positive things that came from the tragedy. All tragedies tend to have those positive sides. They draw people together, change people, often for the better. Sometimes even new laws or ways of doing things come about. As in the Titanic, when the ship sank and didn't have enough lifeboats, or round the clock telegraph operators and all that changed after that tragedy. Nightowl >8# (Now back to doing my Ethics homework) "I learned to be the door, instead of the mat!" "illegitimi nil carborundum" Comment by Nightowl
Post #116,798 by Ashton 9/5/03 4:28:45 PM Reply	A worthy aim - Your inspection of 'historical events'. If it's effective? For example - do you ever find yourself thinking quite differently about 'an event' - than the popular slogans about the same event? Ever revise your personal views on Other matters - when you notice a significant discrepancy between Your Take Now and that popular one which you may have shared? This is always hard, of course - as it implies that one's 'reasoning' was less than perfect.. before. But Good though! (this discomfort) - No? Carry on - Ashton
Post #116,836 by Nightowl 9/5/03 11:35:07 PM Reply	Re: A worthy aim - Your inspection of 'historical events'. If it's effective? For example - do you ever find yourself thinking quite differently about 'an event' - than the popular slogans about the same event? Ever revise your personal views on Other matters - when you notice a significant discrepancy between Your Take Now and that popular one which you may have shared? Oh yes, almost always, and it usually isn't a popular view. ;) For example, when I finally allowed myself to read about Hitler, I mean REALLY read about him, i.e. his childhood, etc, I came to feel terribly sorry for him because of the way his mother raised him. Because he wanted to play with the "jew" children, and he couldn't comprehend why he wasn't allowed. And at first he really liked some of them, but then his mother started "drilling into his brain" that jews were bad, they were inferior and would ultimately destroy him if he didn't rise above them. He turned into the "monster" that all viewed him as, but I no longer viewed him as that "monster" anymore, just a seriously gone bad product of bad bad upbringing and teaching. Before that, before reading this, he was the "monster" everyone painted him to be. And I know this will be a LOT less popular, but even in such modern day "assassins" as Timothy McVeigh and Eric Harris & Dylan Klebold, reading into the backgounds of these people open a different picture, one that if you allow yourself to read and study, tells you where and why these people followed the paths they ultimately followed. Are they still monsters? Maybe in one respect, but in another respect, they are victims of society, of the way the Government treated them in one instance, and their peers and family treated them in another. I delve into this, I want to know it all, I want to understand why someone would murder millions of jews, blow up Government buildings and massacre fellow students... what drives them there... maybe by someday understanding that, someday it can be prevented the next time? This is always hard, of course - as it implies that one's 'reasoning' was less than perfect.. before. But Good though! (this discomfort) - No? Absolutely, makes you think and rethink and learn as you go. Nightowl >8# "I learned to be the door, instead of the mat!" "illegitimi nil carborundum" Comment by Nightowl

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