"In such circumstances, Japanese guilt and American guilt become somewhat
problematic. To survive as an idea it must become a form of original sin;
and that hasn't been a great success as a liberating idea."
But I don't think it does survive "as an idea", in the sense of guilt as
personal responsibility, but rather as a function of the historicity of the
social and political context of living in a culture, components of which
have, in the past, condoned or acted in a particular way. It's this
historicity that we face, or track, and the way we do has implications for
how we act now, within and through a public life.
As for country or nation as person, "Japan feels", "England expects", then
this is a way of thinking which is a social fact, and because of that, we
need to consider them seriously. For example, the way that the idea of
"America" was a very potent one for many who emigrated there from, say,
Greece during the twentieth century, which might have been expressed as
"America will...", "America feels". If lots of people In London have said a
very similar thing about the July bombings, then I think it's fine to say,
"There is a feeling among Londoners", which isn't to say "London feels..."
Unless some mythic creature rises and proclaims itself "Albion", or
"humanity", obviously...
Edmund.
<snip>
Quite. And I can't help thinking wryly of the views of a very elderly
relative of mine. The Germans? Wicked people: look how they keep on starting
wars. The French? Idiots and cowards: look how they just keep caving in.
European Jewry? Well there must be _some_ reason why everyone hates them so
much...
CW
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