“It all seems a little bizarre, and a reversal of normal morality, which is…that ‘those who do harm must pay’.

“Instead, we, who did no harm, must apologize publicly for something over which we had no control, and politicians — who stand to gain by appearing morally upright — are extracting money from millions of citizens who were not even alive at the time, using it to pay off descendants who have suffered no harm, and whose only connection to the deemed sins of the past is their blood.” “Is there a vague public awareness that we may be engaged in some unspecified evil at the moment, for which we could be taken to task by future generations? And if so, are we trying to alleviate the coming judgement by our children, so to speak, by apologizing now for the actions of those who came before us?

“Why else are we judging our predecessors so harshly, and in such boldly self-confident terms? Why are present-day politicians so eager to pay off survivors (or their descendants) for actions or events deemed quite normal at the time — but considered sins today — with money that is not theirs? …  Continue reading ‘Mea Maxima Culpa: The Ruse of Political Apologies’ →