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Pastimes : THE SLIGHTLY MODERATED BOXING RING -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Neocon who wrote (15413)	6/25/2002 11:23:40 AM
From: Solon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 21057

"Actually, though, you are quite wrong about Nazis. They were relativists" That is incorrect. I said that the thinking tended toward "political and moral absolutism." Indeed it was grounded in manichaean ethics of absolute good and evil--as reflected in the Uebermensch and the Untermensch. Nazism (like communism) professes to aim toward the ultimate good. God is vested in the image of the collective Aryan race of men who represent the ultimate good for humankind to strive toward. One could (rather awkwardly) term it a secular absolutism in that ultimate good rests in this secular God--the Aryan Superman. Likewise, seeing the jews as the ultimate evil was the other extreme of this absolutist dualism-this either,or--us and OTHER dichotomy...which always serves to alert us to those who have discovered ultimate right and wrong, and those whom wish to do their moral duty to God or Fuehrer. Extremism is generally considered the territory of those who tend toward absolutist doctrines. Relativists tend toward tolerance, understanding, and aceptance of differences. Where these qualities are lacking, one generally finds a person, group, or State in possession of ultimate knowledge of right and wrong...or those tending toward such an absolutist sinkhole of discarded humanity. The Nazis and their Aryan super race, the Communists and their proletariat embodiment of ultimate good for the greatest number, the Allahs and the Yehwehs...it is all the same vision: Ultimate good versus ultimate evil. Kill the Evil bastards so that absolute Good may reign. So long as we continue to think in dualistic terms of absolute good and absolute evil, just so long will we need to identify or create the OTHER whom we are to hate and to objectify as the enemy of the People. It comes from believing that the moral balance is in the universe, and not in our hearts...