Notzick the holocaust Flashcards
I do not claim to understand the full significance of this but there is one piece, I think:
it now would not be a special tragedy if human kind ended, if the human species were destroyed in atomic warfare or the earth passed through some cloud that made it impossible for the species to continue reproducing itself
I do not mean that
humanity deserves this to happen
now that history and that species have become stained
its loss would be no special loss above and beyond the losses to the individuals involved
humanity has lost its
claim to continue
like relative shaming family, the Germans
our human relatives, have shamed us all
although we are not all responsible for what those who acted and stood by did
we are all stained
imagine beings from another galaxy looking at our history. it would not seem unfitting to them, I think, if that story came to an end
if the species they see with that history ended, destroying itself un nuclear warfare or otherwise failing to be able to continue
these observers would see the individual tragedies involved, but they would not see- I am saying-
any further tragedy in the ending of the species
not -let me repeat- that the species deserves to be destroyed; it
simply no longer deserves not to be
humanity has
desanctified itself
whatever changed situation or possibility the cruxifixction and resurrection were supposed to bring about
has now ended
the holocaust is the third momentous transformation [after fall and resurrection]
(…) there no longer operates the saving message of Christ.
the Christian Era
has closed
he died for all our sins, past and future, small and large. but not
for that one, I think
the holocaust has created a radically new situation and status for humanity as a whole, one
the sacrifice of Jesus could not and was not meant to heal
is humanity reduced to this de sanctified
status?
is there anything we can do by our behaviour over time, so that once again it would be a special and further tragedy
if our species were to come to an end or be destroyed?
perhaps what we need to do
help produce another better species or make way for it; can we regain the status of deserving to continue only by stepping aside?
perhaps we need to change our own nature, transforming ourselves into beings who are unhappy and who suffer when others do
or at least into beings who suffer when we stand by and allow the infliction of suffering
yet there s so much suffering in the world, if we were unhappy whenever others suffered for whatever reason
we would have to be unhappy always when some people inflicted suffering in others
or is it that we should be unhappy only when
others inflict massive suffering?
perhaps it is only by suffering ourselves when any suffering is inflicted
or even when any is felt, that we can redeem the species
before, perhaps we could be more isolated
now that no longer suffices
if the Christian Era has ended, it has been replaced by one in which we each now have to take humanities suffering upon ourselves
What Jesus was supposed to have done for us, before the holocaust, humanity must now do for itself
see others now truly wear over suffering so momentous and so momentous and so monstrously inflicted
that everyone must now be different henceforth
someone might think that rather than take other’s suffering upon himself, he would prefer to leave humanity as a species unredeemed
letting it remain no tragedy if the human species ended. he might even think this would be better overall
if we all do take humanities suffering upon ourselves, that involves many
additional events of actual suffering
I have outlines here one interpretation of the holocaust
that gives it commensurate weight
the full significance and implications of that trauma- so recent-
dwarf a single person’s understanding; certainly they dwarf mine
the holocaust is a massive cataclysm that
distorts everything around it
the holocaust is a massive and continuing
distortion of the human space
the vortex he created has not
disappeared
hitler too constituted a force that
distorted the lives around him- his followers, his victims, and those who has to conquer him
perhaps every evil of whatever magnitude constitutes
some distortion of human space. it has taken a cataclysm to get us to notice it
