Konrad Zuse

[Zbigniew Koziol]

Matt Cahill wrote:
> On November 18, 2004 06:19 pm, Lloyd D Budd wrote:
> 
> 
>>>Also, according to one
>>>biographical note 'An unrepentant supporter of the Nazi regime.'
>>
>>Possibly also proving that someone may be brilliant in one thing , and
>>at the other extreme from brilliance in something else .
> 
> 
>   It always shocks me to discover brilliant people who somehow never evolved 
> certain aspects of their perception of people/society.  It makes one's 
> respect for these people tempered with an unfortunate apprehension.

We should separate valuating professional achievements of a person from 
valuating his/her political activities. Though I agree that in some 
cases this might be difficult, mostly in cases of people who live of 
arts, culture, media, and... politics.

Besides, nazism was not entirely evil ideology. Communism was neither. 
While temporary democracy is not entirely good for peoples and societies.

The strong side of "our" democracy is that it is able, it seems, to 
defend itself from totalitarizm (nazism or comunism, for instance). The 
weak point is, it seems, it introduces totalitarizm based on stupidity 
of masses, by manipulating these masses.

Nazis (Germans) when conquered Poland in 1939 first started by killing 
in mass executions these most important for the society: teachers, 
doctors, engineers - these were people most educated and therefore most 
influential. They had their own views.

After 1945, when Soviets took control of Poland, they exterminated again 
mostly these remnants of inteligensia and people who had their own views.

Both, Germans and Russians did not care much for professional 
achievements of these persecuted people. They cared only for their 
political views.

Should we behave in a similar way?

Political views are however a something that changes. I would pay rather 
more attention to ethical side of political attitude of people.

Not that I like the overused word "tolerance". I start to hate that word 
  since it is used in a wrong way and unfairly, rather to justify a lack 
of tolerance often. We should however not forget about that magical word.

And, if to write about Nazis, from Canada, the name of Zundel comes to 
my mind. Is this country really lawfull and tolerant when that man is 
behind bars waiting for extradition when he did not do anything illegal? 
I doubt now that I should be proud of living in this country. And again, 
I am not enthusiast of Zundel, a man of clearly nazis views, and a hater 
of my country of origin, Poland. But I can not look on how he is treated 
by this system, resembling more and more the treatment in a country some 
years ago I come from.

zb.

--
Zbigniew Koziol, SoftQuake^(tm) Open Source Business Solutions
Toronto, Canada, http://www.softquake.ca, info-lcEyp1+e+UdAFePFGvp55w at public.gmane.org
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