wed 12 sep 2007 13:49:16 — raamgracht
democracy redefined
in germany, a celebrity was fired from her TV job for suggesting publically that although the third reich had a lot of bad things about it, especially adolf hitler, one thing that was good back then was how they championed the role of the stay-at-home mother. she said this because she is campaigning for women to stay home and be mothers.
yesterday another woman got on TV and said that one must never praise *anything* about the third reich, because it's not fitting to say such things "in a democratic society."
and here i had been thinking all along that democracy was inextricably bound together with the freedom of expression of ideas. maybe i was wrong.
i think there are probably plenty of non-hatemongers out there who also think moms should stay home.
but if people really think the horror of nazi hate can be prevented by forbidding the mention of anything *next* to the hate, then we also need to pass a law forbidding trains to run on time. we need to ban the volkswagen. and we need to ban satellites and rocketry, because of their unsavory association with wernher von braun.
the horror of hate is here, and it's visible, and its visibility is what makes it horrifying. hiding from it by suppressing human expression does nothing but increase its appeal.