MCLC: "terrorism" in Kunming (10)

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: jiwei xiao <jiweixiao at gmail.com>
Subject: "terrorism" in Kunming (10)
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I second Jason McGrath's call, "let's keep MCLC as a space for informed
intellectual discussion in which we are generous enough to grant each
other the credibility of our intentions." Yes, we should do just that.

Here is a paragraph from a most recent NYRB article, "The Secret Auden"
(by Edward Mendelson, March 24, 2014). I find the following words
enlightening even though Auden was not the first nor the only one who held
forth these ideas: 

”The view that the citizen and dictator have nothing in common has another
corollary: the view that the dictator’s victims are inherently innocent,
not merely innocent victims of someone else’s evil, but innocent in
everything, so that even after the murderous dictator has been destroyed,
their own actions, no matter how oppressive or unjust, may not be judged
by the same standard as his actions. As victims of irrational hatred, they
cannot imagine themselves acting on comparable hatreds. Against this
fantasy of inherent innocence, Auden recognized that victims, no matter
how guiltless in their own victimization, are tempted to become
victimizers in turn. As he put it briskly in a song, “Many a sore bottom
finds/A sorer one to kick.”

Jiwei Xiao