I agree with Paul.  I am reminded of the Manhattan Project physicists, Leo
Szilard, et al., who wrote to President Truman begging him not to use the
A-bomb.  I don't want to start any discussion of Truman's decision to use
it.  Rather, the physicists were writing, not as profession scientists, but
as compassionate human begins with special knowledge of the circumstances.
We, too, are human beings with special knowledge.  If we respond, we do so
as human beings, not as professionals.  Yet, somehow I can divorce myself
from the thought that if we professional human beings don't comment on the
situation, who will?

Irv Rovner


>From: "paul.courtney2" <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: "paul.courtney2" <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Taliban Iconoclasm
>Date: Fri, 02 Mar 2001 17:53:11 +0000
>
>Ned
>
>People once said that about Hitler burning books. 20 or was it 40 million
>dead (the Russian figures are now reckioned to have been downplayed)  paid
>the price for too many peple staying silent. There are still huge tracts of
>land in Europe where there are so many human bones and/or unexploded bombs
>fromt he two world wars that nothing can be grown from Verdun to
>Stalingrad.
>We should also rememebr that historians, archaeologists and
>anthropologiosts
>actively provided the intellectual rationale for Hitlerism. At least one
>anthropologist was hung at Nuremburg and I would remind my American
>colleagues that the intelectual roots of modern American anthropology and
>archaeology come from exctly the same place his did- they just went
>different ways and drew different conclusions.
>
>  paul
>
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Ned Heite" <[log in to unmask]>
>To: <[log in to unmask]>
>Sent: Friday, March 02, 2001 5:20 PM
>Subject: Taliban Iconoclasm
>
>
> > Of course, It's a terrible thing to see major artworks destroyed for
> > the sake of religion.
> >
> > But, what's new?  This has been happening as long as there has been
> > religion. While the Taliban actions are stupid, uncivilized,
> > irreverent, and irreversible, they are a normal historical process.
> >
> > I question the wisdom of our taking a position on the issue.
> >
> > We are supposed to be social scientists or historians, observing and
> > recording events, and I trust the specialists in Afghan art and
> > antiquities will be making a record of the destruction. But would it
> > be ethical for professionals in the area of culture history to
> > condemn actions of the Afghan rulers? We are not theologians. What
> > they are doing is a well-document process in the history of
> > extremism, and they are creating an archaeological record that can
> > later recover that record.
> > --
> > Ned Heite  ([log in to unmask])
> > **********************************************
> > *                                            *
> > *    Gardening season is upon us. We need    *
> > *    help from all our friends. Have you     *
> > *    hugged your compost pile lately?        *
> > *                                            *
> > **********************************************
> >

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