Tuesday, March 08, 2005
Saw Der Untergang (aka Downfall), the film about the final days in Hitler's bunker. Aside from the obvious, two things struck me about the film: 1) When Hitler explains that he's not going to evacuate Berlin because the citizens of Berlin are as responsible for their fate as he is, and 2) when Hitler's real-life secretary Traudl Junge speaks to the camera at the end of the film and announces she genuinely wasn't aware of the unspeakable horrors that Hitler committed.
Someone I know flatly refuses to believe Ms. Junge. I actually sort of do, but my belief in her words doesn't come without indictment. In a way, Downfall represented for me an apocalyptic vision of what could happen to the United States. Our leader is committing horrific acts in our name and backing up his actions with words like "mandate" and "political capital." By voting him in, 62 million people spoke for nearly 300 million of us... 300 million of us who will suffer equally the next time a terrorist decides to hit our country. So for those of us who didn't vote for George W. Bush... too bad. Like the citizens of Germany, we are effectively as responsible for our fate as our president is. And for those who did vote for GWB, in time they'll probably come to the same conclusion that Traudl Junge did: Just because she didn't know what her boss was doing, doesn't absolve her. The fact is, the information was there if only she'd just let herself see it.
Someone I know flatly refuses to believe Ms. Junge. I actually sort of do, but my belief in her words doesn't come without indictment. In a way, Downfall represented for me an apocalyptic vision of what could happen to the United States. Our leader is committing horrific acts in our name and backing up his actions with words like "mandate" and "political capital." By voting him in, 62 million people spoke for nearly 300 million of us... 300 million of us who will suffer equally the next time a terrorist decides to hit our country. So for those of us who didn't vote for George W. Bush... too bad. Like the citizens of Germany, we are effectively as responsible for our fate as our president is. And for those who did vote for GWB, in time they'll probably come to the same conclusion that Traudl Junge did: Just because she didn't know what her boss was doing, doesn't absolve her. The fact is, the information was there if only she'd just let herself see it.
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