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Re: Chariots of the gods? (fwd)
Martin Cohen (mcohen@UCLA.EDU)
Thu, 3 Oct 1996 15:12:40 -0700
On Thu, 3 Oct 1996, Jesse S. Cook III wrote:
>On 30 September 1996, Julia E. Smith wrote to me (and subsequently gave me
>permission to reply online) as follows:
>
>>On Sun, 29 Sep 1996, Jesse S. Cook III wrote:
>>
>>> Modern *history* has included all those horrors, but modern *consciousness*
>>> has not. Your consciousness, for all its lack of clear thinking, is a
>>> modern consciousness. Those responsible for such horrors did not have a
>>> modern consciousness. There was a time when such horrors were taken for
>>> granted; for many, if not most, people today, in our culture at least,
>>> they are not.
>>
>>I'm not trying to bait you, but I don't quite understand the distinction
>>you are making. Are you trying to suggest that modern "consciousness" is
>>not taking such things as the Holocaust, slavery, etc. for granted? If
>>so, how can you explain how non-modern consciousness can arise in a
>>location (such as Germany) with a decidedly modern consciousness?
>
>The problem, I think, is with this word "modern"; it means different things
>to different people and different things in different contexts. When I use
>the word in this context, I mean contemporary.
>
>Non-modern consciousness did not "arise" in Germany in Hitler's time--that's
>were they were at, as they say. It was modern consciousness that those
>involved lacked.
>
So... next year we will REALLY have "modern consciousness"; we'll all look
back on our current pretense and laugh at our naivity?
Yours in anticipation of a continually expanding consciousness,
Martin M. Cohen, Ph.D.
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