In the aftermath of the earthquake in Chile, the Chilean military is back on the streets for the first time since Pinochet’s military dictatorship in the 1970s and 80s. Chileans recognize that the soldiers are there to protect them, and “Chileans are welcoming the military’s role in earthquake relief efforts,” NPR writes. In contrast, many citizens were afraid of the military during “the Pinochet years, when soldiers were a constant presence and were responsible for widespread human rights abuses.” Despite their fear, Chileans used many different approaches to resist the dictatorship (1973-1990), Roberta Bacic writes in an article for Open Democracy. Bacic’s approach was greatly influenced by Gandhi’s belief in the power of nonviolence. “Non-violence,” Bacic explains, “refers to a philosophy and strategy of conflict resolution, a means of fighting injustice and—in a broader sense—a way of life, developed and employed by Gandhi and his followers all around the world.” By this definition, Bacic concludes, non-violence is an “action that does not commit or allow injustice.” Bacic and a group of others were determined to “tell the truth and act on it.” She became part of the anti-torture movement that helped pressure Pinochet to sign the international Convention Against Torture in 1984, “which in turn would lead to his detention in England in 1999 while awaiting the result of the request for his extradition to Spain.” Bacic is a Chilean researcher in human rights as well as a curator for exhibitions of Arpilleras—Latin American, three-dimensional textiles originating in Chile that depict how political violence impacted everyday life.
Arts and Literature
Facing Today helps educators connect the study of history to issues in our world today. We select current websites, articles, films and blogs that reflect universal themes, such as identity, membership and participation, represented in our scope and sequence. Each media resource is linked to related Facing History materials, including study guides, videos and lessons.
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March 8, 2010
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March 3, 2010
German film director Veit Harlan wrote and directed “Jew Süss,” a 1940 box office success in Nazi Germany that, according to a New York Times article by Larry Rohter, is “perhaps the most notoriously anti-Semitic movie ever made.” New York Times film critic Manohla Dargis writes that the film, which opens in 1733, “tells the story of a Jewish money lender from the ghetto, Joseph Süss Oppenheimer (Ferdinand Marian), who rises to power in Wurttemberg (in what is southwestern Germany), where he gains control of the court, taxes the population, rapes a young married woman (who then drowns herself) and is finally executed.” Rohter notes that the film was “so effective that it was made required viewing for all members of the SS,” and to this day its “commercial exhibition or sale as a DVD is still prohibited in Germany and several other European countries.” German film director Felix Moeller has released a documentary titled “Harlan: In the Shadow of Jew Süss.” According to Dargis, the film is “an exploration of the filmmaker, his career under National Socialism and the children and other relatives who bear his name and, with varying difficulty, his legacy.”
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November 24, 2008
One of the cornerstones of civil society is the capacity to live with more than one identity. People speak to us so much when we are young about finding our identity, or the search for our identity. Throughout history people have developed the capacity to see themselves as having many identities, and become comfortable with all of them or most of them. Let's invent an example: I am American, but also of Irish and Native American background, but also a young woman, but also a reasonably religious Christian, but also a Republican, but also pro-choice, but also a life long fan of Star Trek. Each one of these identities gives me a slightly different view of the world and a different set of things to think about and feel. The more I can allow all of these identities to coexist inside of me, the broader my perspective will be on coexistence with others, with the diversity of people in my country and on the planet. The more rigid my identity, however, the more singular, the more I tend to suppress all the richness inside me as well as inside others.
It turns out that this is the same in the political life of civilizations. The more that people and whole civilizations suppress the multiplicity and diversity of our identities, the more they will see themselves in constant struggle with others. A clash of civilizations is something that we human beings choose to create. It does not exist inside civilizations. Civilizations have just as many things in common with each other as they have things that are different or contradictory. It is we who decide that we live with others or over against others, that diversity is strength or that diversity is a threat. It is we who decide to be grateful for or fearful of the existence of other groups and civilizations. The first sections of the readings below will struggle with the question of identity and the future coexistence or struggle of many civilizations living on the same small planet.
One of the most painful things to emerge from the recent wars that we have all been exposed to is that we all must develop a deeper, more sober view of the potential of organized religion to contribute to war or to peace, to intolerance or to coexistence. This is not a new lesson of history, but recent events have forced all of us to revisit this reality. Since the beginning of time great spiritual minds and courageous people of vision in all cultures, in all corners of the globe, have evolved a rich tapestry of oral and written literature, stories, rituals, and symbols, which express the most exalted ethical values. This spiritual legacy is actually responsible for inspiring indirectly, and sometimes directly, the great modern ideas of human rights and democracy. At the same time these people of vision gave rise to organized religions which have inspired millions to live ethical, decent, lives, while inspiring others to live lives of intolerance, hatred, and even mass murder. No organized religion has escaped this dual legacy over the long course of human history, despite the greatest hopes of its spiritual masters. We will explore this dual legacy in an attempt to understand the complex world around us, the mixture of good and bad trends in all cultures. We will also learn what we must defend democracy against, and, at the same time, what opportunities exist for cross-civilizational and inter-religious cooperation. The promise and peril of the future of the planet exist side by side, and it will be up to us which way we sway an emerging global civilization.
Much of the struggle of recent months has been over events in the Middle East, and specifically in countries such as Afghanistan and Pakistan. It is wonderful to think in the abstract about identity, spirituality and religion, and democracy. But the hard work of intellectual maturity and responsible citizenship comes in understanding the details of human experience. We dare not speak in generalities and remain ignorant of the facts about specific places and their particular circumstances. We are all called upon to make tough ethical choices all the time. It is in the very nature of responsible citizenship. Just as a doctor dares not come to conclusions about a patient until she knows every relevant medical detail, it is the same with us as we try to extend our judgments to issues in places very far away. A doctor takes the general mandate to heal and extends it into lifelong study of medicine as well as the specific details of each patient's condition. A good citizen takes the general moral principles of truth, justice, fairness, compassion, and human rights, and extends them into the complex details of every place on the planet that his vote may affect. All the way from distant countries to remote natural habitats, we have a responsibility to know our values well, internalize them, and then study the complex details of individual places that may be affected by our actions and moral choices.
In this section we will study the specifics of struggling with terrorists and their origins and the complex questions around religion and state, Islam and democracy, and the status of women in the Middle East. Our purpose will be to understand the problems and potential of this region of the world and to see a paradigm of a world religion struggling with its values and its future. Only through this deeper knowledge can we make informed decisions as to how to interact with and respond to the specifics of other cultures, religions, and civilizations. Islam is a religion that exists all over the world, and it dominates the life of the politically volatile Middle East. And so it becomes important to know the specifics of a religion in its particular contexts and to not generalize about its expression in other parts of the world. This is where humility and careful inquiry are the keys to wisdom.
From the specifics of one region we return to our deeper questions about the future of global civilization, especially as they pertain to world religions, the status of women, and war and peace as they interact with our fundamental values, and the prospects for global commitments to human rights, democracy, and civil society. The difficult interaction between modern attempts at democracy and diversity, on the one side, and traditional religions, on the other, in some ways boils down to questions of rights and responsibilities. The great visionaries of democracy and modern life saw before them a world that cried out for the unconditional rights of every human being, no matter how different, no matter how poor, no matter what his race or religion. Traditional religion always sought to inculcate values and responsibilities to guide what each of us must do. Some of these duties and rights have clashed; there has been a clash of rights and duties in the hearts of many. But it is equally true that around the world there are millions of people earnestly struggling with the responsibilities and duties derived from traditional religion while, at the same time, demanding the ever-increasing extension of human rights to all.
Will this remain a clash of worlds, or will it lead to a quiet and progressive symbiosis of the old and the new? Will we be able to see ourselves in the future with many identities, such as inheritors of wise traditions and, at the same time, innovators of new traditions of coexistence? This will depend on how we all decide to shape our minds and hearts and whether we are ready to contain such a wealth of human legacies inside our souls. The beginning of the process lies in learning and teaching and the humility with which we pursue this great human odyssey.
contributor: Marc Gopin, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy
