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percy-l - Re: [percy-l] "...to the gas chamber..."

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Subject: Percy-L: Literary, Religious, Scientific, and Philosophical Discussion on Walker Percy

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  • From: "James Piat" <piat1 AT bellsouth.net>
  • To: "Percy-L: Literary and Philosophical Discussion" <percy-l AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [percy-l] "...to the gas chamber..."
  • Date: Thu, 6 Mar 2003 17:15:35 -0500


>
> The rare times I'm in the mall, two words go through my mind: kitsch and
> despair (of course, kitsch and sentimentality go hand-in-hand). Gil Bailie
> refers to shopping malls as museums of nihilism.
> -DB

Well I'll take the kitsch of a shopping mall over the sentimental nostalgia
of another good ole anti-Semitic Christian Crusade any day. First the Arabs
in the middle ages, then the Hebrews in WWII and now it's back to the Arabs
again. That's the trouble I have with Percy and O'Connor's example of the
holocaust as an argument for Christianity or moral absolutism -- it's not
only ironic and in poor taste to say the least -- it's a shell game. The
problem is not moral relativism, shopping malls, Arabs, Jews or even
Christian anti-Semitism -- it's us: or in my case, me, always blaming the
other in the hope that this somehow absolves, protects or elevates myself.

Best wishes,
Jim Piat




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