Cal Flyn: the terrible truths in my family history
theaustralian.com.au
theaustralian.com.au
(It's almost surprising that The Australian – our only national paper, published by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp Australia – published this. They tend to have good indigenous coverage, but an excerpt of a book on the frontier wars? Wow.)
This also works the other way, if your parent is national hero that does not reflect on the children either. You should not take the credit for a parents good work.
Obviously it can be difficult for immediate children to take such a dispassionate attitude to parents actions but as more generations go by it should become easier.
That's not to say one can't acknowledge that bad things happened in one's lineage (history), but to think one's lineage is worse than another is oversimplifying things or a case of selection bias, among other things.
That doesn't sound right. What makes you say that every family committed atrocities?
The author is in a situation now where she knows she is profiting from her parents crimes by continuing to live her life.
Most white people, when faced with that realization, will next try to imagine a way not to profit, and, seeing no easy choices, absolve themselves of responsibility. They say things like "What am I supposed to do, give away my house?" and most people find that idea absurd, so that acts as proof that people are not responsible for blood spilled acquiring the infrastructure they rely on. The notion is, as long those systems are sufficiently difficult to dismantle, they can be used ethically.
I am not convinced. The other rationale is that by changing hands, resources become clean. But that doesn't make much sense to me either. We don't generally think that a purchaser of stolen goods is entitled to the goods. Unless it's land, and the original owner was murdered. Somehow that is acceptable, while keeping someone's stolen jewelry is not.
The author of this article? Do you mean her G-G-Grandfather? How is she continuing to profit?
War and conflict is a messy business.
But it can be both rational and constructive/useful if it reminds us of what we're capable of.
Is that guilt? I don't know. But trying to avoid it, I think, is blissful ignorance.
That isn't to advocate for guilt, which I don't personally feel, so much as responsibility. Whether or not I feel guilty for what my ancestors did, I am certainly responsible using wisely what power I have. And that power definitely depends on their actions.
E.g., I'm in tech because my dad was. And he became a programmer because his dad was high up at a company that got an early IBM machine. But at that time and place, those were positions reserved for white men from families who could afford enough education. Past racism and classism definitely benefited me. Do I feel guilt? Not really, because I didn't do that myself. But I do feel an obligation to use my inheritance for more than just my own desires.
If I murder someone during an armed robbery, is it a reasonable justification to say "things happen in fights"?
If I give my children the money that I took from the person that I killed during that armed robbery, and it gives them a comfortable life, and the children of the person that I robbed live in poverty - should my children feel guilty?
If they do feel guilty, are they feeling guilty for my sin, or for their own?
> And of what metaphoric blood are you talking that decendants inherit?
I wasn't using a metaphor. People are filled with blood. It spills where they fall.
No, but but it's hard to be sure of the details if the events in question are many years before.
> should my children feel guilty?
It depends, 'guilt' is too vague. But if you mean guilty for committing the crime, then no.
There's usually a complicated relationship between crimes of the past, and future wealth. Simplistic arguments don't capture many relevant details, but here's one: If I inherit a dollar, but a lottery ticket, win a million dollars then later find out the money was blood money - do I owe someone money? If so, do I owe $1 or $1M? What if I hadn't won anything on the ticket?
I also thing the magnitude and type of resource matters. For example, a stolen $1 is unlikely relevant to future descendants, while millions might make a big difference.
> If they do feel guilty, are they feeling guilty for my sin, or for their own?
If a tree falls in the woods...
>> the blood isn't washed off when the kids get it > I wasn't using a metaphor
If you are talking about land/resources, you are saying they are literally stained with blood?
The allies gave West Germany back to Germans in 1949.
The Soviets lost East Germany back to the Germans in 1990.
Whites being given back their land after losing the war did happen only recently.
South Americans had their land returned by Spanish and Portguese forcefully.
Japan had it's country returned. China had Hong Kong returned.
New Zealand Maori's received financial reparations.
So are you suggesting only everyone else get their land back, and indigenous australian's, well.. water under the bridge kind of thing?
[0] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/60/Ge...
I wasn't even born here, and I feel guilty.
For that I do feel guilt. I'd hope anyone would at least feel empathy. Ultimately it demands redress.