Just like the son of the abusive alcoholic that is so traumatized by his father's past that they truly believe that anyone that allows a single drop of alcohol to pass through their lips is a moral degenerate and is terrified of ever tasting a drop of alcohol, the current generation of Germans has swung to the other extreme in terms of imposing state sanctions against an individual no matter how deserving the circumstances. I think it's very important to remember the values the German Republic is founded on. The first article of our constitution reads "Human Dignity is untouchable". It is the base of all further laws (there are many laws which I think are in opposition to this, but that's not the topic here) and it is not changeable as long as this Republic exists.
So, death penalty and basically all law which is meant only for retaliaton is against the German constitution.
And all this crap about Nazi-Germany: Hey guys, you have a freaking concentration camp at Guantanamo Bay. What about that?
Michael:
Hey, nice to see a Christian that really seems to be a Christian after all :). I agree with almost everything you said - your atitude towards the state is a tad over the top in things of positivsm though.
"I respond to those that our system follows the ideals of the New Testament, and that such a system based on Jesus principles cannot be immoral"
This I highly doubt. Don't forget that many states claim that for themselves (eg. the USA: Just remember Bush's "crusade"). It's easy to interpret religious documents in a way that suits your goals, whatever they may be.
I think it's very important to remember the values the German Republic is founded on. The first article of our constitution reads "Human Dignity is untouchable". It is the base of all further laws (there are many laws which I think are in opposition to this, but that's not the topic here) and it is not changeable as long as this Republic exists. So, death penalty and basically all law which is meant only for retaliaton is against the German constitution. Yes, "The Values".
From 1939 through 1945, Gemany was directly responsible for the deaths of 40 million Europeans that included 6 million Jewish untermenchen, 20 million Slavic untermenchen and 5 million Polish untermenchen.
Yet, by 1949, the German Republic has discovered ""Human Dignity" and was, oh, so much more morally superior to the United States of America.
As I noted in Post 42, Germany discovered it's own new definition of "Human Dignity" because it's prior definition had left them chocking on their own vomit composed of the blood of their victims.
And all this crap about Nazi-Germany: Hey guys, you have a freaking concentration camp at Guantanamo Bay. What about that?
This, Smile-n-Win, is a pefect example of the irrationality I spoke of in Post 42.
The present-day Germans are so traumatized by what their Nazi fathers and grandfathers did that anything with a supercial resemblence to those actions is automatically condemned with a "holier-than-thou" attitude.
Now, lets, see. Has the U.S. rounded up 6 million Muslims and gassed them as their Nazi fathers and grandfathers did to 6 million Jews?
No.
Has the U.S. rounded up innocent civilians and gassed them as their Nazi fathers and grandfathers did to Anne Franke?
No.
Has a single individual been executed in Guantamamo as compared to the one million executions at Auschwitz alone?
No.
So what is the dictionary of a "Concentration Camp"?
According to Webster's Dictionary, a "concentration camp" is : "A camp where persons (as prisoners of war, political prisoners or refugees) are detained or confined".
By itself, "Concentration Camp" has no sinister connotation. The German Stalags and Luft Stalags had no such sinister connotation and neither did Allied prisoner of war camps.
Only the German death camps where millions died had the words "Concentration Camp" and "Evil" irreversibly associated with each other.
Yes, at Guantanamo, the U.S. has a military-style prison camp.
Does it have barbed wire as Auschwitz did? Yes.
Does it have military guards as Auschwitz did? Yes.
Does it have civilian women and children in it as Auschwitz did? No.
Is it used as high volume assembly plant of murder as Auschwitz was? No.
Guantanamo is a military prison camp that imprisons illegal combatants as that term is defined by the Rules of War. Although illegal combatants can be executed under the Rules of War, not a single Guatanamo inmate had died there.
Yet, because Guantanamo has barbed wire, military guards and holds prisoners, this German has made the moral leap to the conclusion that any camp that holds prisoners, has military guards and has barbed wire as Auschwitz or Dachau did is somehow the moral equivalent the camps run by their fathers or grandfathers that murdered millions upon millions of innocent men women and children from the late 1930's to 1945.
As I noted before, irrationality often brings about quite ridiculous ironies.
In this case, by melodramatically trying to equate the Guantanamo prison camp with German "concentration camps" in order to advance the "Human Dignity" of al Qaeda terrorists, this particular German has obscenely cheaped the lives of the millions who died in German death camps and has obscenely trivialed the obscene crimes of the Germany of his father or grandfathers.
It is the irrationality that I wrote of in Post 42 that prevents them from seeing that there is a vast moral differnce between this:
and this:
The first article of our constitution reads "Human Dignity is untouchable".
If one morning you went to work to a beautiful tall building that your fellow countrymen had built and suddenly you found that you had to jump to your death out of the window because the alternative would be to die in an unbearable heat, choking from terrible fumes--wouldn't you pretty much feel that your dignity had been "touched" ?
Well, in case you haven't been following the news, not long ago there were thousands of people who felt just that way, or very similarly, and tens of thousands of people who lost a loved one that way. The person your courts are trying knew full well that his actions would lead to such an outcome--he could fully grasp the extent to which he would "touch" human dignity--yet decided to go ahead with it.
Can you fathom the depravity of a soul that would make such a decision?
Now, I ask you, if you actually believe that human dignity should be untouchable--if you have really adopted that principle as a law above all laws--what, then, should happen to a person who so blatantly disregards it? Shouldn't the most important law be the law that is the most unforgivingly enforced? If a person utterly fails to respect all human dignity--including his own dignity--doesn't that make him a criminal of the greatest degree according to the first article of your constitution? Why in the world would should a respect for his "dignity" keep you from punishing him, once he himself has wilfully and forcefully thrown his dignity away?
You speak of values. Do you value something by letting those who don't care about it destroy it? You quote the Sermon on the Mount. Do you hallow your pearls by casting them before swine? You invoke your constitution. Just what, I ask you, is your constitution worth if it prevents its own enforcement?
Thanks for the ping, Polybius. And you're right: The word for his mindset is indeed irrationality.