Fair enough. Within the greater reader-response criticsm umbrella, I’m using Quijano’s colonialidad del poder to problematize the quote as a form of whitewashing of history even though the quote is well-intended. From there, it reads a bit arrrogant from that stance. But, it looks like it was a misquote anyway. Hopefully, you understand that I’m not reading the quote the way most people are. Instead, I looked at it from a unique perspective. Best wishes to you.
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Cake day: July 18th, 2024
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It’s perfectly fine if you and I read it from different angles. My points are still valid, even if you read it differently. But they’re definitely not “in my head”, due to the fact that I’m reading the quote from the colinailty of power as a framework (read Aníbal Quijano’a theory in this for more).
While it’s no doubt a cool quote, it’s also kind of condescending. Somehow, a horrific moment in history has turned into an arrogant warning. And even at that, it’s a warning to a country that Germany modeled upon for its concentration camps. It reads like, “Don’t do what you’ve already done (that we copied), you dumbasses.” I don’t disagree with the implied dumbasses vibe, but the naive arrogance takes away a lot of momentum of this quote for me. That is to say, the U. S. has already messed up on a massive level before, to the point that Germany borrowed from them to do the terrible things that Germany did, yet this reality has seemingly been forgotten. Why did he forget this? Were those exterminated in the U.S. not important enough to be remembered in his view of history? In other words, the plight of millions of indigenous, enslaved people of color, and many others aren’t even accounted for here. The warning has eliminated them from history.
It’s a sideways glance at the quote, but now I can’t stop reading it from that angle.
That’s presumptuous to think that “I did my best…” simply because I like thinking about things diffeny than most. I didn’t explain it well enough, but later clarified my point for you. I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings about a misquoted text. Take care.