Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Foregone Conclusions: Against Apocalyptic History

Posted by Bunseth Lik On 10:06 AM 0 comments

Publisher: University of California Pr | 1994 | ISBN-10: 0520087852 | ISBN-13: 978 0520087859 | English | PDF | 161 pages | 0.71 Mb

“The author's denunciation of apocalyptic thinking provides a moral, philosophical, and literary challenge to the way most of us make sense of our worlds. In our search for coherence, Bernstein argues, we tend to see our lives as moving toward a predetermined fate. This "foreshadowing" demeans the variety, the richness, and especially the unpredictability of everyday life. Apocalyptic history denies the openness and choice available to its actors. Bernstein chooses the Holocaust as the prime example of our tendency toward foregone conclusions. He argues eloquently against politicians and theologians who depict the Holocaust as foreordained and its victims as somehow implicated in a fate they should have been able to foresee. But his argument ranges wider. From recent biographies of Kafka to the Israeli - PLO peace accords, from campus cultural diversity debates to the Crown Heights riots, Bernstein warns against our passive acceptance of historical or personal victimization.”

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