Word: holocaust
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...goals--to the unpalatable extremes of disarmament and massive rearmament that have dominated the public "debate" thus far. The argument goes something like this: The Jonathan Schells of the Left err in presuming an absolute choice between global peace and disarmament on the one hand, and global nuclear holocaust on the other. With the nuclear genie out of the bottle, it is all but impossible to put it back. Mankind cannot hope to "reinvent politics: to reinvent the world," as Schell proposed last year in The Fate of the Earth. National sovereignties are too entrenched and global consensus too elusive...
...seriously, and neither--because of the absolute moral terms in which their "debate" has been couched--deigns to consider more moderate views. Meanwhile the public remains largely uneducated about the complexities of nuclear strategy instead, individuals take sides based on whether they fear more the gloom of a nuclear holocaust or the doom of Soviet hegemony...
...best, Out Out rises above the debate--or, more precisely, descends below it, with incredible sequences in which the audience experiences some of the actual feelings that survivors of a nuclear holocaust might feel. The production has been termed an "evacuation party," and for the first hall at least, the action revolves around a purpoted nuclear attack, a pre attack evacuation and life in a bomb shelter. But at its worst Out Out becomes precious, a manipulative revival-house sing along, a punked-out version of Hair or Godspell brimming with those works' combination of rebel-with a cause naivete...
What's more, even after 30 years of reviewing the record, historians don't agree on whether Auschwitz should have been bombed in the first place. Holocaust historian Lucy Dawidowicz, for example, thinks that documents show it was not feasible for the United States to bomb the camp...
Erich Goldhagen, who teaches a Social Analysis course on the Holocaust, said he is inclined to think the diaries are forgeries due to the dubious circumstances of their discovery...