I think that this whole idea of moving on is rooted in American culture and reveals itself here... Kind of funny, and scary. This is an interview with (sorry, name escapes me) the guy who wrote 'The Trials of Henry Kissenger' but reflect on this whol idea of moving on rather than reflecting on human rights abuses, or general governmental errors or abuses.
...and Henry Kissinger was an absolute genius at spinning the press, partly invented the idea of "spin doctoring." So, there would be that. And then to move it beyond the journalistic culture, to the wider North American one. There is only one culture in the world, I think probably in the history of the world, where the words ?you're history' are an insult. And it's for good reason. Gore Vidal calls it "The United States of Amnesia." We hear all the time, like a mantra, that whatever we're confronted with, whatever it might be, the main responsibility is to move on. Put this behind us. It's literally become a social, cultural, almost a moral injunction. The best thing to do is to forget it. Well now, that's not the language in which we address, in the New York Times, the people of Germany, for example. We say, "It may seem to you a long time ago, but we insist you revisit your past and do it responsibly, and look at the documents, and live up to the obligations that you incurred, and do so in hard cash terms, too. We insist that this also be true of the people of Serbia and of Japan and of many other societies. In my view, that insistence on the part of the United States and its establishment is not morally wrong on its face and in fact in all the cases I just mentioned, I think to remember and to take account and to live up to and to be responsible for, are all correct. Well, you can see where I'm going with this. You can't have that both ways. If this is a proper injunction, it must apply to the United States as well.
http://www.identitytheory.com/printme/h ... print.html
