The Determined Criticism of a Critic
Steiner pushes this line of humanitarian demarcation back to WWI and the idea that self-identified sapiens do not have the ability to comprehend the cascading consequences of such a destructive and murderous society.
Perhaps the dropping of the atomic bomb on Japanese urban populations was the turning point for our new world order? This atomic turning point in history was the launching pad for post-colonial corporate interests to introduce and continually expand their extractionism ideals and social structures or "business models." Facing this skeleton is a closet that looks more like a coffin of contemporary culture that we may never be able to break out of. If western culture was the defender against the Germans, we were, in fact, the last aggressor standing but what has this done to those conscious?
Steiner points out that forty years after Auschwitz, the Khmer Rouge, under the leadership of revolutionary Pol Pot, buried alive an estimated hundred thousand innocent human beings. Steiner's perception of ever-increasing violence and chaos in society is contrasted with Steven Pinker's 2011 book; The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined. Take your pick, but please pay for it with intellectual sweat. An honest and heartfelt attempt is what I am asking of you.
