It seems they are going to trot out Lauri Gerald, Ronald Pellar's cousin who was the office manager for Columbia State, and who drove Pellar's money to him in Mexico twice a week. My feeling is that she is about as repentant as Charles Manson, so it will be interesting to see what she has to say (and how good an actress she is).
"About as repentant as Manson." Indeed. Peter Balakian has a brilliant book on the genocide against the Armenians called "The Burning Tigris." I would recommend it strongly to anybody interested in that series of events, especially in the American response. Balakian quotes another book by Judith Herman called "Trauma and Recovery." Rather strangely, what she says about criminal behaviour in general, and applied by Balakian to the perpetrators and deniers of genocide, applies as well to the well-documented behaviour of millists and those who deny their involvement in millism--or deny that it is millism. The two quotes from Herman somewhat overlap, but here they are. I think the relevance will be pretty clear in considering the Pellar trial, the Collins hearings, and any number of other incidents of heart-tugging appeals by millists. "Criminal behaviour, she notes, is always defined by the perpetrator's compulsion to 'promote forgetting.' 'Secrecy and silence are the perpetrator's first line of defense.' If that fails, 'the perpetrator attacks the credibility of his victim.' And if he cannot silence his victim, 'he tries to make sure that no one listens,' by either blatantly denying or rationalizing his crime." Balakian, p. 373 "After every atrocity one can expect to hear the same predictable apologies; it never happened; the victim lies; the victim exaggerates; the victim brought it on herself; and in any case it is time to forget the past and move on." Balakian, p. 379
Nice post Uncle, too bad there isn't a similar one that talks about how the criminal minimizes the crime by saying they were forced to do it or that there are no victims that should be of concern to us.
Hi Bill: there may be. I have not seen the Herman book itself, where what you mention may well be discussed, but only the quotes in the Balakian book.
Yes, millism is so very much like genocide, isn't it? Seriously, not that the quoted sources aren't applicable to violent crimes, but alleged economic crimes tend not to be so easily analyzed. See, e.g., http://www.mises.org/fullstory.asp?control=1510 The state ultimately decides what is "criminal" behavior and what is not. They may create crimes out of behavior that historically has not been considered criminal. Simply denying wrongdoing may net you a jail term for "obstructing justice," even though the underlying allegation is never proven or even charged. Consider the events portrayed in the movie "Tucker." The fledgling auto maker is put out of business for alleged violations of securities laws, at the behest of the established and powerful auto industry. Likewise, every legit but unaccredited university risks being criminalized simply for competing with the education monopoly. (Key word being "legit." This is not to suggest that a movie called "Pellar" would have the same gravis.) In this context what is or is not "criminal" seems to depend more on the popularity of the cause rather than the morality of the conduct. It would be more popular with me if the government would spend my tax money protecting me from, e.g., people who might steal my car, rather than, e.g., people with Kennedy Western diplomas who might ask me for a job.
Racer: It would be more popular with me if the government would spend my tax money protecting me from, e.g., people who might steal my car, rather than, e.g., people with Kennedy Western diplomas who might ask me for a job. John: And people with medical degrees from Metropolitan Collegiate who take your child off insulin, and she dies? We've got a continuum here, and each person draws her "I am upset" line in a different place along it.
Hi RR: I did not compare millism to genocide. I think you know that. I posted a couple of quotes about criminal behaviour from a book quoted in a book on the genocide against the Armenians. I gave the sources of the quotes. That's not comparison, that's documentation. You wouldn't be trying to be inflammatory, would you?
