Brit Rant: The Other Harry - Big TO DO...

[Tim Regan]

Hi All,

Steve wrote:
>>> Britain has far too many atrocities associated with it's own 
uniform to be casting stones at Prince Harry for an ill-chosen fancy 
dress costume. <<<

The evils of Nazi Germany are a huge and dangerous topic (I think 
such analogies were banned from the main list for this reason). 
Brits may be offended by Steve's comments because it raises our 
atrocities to the level of evil displayed by the Nazis, and Jews may 
be offended because it lowers the sense of outrage against the 
Nazi's "Final Solution" to that against the British colonial 
atrocities.

But I'd like to take Steve's comments in a more personal way and 
endorse them. All to frequently people look at the atrocities 
perpetrated by Nazi Germany and think of the Nazis as subhuman. So 
the evil they did is at best a historic event that we should 
establish political mechanisms to prevent reoccurring, or at worse 
an irrelevance to us. But I'm troubled by the question "What would I 
have done?" Would I have been brave and actively resisted Nazi evil 
(I hope so)? Or would I have been cowardly and tried to blend in 
with the prevailing mores of that society? Or would I have been 
seduced by their rhetoric and allowed that evil us to rise up and 
become what I considered right; would I have actively joined in? 
Points like Steve's encourage me to examine myself, my sense of 
right and wrong, and my ability to stand up against prevailing moral 
failures.

But back to Prince Harry. It was clearly a stupid thing to do. He 
should sit down and examine whatever motive lead him to that choice 
of costume, though I doubt the press hysteria has left him with the 
personal space to do that honestly. But he is a young man, and like 
all young people we should allow him some failures of taste and 
decency, that's just part of growing up. When I was young I did 
several stupid things and I'm glad those around me haven't held them 
against me. We should do the same for Harry.

Cheers,

Dumbledad.

PS This is a quick reply in 10 minutes snatched between meetings at 
work – if I'm repeating what's been said by others on this thread 
already please accept my appologies.