HollyC, Jessie, your information on the Jefferson/Hemings situation is fascinating! Another subject I need to investigate. I assume that part of the problem faced by the founding fathers/signers of the Constitution was the same one faced by Claire when she found herself a slave owner, how do you fix it? The end of slavery certainly wasn't an unalloyed benefit to blacks. As susiej explained about Phaedre, it was possible for slaves to live materially better in slavery. Jessie said " His intellectual struggle to reconcile the sin of slavery with its economic benefits tells us that he was aware of how exploitive his behavior truly was, but like so many men of the period, he was unable to make the hard choices to stop it." I was middle age before I learned, and was appalled by the knowledge, that most people are perfectly capable of holding two contradictory ideas at the same time. Ah, the power of the rationalization that if it's good for me now, it must be okay. -- Broch Talk

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Date Posted: 10:30:12 02/27/09 Fri
Author: Carol P
Subject: HollyC, Jessie, your information on the Jefferson/Hemings situation is fascinating! Another subject I need to investigate. I assume that part of the problem faced by the founding fathers/signers of the Constitution was the same one faced by Claire when she found herself a slave owner, how do you fix it? The end of slavery certainly wasn't an unalloyed benefit to blacks. As susiej explained about Phaedre, it was possible for slaves to live materially better in slavery. Jessie said " His intellectual struggle to reconcile the sin of slavery with its economic benefits tells us that he was aware of how exploitive his behavior truly was, but like so many men of the period, he was unable to make the hard choices to stop it." I was middle age before I learned, and was appalled by the knowledge, that most people are perfectly capable of holding two contradictory ideas at the same time. Ah, the power of the rationalization that if it's good for me now, it must be okay.
In reply to: HollyC 's message, "Jessie, your analysis of why Ulysses left feels spot on to me. I think my strong response in regards to how could he truly care for her is based on some recent reading about the whole Jefferson/Hemings thing. Coincidentally, someone mentions a bit of that on QOTD today. Inside>>>" on 06:01:49 02/27/09 Fri

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[> [> [> [> “Ah, the power of the rationalization that if it’s good for me now, it must be okay.” Bravo, Carol! Well said. Such thoughts have powered so many of my own shortcomings, which may explain why I can’t stay on a diet and am a consummate procrastinator. But I would also add that as a nation, your comment made me think about what happened to the American investment banking industry these past few years. All that fiscal shell game stuff must have seemed good at the time, but geez, look at it now. -- JessieR, 07:43:01 02/28/09 Sat

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[> [> [> [> [> Maybe what we're talking about is The Human Condition. Claire tells Roger something like we can't ever act with complete and sure knowledge of the final results of our actions, but we have to act anyway. That's a big part of the genius of these books, the characters and situations are complex enough that, like real people, many times there is no clear, right action and, as readers. we can try on other's actions and agree or disagree with them. -- Carol P, 16:31:01 03/01/09 Sun

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