Toni
Contributor
- Joined
- Aug 10, 2011
- Messages
- 19,785
- Basic Beliefs
- Peace on Earth, goodwill towards all
During WWII, Nazis stole countless pieces of art and jewelry belonging to the Jewish people they tried to obliterate from the earth. They were fairly successful, killing millions. Their loot was often was hidden safely, ‘legally’ in Swiss bank vaults, making its way to private galleries and homes of art dealers and collectors. Much was recovered by the efforts of the MFFA, but much remains unaccounted for.The point is not 'stop complaining'--though without a time machine, what people did before you were born is not something that can be changed. The point is 'you're not a special subjugated snowflake, and nobody is responsible for what their ancestors did'.Not seeing where anybody said to stop complaining. It's perfectly possible to complain without posting disinformation. Then the rest of us wouldn't need to correct it.Ahh it's the ole, everyone did it so stop complaining stance. That's the verbal equivalent of a crane kick; looks good, but in reality doesn't work.This all sounds highly implausible. Only white people have the competence and intelligence and constitutional wherewithal to carry out subjugation.... Beringian Americans stole land, committed genocide and enslaved people of other ethnic groups, same as Europeans. ...This is VASTLY different than what Europeans did in the Americas ...
Irony: the expression of one's meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect. What is the opposite of what Metaphor said? Not only white people have the competence and intelligence & constitutional wherewithal to carry out subjugation. What is the point of saying that when talking about Europeans other than to say "so what everyone did it". Unless I read that incorrectly.
Occasionally one of these pieces of art is discovered at an auction or in a collection—often obtained unaware of the history of the piece, stolen from the rightful owners. Efforts are made to return such pieces of art, of property, to the rightful owners—if still living—or to their heirs. Most people see this as just, even if the modern day owners were unaware that the art was stolen as part of a war crime.
Intil quite recently, it was common practice for museums and historians and governments and private collectors to take as souvenirs pieces of art and artifacts belonging to subjugated peoples or cultures from hundreds of years ago.
Today, the thinking is that there could be no be no right to take such pieces of art and artifacts integral to the original owners and the return of such stolen pieces are being returned to their homelands, at least in some cases.
It is rare that the present day owner is thought to have stolen the art themselves. The modern art collector did not throw the original owner into a death camp or destroy important historical sites to plunder things they found pretty or interesting. Nonetheless, it is morally wrong and potentially illegal fir them to retain such items in their possession.
The fact that people were murdered or sent to their deaths decades or that palaces and temples were plundered centuries before the current illicit ownership does not make it ok to just keep what was stolen however many years ago. Those who have come by objects which could not rightfully pass to them have an obligation to return the object to the rightful owners who most likely willl be descendents of those whose belongings and perhaps lives were stolen from them