How accountable do you personally feel for what your ancestors did to other people?

Question

Our history:

- men have treated women badly throughout history in almost every culture
- in every society people have been exploited by those born into wealth and social standing
- most countries have committed atrocities which continue into the present - for example, the way that colonialism has led to inter-national strife in continents such as Africa

How do you feel when people say you are committing the same atrocities?

Answer 1

Funny enough i was having this conversation just last week there was a programme on about slavery and we got into this discussion i was saying i annoyed because i felt as though i was being blamed for what people did years before and that i didn't feel guilty i didn't do it. However my brother in law is german his granfather was in the SS and he says that he does feel guilty he said he feels really uncomfortable when anyone talks about jewish people in front of him and like he should join a conversation about things to do with ww2

Answer 2

Lest ye forget, what we now consider taboo was not only socially acceptable at the time it was being done (with the exception of the gassing), it was also legal.
Me and my ancestors are different people, and these are different times, and I feel no guilt or accoutability for things that happened long before my time.
"Reparations" are a joke, they are just another example of our hard earned tax dollars being given away to yet another group of people who feel they are "owed" something.
I am, however, responsible for my own actions, and I can assure you I have never owned a slave, burned a cross, ran a gas chamber, exploited the poor, or made my woman wear a veil.

Answer 3

To conduct oneself well and behave in a manner that is least invasive and intrusive, to be unperturbed by our circumstances and surroundings and personal problems are all part of a great feat. This being the case, it would be a sure recipe for disaster if we start feeling accountable for the mistakes of others. We can only avoid similar pitfalls.
Learn from past mistakes-- that is all.

Answer 4

I have German blood in me and I don't know if any of my ancestors were Nazis or whatever, but I still feel ashamed for what my German heritage MIGHT have done to the Jewish people. So many innocent people may have died because of the way my ancestors MAY have been.

I am SO not at Nazi. I may be when it comes to certain things, but I would NEVER think of committing genocide/homocide of any kind. I cried when I watched and read "Schindler's List" and when I read anything that had to do with the Holocaust, especially ones by survivors. I've read books by Elie Weisel (please forgive the misspelling if it is incorrect) and was VERY much affected by it. It makes me SICK to my STOMACH when I think of what my ancestors MIGHT have done.

Answer 5

I don't at all. At some point responsibility has to end. I didn't commit the offence and by the same token I don't get the kudos for good things my ancestors did as well. I will, however, stand on my own merit...whether the things I've dode are good or bad, I'm responsible for them. No one else.

Answer 6

I feel you should be judged by your actions not those of someone 200 years ago it's like that with slavery, I never owned a slave if fact my Family was in Italy when all that happened so why should I feel bad about something I had nothing to do with, I feel like most people use it as a excuse.

Answer 7

If I inherited a lot of wealth of the back of something evil, I'd maybe try and do some good with money. But I'm not accounatble for their actions at all. How can I be if I wasn't even alive?

Answer 8

I feel bad that my ancestors may have been the cause of much suffering and misery, but i don't feel accountable at all, as i had no control over what they might have done in the past !!.

Answer 9

I don't feel accountable at all. That was then, this is now. That was them, this is me. To think that I should be held accountable because some guy 150 years ago owned a slave is asinine.

Answer 10

The only thing I am accountable is the things I have done! I hate when people do that...I mean I wasn't there, you weren't there so GET OVER IT! People can give me thumbs down all they want...but unless I have personally done something to you don't be mad at me!!!