Quote:
Originally Posted by Vendor
How cool...people counted in the millions, they had a face and a soul.
|
Welcome to a historian's work.
I'm just saying that when you read enough, you get used to all the bad things you learn about. You don't need to forget nor ignore, but you need to get used to it. There is no way you can keep wallowing on it if you ever want to finish your job. Your tears are not going to bring anyone back or make you a better person. The best you can do is to treat them with the respect they deserve. And not only them, but the perpetrators as well. Your job is not to demonize them any more than they themselves deserve: a trap many hobby historians fall into, painting the world happily black and white.
And for the record, I despise the books that do nothing but present an atrocity after atrocity. That might appeal to someone's inner sadists or their need for social pornography, but I get to see those enough in the original documents that these books get written about in the first place.