Collective Responsibility

• A good high school social studies curriculum inevitably addresses the enduring ethical issue of collective responsibility.
• Antisemitism is abhorrent partly because it betrays an essential value in Western Civilization and what is now considered a universal human right: individuals are equal in dignity and ought not to be persecuted because of the group to which they belong.
• Antisemitism is un-American partly because individuals ought to be answerable for their own deeds.
• It is not inconsistent to argue that when some members of a group stand by while others in their group attack the dignity of individuals in a different  group they should share some collective responsibility for that attack.
• To speak and act in ways that stoke  latent paranoias about the irreducibility or indigestibility of others into your own group for reasons of race, faith, appearance or historical experience is treacherous.
• Discussing this issue is consistent with social studies standards and a good civic education.

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