Forward thinking

this is at the heart of a world without God or the sacred

And yet: Neither you, nor I, nor anyone else gets to define for other people how they react to horror, or history, or (for that matter) youth. Laughing at funerals, cracking macabre jokes and simply making some ill-considered choices are all hallmarks of humanity. Everybody gets to be a human in the only way they can, and today’s teenagers are figuring that out with a camera phone in hand — and no, you really shouldn’t throw a fit about that either. Placing ourselves at the heart of our own story is also a pretty human thing, and every generation finds its own way to do that.

The kids in these pictures are not decision makers, opinion shapers, or even well known (indeed, they wouldn’t be “known” at all, if someone hadn’t decided to try to shame them publicly). If Bar Rafaeli or, I don’t know, Eric Cantor should suddenly decide to make duck face outside the ovens, my opinion might be a little different. I would also see things differently if a gaggle of young Jews decided to goof off in front of a memorial to another people’s genocide.

Read more: http://blogs.forward.com/forward-thinking/201192/auschwitz-selfies-no-big-deal-imho/#ixzz36to3GBnT