It's a beautiful day, so, naturally, thoughts turn to genocide.

I think it's holdover from last night, when Roxy and I finally got around to watching The Pianist. Despite the somewhat (given the clash of contexts) offputting effect of his appearance in M. Night Shyamalan's The Village (a fun suspense flick which you might want to go see to improve your mood after reading this post), Adrien Brody did a wonderful job portraying Polish Jew, piano virtuoso, author, and Holocaust survivor Wladyslaw Szpilman.

Poking around the internet on the topic, I'm struck by how wrongheaded many descriptions of the film seem when they talk about Szpilman as a hero in the film. Now, before you start blasting, let's be clear: simply having survived the Holocaust gets you on my hero list, not to mention coming through the horrors of seeing your family, your city, your way of life completely decimated by one of the most pure surges of hatred the world has ever known. Coming through with a sense of artistic beauty and a will to share your vision and experience with others is icing on the hero cake.

Still, watching that film, I felt that Szpilman's (the character's, not the historical figure's) survival was despite himself, in many cases. Because his musical genius and fame made him a beloved icon to his own, downtrodden people, the main theme of the film, to me, is the will of the Polish Jews to uphold a sense of dignity and a system of ideals, rather than the heroic survival of one man. Heroism is an idea that's tied to individualism, and it's one that leads us to more trouble.

You don't need to use too much imagination to see how a false idea of heroic individualism -- in its extreme, a kissing cousin to the fascism it is popularly portrayed as combatting -- has been dangerous in the past and continues be attractive, misleading, and dangerous in the present.

This is the 60th anniversary of the Nazi's 1944 genocide of the Romani, the gypsy people.

Have a nice day!