Derrida, Rise From Your Grave! (CS)

An interesting essay by Derrida (originally published last fall) in this week's Voice. One thing i think he misses is that this "process of Christianization" in the realm of international confession is missing the aspect of Penance. Of course everyone is jumping on the "I'm sorry, please forgive me" bandwagon when there's no price to pay for it. This was a big deal in South Africa's Truth And Reconciliation Commission which Derrida sites toward the end of his essay as many men who comitted atrocities under the apartheid government were promised complete amnesty if they simply confessed all their doings truthfully.
At Nuremburg there was accountability, punishments were given. Derrida was wise enough to call it "theater" because really that's all it is. It becomes one big PR circus of who can confess to the right things at the right times so as to get off scott-free. Meanwhile, actual accountability is sorely lacking on an international level. Attrocity and strife continue in the Sudan, but considering how China, America, and Russia are trying to all dip into the oil in Darfur, military action there would probably be impossible and the powers that be are only trying to cozy up to the villains. What's more, with those three countries so heavily interested in not offending Darfur, you can imagine that passing economic sanctions through the UN (the body that should help in creating some sort of international accountability) would be impossible. Of course, economic sanctions don't really mean shit to the people in power that are already sitting pretty and essentially only end up hurting the people already suffering, but that's a beef for another day. Maybe it'll all be ok when the current murderers in the Sudan just say "i'm sorry."
I'd like to see what Derrida would have to say about his previous essay with these factors considered, but of course the bastard had to go and die or something. And yes, the title of the post is a reference to Altered Beast.