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Notes -
I don't think it's banal or stupid. Compare this quote, ending with "If...if...We didn't love freedom enough. And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation.... We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward.” If there's a difference between that quote, written by a former slave about other slaves, and Kanye's statement, I'm not seeing it.
This is how people who are serious about learning from the past engage with their past mistakes: focus on that which is within one's own control, on the choices one is presented with.
You are entirely correct that it's difficult to pull off. That's why it's important to make the decisions in advance, to cultivate the proper mindset, the proper cultural technology, rather than attempting to put it together ad hoc once the fetters are on your wrists.
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