I’m reading a magnificent book, The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing, and one theme in the 1961 novel is the souring, in 1956, of the promise of Communism even as its chief proponents in the west insist that it hasn’t gone bad. I’ve always heard about this period; how much more meaningful to read about it in such a realistic novel. The book’s protagonist, Anna Wulf, is a former party member, much like Lessing herself. In days to come I’m going to be quoting some passages from the book because Anna’s awakening in the mid-50s seems to me the only response a sensitive and thoughtful person can have to how Zionism has worked out in Israel and Palestine. And because part of my project here is to try and get American Jews out of the trap of this ideology.
As Anna makes clear, Communism had some very positive effects: It helped to liberate black Africa. But with Hungary in 1956 only a moral idiot didn’t understand that something was rotten in Moscow. The same might be said of Zionism today. Its triumphs are really in the past now. That it revived a language, that it built a great city, that it was a miracle–hey, what have you done for me lately? That it was a national liberation movement for the Jewish people, something I never cared about but many others did, has given way to militant nationalism shot through with “hubris and ethnocentrism” on the part of leaders who’ve never paid much attention to the popular will when making decisions about war and nukes (as Mike Desch shows in his incisive new book).
Interesting that The Golden Notebook actually refers to Israeli kibbutzes at one point, in a dreamy way. Well we used to read all about kibbutzes in Israel. Now what do we read about, settlements on confiscated land.
Here’s a passage from Lessing, in the voice of Anna Wulf:
One other thing Lessing reminds me of. Dual loyalty. The way that people overseas can be loyal and beholden to an ideal long after the people who actually have to live with that ideal have lost their faith.
Phil,
Read this
link to query.nytimes.com
I derive a different lesson from Lessing, her work and her life.
That is that the POLITICAL approach, rather than ethical and deep (she adopted Sufism as a life-way) is rejected.
You are more repeating Ronald Reagon in your "insights" about "something wrong in Denmark" than Doris Lessing.
There is something wrong in Israel, and in Palestine, and among activists.
That is to see others through prejudicial eyes, politically oriented.
In that light Zionist, anti-Zionist are the same.
Post-Zionist of a human flavor might not be, but that is not what you are describing.
If you have a cold, or cancer even, you don't suggest that the human physical design is "rotten". You heal, sometimes giving time, sometimes intervening, NEVER giving up on healing though.
A presidential debate, the financial system hanging by a thread. The president of Iran, fun guy that he is, being genuflected to by a bunch of left wing churches. And this is the best you can come up with. BORING………………..
I have to agree with Witty here. Civilization is the Original Sin. Civilization as we know it has run its course, and Civil Politics can never improve it. Something radically new is required.
Maybe we should look to the Palestinians to take the lead, because on the whole they have not abandoned a positive religious outlook.
'Civilization is the Original Sin.' That is the root insight, but I'm afraid it is stated too concicely to get across. I expounded at some length here on this once, but only one person took it seriously and I gave up. I dont have time to go through it again.
Still addicted to zionism, Rich?
Hope you get help with that.
Your old friend Phil might be a terrific counselor, if only you could trust him.
Oof … the quoted passage from Doris Lessing has something in common with Ayn Rand, does it not, despite treating a different pole of the political spectrum? A little dry, a little didactic, a little prolix.
Is there any sex in The Golden Notebook? ;-)
Nevertheless, hooking into the human need for a story line is a powerful technique. It's used all through religious scriptures, for instance.
When are we gonna do the great anti-zionist screenplay, Phil? We'll be the Ben Hechts of the counterrevolution. Need some killer tunes for the soundtrack, oh yeah …
Let's sketch out the storyline here, Jim…
It begins back in the 1950s in a big city on the east coast… could be any of 'em… how about, I dunno, Baltimore?
Two Jewish boys, the protagonist and his close friend, raised in the aftermath of WWII, come of age during Vietnam.
[There's your sex, drugs, and great music.]
Revolutionary dreams fade as the Establishment diversifies and the Cold War dominates the political scene for the next decade plus.
When the U.S. invades Iraq for the second time, leading to deaths of over a million Arab Muslims, the protagonist begins questioning some of the assumptions that inculcated his early worldview.
He and his childhood friend start to grow apart, the friend implying that to examine the comfortable ideology of zionism is to imperil and betray their tribe.
The protagonist courageously rejects the accusations while continuing to investigate the cause of the invasion. The friend obsessively follows the investigation, chastising him every step of the way.
Finally, the protagonist is vindicated as the greater public becomes more aware of the situation in their country. An inquiry into the values of zionism begins to shed light on the cycle of violence in the Middle East and America's terrible relations with that region of the world.
In the last scene, the protagonist receives a phone call from the redeemed New York Times. They want him to become a regular columnist.
The old friend cancels his subscription.
The end.
Weiss wrote: "One other thing Lessing [Communism] reminds me of. Dual loyalty. The way that people overseas can be loyal and beholden to an ideal long after the people who actually have to live with that ideal have lost their faith."
But hasn't diaspora Judaism evolved as subversive, be it Jewish Bolsheviks plotting the overthrow of the Czar or Jewish Neocons plotting the overthrow of first the Dems, then the GOP, then Iraq?
That doesn't mean all Jews were participatory, or even interested, but the nature of certain components of diaspora Judaism (indoctrinated? feelings of alienation, outsider status, a culture of festering resentment and nursed grudges, hyper ambition) made/make it the perfect vessel for subversion, destruction and overthrow.
Even the way it is organized (shtetels as cells) and the secretive way it has operated (or has been forced to operate by the majority) make it conducive to subversion.
(The Neocons, by the way, have deconstructed the organizational structure and mentality of another Abrahamic religion, Islam, similarly.)
The question is, who will overthrow the overthrowers? Left-liberals are too unprincipled, decadent, naive, narcissistic, politically correct and weak, and the traditional anti-Communist conservatives have been corrupted by money worship and their own brand of “Christian” Zionist subversion. Ironic, isn’t it? What happens to a society when the "authorities" become subversives? $700 billion Wall Street bailouts?
Brilliant, Doctor MM. Simply brilliant!
But my prejudices compel me to humbly propose for your consideration, an alternative denouement:
————
In the last scene, the protagonist receives a phone call from the redeemed New York Times. They want him to become a regular columnist.
He accedes, going head-to-head with his neocon nemesis in a dramatic front-page confrontation, which is syndicated nationwide.
Then his first paycheck bounces, and the bankrupt Slimes is sold to Murdoch.
Walking slump-shouldered down the bleak, trash-strewn sidewalks of Eighth Avenue, he espies his estranged boyhood friend approaching. Unwittingly quoting Hank Williams, he cries "YOU WIN AGAIN." The 'friend' tips his black fedora and strides on past, a sardonic smile curling his lips.
THE END
What a crock of shit. Where is the Sex? Where is the Violence? Would *you* pay money for this boring drivel?
I qoute myself."People dont want to watch Phil. They want to watch Porn." Thank God.
Once again I am ignored, even when I state the obvious. I repeat. With US economy on the skids, Zionism is the walking dead. (Thers a screenplay for you.) That game is over. Lets talk about something consequential.
How about the National Socialist putsch still hanging over our heads?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Dear Friends,
Whenever a Great Bipartisan Consensus is announced, and a compliant media assures
everyone that the wondrous actions of our wise leaders are being taken for our own
good, you can know with absolute certainty that disaster is about to strike. The events of the past week are no exception.
The bailout package that is about to be rammed down Congress' throat is not just economically foolish. It is downright sinister. It makes a mockery of our
Constitution, which our leaders should never again bother pretending is still in
effect. It promises the American people a never-ending nightmare of ever-greater
debt liabilities they will have to shoulder. Two weeks ago, financial analyst Jim Rogers said the bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac made America more communist
than China! "This is welfare for the rich," he said. "This is socialism for the rich. It's bailing out the financiers, the banks, the Wall Streeters."
That describes the current bailout package to a T. And we're being told it's
unavoidable.
The claim that the market caused all this is so staggeringly foolish that only politicians and the media could pretend to believe it. But that has become the conventional wisdom, with the desired result that those responsible for the credit bubble and its predictable consequences – predictable, that is, to those who understand sound, Austrian economics – are being let off the hook.
The Federal Reserve System is actually positioning itself as the savior, rather than the culprit, in this mess!
? The Treasury Secretary is authorized to purchase up to $700 billion in mortgage-related assets at any one time. That means $700 billion is only the very beginning of what will hit us.
? Financial institutions are "designated as financial agents of the Government."
This is the New Deal to end all New Deals.
? Then there's this: "Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency." Translation: the Secretary can buy up whatever junk debt he wants to, burden the American people with it, and be subject to no one in the process.
There goes your country.
Even some so-called free-market economists are calling all this "sadly necessary."
Sad, yes. Necessary? Don't make me laugh.
Our one-party system is complicit in yet another crime against the American people.
The two major party candidates for president themselves initially indicated their strong support for bailouts of this kind – another example of the big choice we're supposedly presented with this November: yes or yes. Now, with a backlash brewing, they're not quite sure what their views are. A sad display, really.
Although the present bailout package is almost certainly not the end of the political atrocities we'll witness in connection with the crisis, time is short. Congress may vote as soon as tomorrow. With a Rasmussen poll finding support for the bailout at an anemic seven percent, some members of Congress are afraid to vote for it.
Call them! Let them hear from you! Tell them you will never vote for anyone who
supports this atrocity.
The issue boils down to this: do we care about freedom? Do we care about responsibility and accountability? Do we care that our government and media have been bought and paid for? Do we care that average Americans are about to be looted in order to subsidize the fattest of cats on Wall Street and in government? Do we care?
When the chips are down, will we stand up and fight, even if it means standing up
against every stripe of fashionable opinion in politics and the media?
Times like these have a way of telling us what kind of a people we are, and what
kind of country we shall be.
In liberty,
Ron Paul
It was the Republicans in Congress who slowed the juggernaut. Lets not forget that.
The issue of Freedom vs Fascism trumps all others. I'll vote Bob Barr for president, and since Libertarians cant win I'll vote Republican for Congress.
Paul, I am off drugs now except the heavy tranqs and no longer writing violent political porn. Trying to rebrand myself with nothing but wholesome, all-American, feel-good stuff now. Sorry bud.
Jim, Jim, Jim… It's good. It's real good. But it's too… I dunno… noir? I want something I can take my kid and his friends to. He's 4 and a half.
The images of the fedora, the sardonic smile? Rupert Murdoch? Gonna be years of therapy for the little tykes. No-can-do amigo.
Maybe you can re-write it though… With the New York Times being bought by Disney, and the friend going off to live in the kosher apartheid Magic Kingdom, happily ever after?
I know you were technically the one who thought up this project in the first place but I am taking the reigns. I'll cut you in for 15 and Easton in for 5. Let's move on this. Get back to me, ok?
McKinney the Green candidate is also decent on the putsch and she was ejected from her seat in Congress by the Zionists, but shes not perfect. I'll keep an open mind about my vote. Maybe I'll go back to my Dim Devil theory and vote McCain. But the Fascists are now waiting to make an overt move, so it goes beyond voting for Bush.
Thanks MM but 5% of nothing is not much.
How about a Palestinian Charlies Angels? Charlie is Marvin Barghouti jerking off in his jail cell while watching news bulletins. Among the Angels is an Amazonian militia leader whose boobs pop out of her low cut battle armour when she raises her AK47. Also a sultry Mata Hari who seduces Tzipi Livni as a leadin to a very hot lesbian sex sequence. And a brainy rocket scientist who tests new models by using them as dildos. Aside from Angels we have some gory footage of the Hamas leader whaling on his wife. And a female investigative reporter from Haaretz who keeps getting raped by handsome Palestinians. This could be a Goldmine!
I agree, Paul. That's why if you decide to bankroll this film by loaning me your life savings–and that is what I recommend as your financial advisor–you should also probably take out a credit default swap in the case that I'm not nearly as brilliant as I think I am. No one wins by shorting the market, EXCEPT US! HAHAHAHAHAHA! Right?
So just let me know when you're ready to wire me the money alright?
(Uh oh, it appears Clark Kent just went into the office dressed as superman. Just forget you saw that.)
It's a good thing I stopped writing violent, political-themed fem-dom porn, because it looks like there's a new master of the genre. Would've forced my price down for sure.
Paul, if no one picks that up, I can get you in touch with some people. Will you cut me in for 5?
Call me if you want to do some lines.
"So just let me know when you're ready to wire me the money alright? — P.A.Z.-J.E.W.
Your Urgent Help Needed
Dear American:
I need to ask you to support an urgent secret business relationship with a transfer of funds of great magnitude.
I am Ministry of the Treasury of the Republic of America. My country has had crisis that has caused the need for large transfer of funds of 800 billion dollars US. If you would assist me in this transfer, it would be most profitable to you.
I am working with Mr. Phil Gram, lobbyist for UBS, who will be my replacement as Ministry of the Treasury in January. As a Senator, you may know him as the leader of the American banking deregulation movement in the 1990s. This transactin is 100% safe.
This is a matter of great urgency. We need a blank check. We need the funds as quickly as possible. We cannot directly transfer these funds in the names of our close friends because we are constantly under surveillance. My family lawyer advised me that I should look for a reliable and trustworthy person who will act as a next of kin so the funds can be transferred.
Please reply with all of your bank account, IRA and college fund account numbers and those of your children and grandchildren to wallstreetbailout@treasury.gov so that we may transfer your commission for this transaction. After I receive that information, I will respond with detailed information about safeguards that will be used to protect the funds.
Yours Faithfully Minister of Treasury Paulson
http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/jokes/bljoke-urgent-help-needed.htm
he he he
very good Jim.
A line that cracked me up a few days ago (via London Banker) – 'The problem with the balance sheets of financial institutions right now is that nothing on the left seems right, and nothing on the right is left'!
For the record, there is a lot of sex in the Golden Notebook, and a lot of quesitoning of 'analysis' as well.
I, too, have been rereading her, and while it never occured to me to link the loss of faith in communism to a lack of faith in zionism, I had noticed that she writes about politics in a way that is quite unique.
She treats political beliefs as a symbolic system largely disconnected from the facts of the people who hold the beliefs, but nontheless defines her characters by categories we accept as 'political'.
Well if that's the case, I fear that MM and Easton — for all their commendable youthful enthusiasm — have strayed rather far afield from the author's ambit.
Perhaps we'd better draw from the well of the filthy bits in the text.
Still and all … reading: "But we both want to get married," said Anna … she was not, after all, going to be able to discuss certain subjects with Molly. (page 6) — I feel cheated. The opening line — "The two women were alone in the London flat" — has promised something far more smoldering than this affected tea & crumpets nonsense.
On second thought, let's turn it back over to MM and Easton. They can whack that titillating opening pitch right out of the bleeding park … and AH KIN HEH-ULP! (as that cute Shake 'n Bake girl used to say).
I doubt if Haygood is actually serious. Wouldnt Zionists have the porn industry locked down as much as the straight film industry?
But I seriously might like to get connected to the porn industry. It was really fun working on 'Puss in Boots: The Master Cat' until I realized my plot would be stale by the time it was released. I should think about another story line for that.
Hi there! Here at the Institute for the Future of the book, we're about to kick off an interactive reading of this very text.
http://www.thegoldennotebook.org
If you'd like to contribute comments or just browse, we'd be glad to have you (you seem to be an intelligent reader, and I'd love to hear what you think about it as you go). Regardless, it's wonderful that you're reading Doris Lessing's book – I hope it treats you well. Take care.