I've missed the Madoff story. Because of my own issues, my assimilation and intermarriage and fears that angry Jews are about to tie me to a menorah and run me out of town, I've keyed into the ethnocentric aspects of Madoff's empire: all the Jews he was associated with, all the Jewish causes he was involved with. And that is there, of course: the ethnocentrism of Madoff's associates, and their Zionism.
But far more interesting is what Madoff reveals about the Jewish place in American life. We are at the top, and in many ways indistinguishable from other powerful people; and the great necessity, of running the American power structure, has broken down the ghetto walls. John Mearsheimer pointed this out to me yesterday:
There is an angle to this affair that should be dear to your heart, but which nobody is talking about: assimilation. The fact that Jews are: 1) so thoroughly assimilated into American culture, 2) so successful, and 3) and faced with philo-Semitism, not anti-Semitism, has caused a significant weakening of tribal solidarity, which caused Madoff not to care much about shafting his fellow Jews and caused those shafted to let down their guard.
Like Franken-Coleman in Minnesota, Madoff shows the degree to which Jews are just another component of the Establishment, and Jewishness does not define their presence (again, leaving out the Zionism and tribal drums, for just one second). The news media are looking at all the Jewish causes Madoff ripped off. Madoff will be associated forever with the Lappin Foundation against assimilation, which has had to shut down, but here is Madoff's own niece, Shana Madoff, marrying blond Eric Swanson, of Minnesota. Madoff's marquee non-Jewish victim, Walter Noel, is represented by Howard Rubenstein, an ethnocentric Jew (and a fine man, I've always liked him); but ethnocentrism can't hold out against the duties of establishment life.
Equally significant to the Jewish causes Madoff burned are all the non-Jewish causes. Here at dailykos, for instance, my leftwing compatriots lament the destruction of progressive benefactors who were widely invested in Madoff funds. This couple, the Levy-Church's (who sound pretty goddamned assimilationist, to quote Holden Caulfield), gave millions to fine causes, like Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and the Nation Institute; well, now the Levy-Churches' JEHT foundation (Justice, Equality, Human dignity, and Tolerance) is going under because of this shyster.
So Madoff's presence actually touches on a point I've made before, from my own life experience: that Jews are members in good standing in the Establishment, they come and go socially in upper class places. And no one really notices the Jewishness. They're just Jewish. Is it significant that Jews top the Council on Foreign Relations, the Brookings Institution, and are all over the goldlined turrets of neoconservatism? Of course it is-- this has corrupted our foreign policy. But as time passes, and the blonde waves of philosemitism crash at the walls, Jewishness in the Establishment will signify less and less difference.
What no-one in the MSM will ever discuss is
the effect on this country of Jewish success? Has the most philosemitic country
in the history of the world truly benefited
from the success of the Jews, or is it rather the case that what benefits organized Jewry (in media, finance, lobbying, Middle East policy, etc) is usually bad for the goyim?
Despite the title Gladwell Supports Hegemonic Zionist Discourse relates to the subject of Phil's blog entry.
I am not so sanguine about the role The Network (as defined in my blog entry) is playing in American society and politics today.
While there are Jews, who are harmlessly Jewish in the Establishment, many are not, and I estimate that the size of the group, who created the current disastrous foreign policy and economic mess, is less than 120,000.
The rest of the Jewish population could assimilate totally, and the mess would continue.
In fact of the 120,00, 115,000 are probably just employees and could just as well be non-Jews.
That last 5,000 could keep the disaster going indefinitely and could train their chldren to take over so that it would become multigenerational for us as it has been for Palestinians.
Isn't it a little early to say exactly what Madoff was or wasn't? Many Jews were harmed by Madoff, but didn't other Jews benefit as long as the scam continued? Madoff may have done to certain Jews what the Lobby is doing to every American. When do we get to call scam?
Weiss: "Is it significant that Jews top the Council on Foreign Relations, the Brookings Institution, and are all over the goldlined turrets of neoconservatism? Of course it is– this has corrupted our foreign policy."
Mearsheimer: "philo-Semitism, not anti-Semitism, has caused a significant weakening of tribal solidarity"
I don't see how those two statements square. On the one hand, organized Jewry now has the power to corrupt our foreign policy, on the other its solidarity is weakening? I disagree. It's solidarity is strengthening, as 20 years ago there's no way it could have played such a disproportionate role in lying us into a war (albeit in partnership with the corrupt establishment).
All that's going on is that the most corrupt factions of organized Jewry are bonding with the most corrupt factions of the gentile establishment, and the partnership is increasing its stranglehold over the system. There's no âweakening,â but merely an enhancement in the power of the axis. Itâs akin to corrupt royalty marrying corrupt foreign royalty to strengthen a monarchy. It might have been positive had the current gentile establishment not already have been irredeemably corrupt and hence able to moderate corrupt organized Jewry, but thatâs not the case.
These Establishment types are still hell-bent on continuing to exploit Americans and foreigners, and project their anti-Christian, "universalist"-materialist ambitions and greed abroad, but they're merely finding more creative ways to go about it since theyâve been caught with their fingers in the till (ie the Iraq war disaster and the corruption-caused financial meltdown.)
I think of the global banking élite, as a unit, as a supreme global crime family, and the rest as something like their courtiers.
The fantasy is that malfeasance by Jews would expose the corrupt nature of Jewish support for Israel, and M/W live happily ever after. But yes, the story is about Jewish assimilation, and along with that, disproportionate representation among the wealthy and powerful, which have as much to do with Jews being white as being Jewish (see Steven Steinberg's "The Ethnic Myth.") Anti-semitism is dead and gone as an institutionalized force in this country,and as a Christian trope (see Rick Warren), and philo-semitism is not the other side of the coin in this case, as it was among Balfour, Churchill, etc. It has been tempting for critics of Israel to argue that Jewish identification with Israel, wars, and economic meltdowns will provoke a classic scapegoating backlash. It's not going to happen, we're not storefront money-lenders and small businessmen anymore. It's not going to be as easy as scaring Jews with their own history. The whitebread leftist argument against American policies that are determined by all aspects of the American establishment (corporate, military, etc.) will have to be honestly made–just so boring. In the final analysis, Israel isn't really a Jewish issue, and Israelis aren't really Jewish. Jewish-Americans are no longer Jewish. This will cut through a lot of crap and waste a lot less time. Then we can go back to eating latkes with a clear conscience.
Jews aren't Jews and Israel isn't a Jewish issue? Assimilation doesn't even require assimilating! None of this makes any sense!
The role of the Rothschild family, as such, the family as a whole, as sponsors and protectors of the jewish state bears some thought. It seems to me that Palestine is and always has been the apple of the Rothschilds' eyes.
David Green raises an interesting philosophical question: what does it mean to be "Jewish," or "Christian,â or âLeftist,â for that matter.
Left-wing and Jewish critics of Christianity argue that the essence of Christianity is its worst characteristic as embodied by its worst human representatives: "judgmental", "intolerant", "anti-Semtic", etc. By that standard, then, isn't the essence of Judaism and Leftism also its worst characteristics as embodied by its worst representatives? One can't argue that guys like GW Bush are representative of ALL Christianity on the one hand, but then argue that guys like Stalin and Mao, and the worst of the Jewish Neocons and Zionists aren't representative of ALL of Leftism and Judaism, respectively, on the other.
My opinion is that each belief system has faults and merits, but Jews and Leftist refuse to admit their own faults and murderous histories (and contemporaries), and they refuse to acknowledge Christianity's merits and insist on highlighting its moral failures. This is their right, as the three may be philosophically irreconcilable, but they shouldn't then expect to be treated with any respect, given that they aren't willing to show any.
When Christianity ends up âgetting roughâ with Judaism and Leftism, its because those are the rules each insists on playing by. And we've seen what kind of suckers the the Judeo-Christian Zionist appeasers who reached out to the Jews are: they're whores for Jews and punching bags for Leftists. And liberal Christians who've reached out to the Left are widely regarded by everyone as an effete joke.
Are we sure Madoff wasn't out to help the Tribe?
I think we are jumping the gun by assuming he was out to hurt the Jews. After all, most of the billions came from banks and involved non-Jewish money despite the fact that the media is dwelling on the Jewish losses.
Until we find out where the alleged 50 Billion went, I would withhold judgment on intent.
"Because of my own issues, my assimilation and intermarriage and fears that angry Jews are about to tie me to a menorah and run me out of town,… "
You really need to quit worrying about your intermarriage and assimilation.
Or maybe move to some mid size city like mine in the south and away from jewish centric communities.
Out of all the couples I know in which one partner is jewish..only one marriage among them ..which would be one in twelve…is a jew married to a jew. The other 11 are marriages between a jew and gentile. Two jewish women married to gentile men and the rest jewish men marrried to gentile women.
As far as I can tell none of them or their children are suffering mentally, emotional, socially or otherwise from it.
Ed, like all your protracted and pointless arguments, this one starts from your assumption that you just somehow KNOW what people think. but in fact this is total RUBBISH, this claim – you won't find ANYONE of any intellectual interest who has EVER said this, OK?
"Left-wing and Jewish critics of Christianity argue that the essence of Christianity is its worst characteristic as embodied by its worst human representatives: "judgmental", "intolerant", "anti-Semtic", etc… "
"And liberal Christians who've reached out to the Left are widely regarded by everyone as an effete joke."
And who would those liberal Christians be?
"Or maybe move to some mid size city like mine in the south and away from jewish centric communities."
There was a Jewish group offering Jewish couples $50k to move to medium or small sized towns in the South. This was several month ago, and I still have no idea what that was about.
RB, you must live on an island. In six decades of my life, the first thing I've always heard from middle to upper class types when they hear the word "Christianity" or "Christian" is how horrible and intolerant the Crusades were. These same people never talk about
Palestinians at all.
Shana Madoff Swanson, the niece of Bernie Madoff and an employee at Madoff Securities, has deleted her Facebook profile.
12:56 AM Dec 18th from web
She and her goy hubby are in the scam shit up to their heads. Who ever heard of the law school he graduated from?
Recent episode on Curb Your Enthusiasm throws a light on
Jewish altrusim. Conflict turned on how it's more useful to
donate but have your donation inscribed as from Anonymous, rather than form you–providing you secretly let it leak that you are Anonymous to the right gossipy parties.
Also note, that most NGOs receiving donations get them because
the officers of the NGO get paid well, a big chunk of the total donation funds in the name of the official beneficiaries, and the IRS charitable deductions offset the big profit from scamming the customers
in your regular business.
Madoff-made off
In the final analysis, Israel isn't really a Jewish issue, and Israelis aren't really Jewish. Jewish-Americans are no longer Jewish. This will cut through a lot of crap and waste a lot less time. Then we can go back to eating latkes with a clear conscience.
Does this mean that, contrast to Karl Marx's formulation, Jews have been emancipated without society being emancipated from Judaism? Have Jews, now part of the American power structure, been emancipated from their own religion?