This post is part of Marc H. Ellis’s “Exile and the Prophetic” feature for Mondoweiss. To read the entire series visit the archive page.
After watching the boring Presidential debate, I am now listening to the polling data about who won and who lost. Like all of us, I am condemned to the endless chatter of talking heads.
At the Cape, I exist without a television. I haven’t watched a minute of TV since I arrived at my Cape hide-away in June and don’t feel I’ve missed anything of substance. Being without commercial TV is like undergoing a detox regimen. You have to go cold turkey.
The internet – that great invention that has (un)changed the world – isn’t much better. My inclination is to drop off the grid completely.
The posturing that has become our substitute for politics is maddening. I doubt either debating candidate believed in what they were saying. Worse, they didn’t have anything to say worth believing in. That’s where we are in the Presidential sweepstakes. The American political landscape is bleak indeed.
It isn’t just America. Political posturing is the name of the global political game. Coupled with power, posturing is downright dangerous. For many politicians posturing has become their vocation.
Posturing isn’t limited to the political realm. If you’ve ever interviewed for a job in Jewish or Middle Eastern Studies you know what I mean. Try the growing field of Islamic Studies. Then try it twenty years from now when the Muslim community in America is wealthier and more empowered.
Do you think that Constantinianism is restricted to Christians and Jews?
Last week’s United Nations annual spectacle of world leaders was a classic case of (un)believability. Netanyahu’s cartoon bomb has gone viral. Did he believe what he was saying? Does he have anything to say worth believing? Another cartoon-like character is Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. His statements on Israel and homosexuality, no matter their contested translations, are ridiculous and dangerous. The sad thing about Ahmadinejad is that he might actually believe what he is saying.
Netanyahu and Ahmadinejad remind me of George Wallace, the ardent state’s rights segregationist who in his last years repented his racism. Some biographers think that Wallace exaggerated his racism for political gain. No doubt there is truth here. The question isn’t limited to the politics of the South in the 1950s and 1960s. Opportunistic politics is costly to our collective humanity.
With Netanyahu and Ahmadinejad the question is how much of their cartoon character is real. How costly will their real or feigned beliefs cost their own community and the world.
When we arrive at this point the choice is clear: give up everything and retire to whatever affluence and security we can find or speak what we believe and have something worth believing in. If we adopt the posture of the political actors we love to malign, even to struggle against them, we exist as their weak shadow. When our desire to emerge on the public stage is so great that what we have to offer is doubtful even to ourselves, we’ve stepped over the line. There has to be another way.
These disconnects often push us into dangerous areas. The Middle East conundrums will remain long after we’re gone. Many times I have seen good people go over the edge because history’s time frame is longer than our own.
One group I worked with had a fascinating vision of Israel coming to grips with its history of ethnic cleansing. Then it went over the edge. Soon two of its leaders were visiting a Holocaust denier imprisoned in Austria. I don’t think it was a work of mercy. Rather, it was a political act that raised the banner of Holocaust denial. The group’s leadership moved from the reality that the Holocaust is used to justify the oppression of Palestinians to the “truth” that Jews had trumped up a minor tragedy into the Holocaust to justify Israel itself. The next step was obvious: the Holocaust was part of a Jewish conspiracy to achieve world domination.
In the meantime September 11th conspiracy theories, with issues likehow many Jews were in the Twin Towers when they fell and how many Mossad agents were where and why, continue to circulate. It reminds me of the Kennedy assassination. Conspiracy theories never die.
This isn’t to say that things aren’t all mixed up. Libya and Syria are only the latest examples of the “no one really knows all the factors and factions” involved.
If we leave the conspiracy theories behind, two assumptions follow in relation to Syria and Libya and beyond. First, everyone who has a self-interested stake in the future of Syria and Libya are on the ground in one way or another. Second, the Syrian and Libyan people’s need for justice, freedom and security is, at best, a second thought for the political actors involved. The political actors act for their own interests. The people suffer.
This includes Israel and the Palestinians.At some point or another, everyone involved has played both sides of the political street. The classic example is Jordan. My current favorite is Turkey. Turkey isplaying both sides of the Israel, Kurdish, European Union, Islamic revival and NATO issues.
This doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t take a stand. It means that we have to focus on history, on the political players, on ourselves as political actors and somehow move within and beyond all of them. Otherwise we won’t be able to avoid occupying a Presidential debate stage of our own making.
Perhaps every stage is relative to its time and place. Wherever we find ourselves we are. The danger is that we will become an empty stage.
Sometimes I think that laughing at Netanyahu and Ahmadinejad is the easy way out.
Romney opened the window for talk about real morality in politics — he professed concern that future generations of Americans not be saddled with an unnecessarily large national debt. WOW! CONCERN FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS. WOW!
What would happen if we all talked, if all talking-heads and pundits, talked about morality in politics? I try it here..
Not the small things, like abortion, guns, gay marriage, women’s rights, but the big things — global warming, population growth and other environmental matters, reforming money in politics, Israel and international law, etc. Wouldn’t it be nice if (AT LONG LAST) our morality police tlked about really important issues?
That admittedly was my deepest instinct too. Although we all need a little comic relief sometimes. ;)
“At the Cape, I exist without a television. I haven’t watched a minute of TV since I arrived at my Cape hide-away in June and don’t feel I’ve missed anything of substance. ”
You miss the whole point, which is that TV influences voters by its lack of substance, and it’s informative to see (entertainment news’) TV bias.
“The internet – that great invention that has (un)changed the world – isn’t much better. My inclination is to drop off the grid completely. ”
The internet gives you info U don’t otherwise get in MSM; it’s up to U to sort the wheat from the chaff, especially regarding sources, once U see something different.
“The posturing that has become our substitute for politics is maddening. I doubt either debating candidate believed in what they were saying. Worse, they didn’t have anything to say worth believing in. That’s where we are in the Presidential sweepstakes. The American political landscape is bleak indeed.”
Politics has always been a game of posturing. It has always been in that sense bleak.
“It isn’t just America. Political posturing is the name of the global political game. Coupled with power, posturing is downright dangerous. For many politicians posturing has become their vocation.”
Duh.
“Posturing isn’t limited to the political realm. If you’ve ever interviewed for a job in Jewish or Middle Eastern Studies you know what I mean. Try the growing field of Islamic Studies. Then try it twenty years from now when the Muslim community in America is wealthier and more empowered.”
Duh.
“Do you think that Constantinianism is restricted to Christians and Jews?”
No.
“Last week’s United Nations annual spectacle of world leaders was a classic case of (un)believability. Netanyahu’s cartoon bomb has gone viral. Did he believe what he was saying? Does he have anything to say worth believing? Another cartoon-like character is Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. His statements on Israel and homosexuality, no matter their contested translations, are ridiculous and dangerous. The sad thing about Ahmadinejad is that he might actually believe what he is saying.”
Ditto re Bibi. That’s a major problem of course, so Duh again.
“Netanyahu and Ahmadinejad remind me of George Wallace, the ardent state’s rights segregationist who in his last years repented his racism. Some biographers think that Wallace exaggerated his racism for political gain. No doubt there is truth here. The question isn’t limited to the politics of the South in the 1950s and 1960s. Opportunistic politics is costly to our collective humanity.”
Ditto duh.
“With Netanyahu and Ahmadinejad the question is how much of their cartoon character is real. How costly will their real or feigned beliefs cost their own community and the world.
“When we arrive at this point the choice is clear: give up everything and retire to whatever affluence and security we can find or speak what we believe and have something worth believing in. If we adopt the posture of the political actors we love to malign, even to struggle against them, we exist as their weak shadow. When our desire to emerge on the public stage is so great that what we have to offer is doubtful even to ourselves, we’ve stepped over the line. There has to be another way.”
Yep. It’s always hard to digest one is as biased as one’s self-declared enemy .
“These disconnects often push us into dangerous areas. The Middle East conundrums will remain long after we’re gone. Many times I have seen good people go over the edge because history’s time frame is longer than our own. ”
Yep. Many Germans so went over the edge back in the day, and now many do.
“One group I worked with had a fascinating vision of Israel coming to grips with its history of ethnic cleansing.”
Israel has never come to grips with its history of ethnic cleansing. No Israeli group has really addressed this matter in any substantial way.
“Then it went over the edge. Soon two of its leaders were visiting a Holocaust denier imprisoned in Austria. I don’t think it was a work of mercy. Rather, it was a political act that raised the banner of Holocaust denial. The group’s leadership moved from the reality that the Holocaust is used to justify the oppression of Palestinians to the “truth” that Jews had trumped up a minor tragedy into the Holocaust to justify Israel itself. The next step was obvious: the Holocaust was part of a Jewish conspiracy to achieve world domination. ”
Absurd. Nothing the Jews or Israel have done justifies what both have done to the native Palestinians, who were innocent of the Shoah, which actually happened.
“In the meantime September 11th conspiracy theories, with issues likehow many Jews were in the Twin Towers when they fell and how many Mossad agents were where and why, continue to circulate. It reminds me of the Kennedy assassination. Conspiracy theories never die.”
Both the Kennedy assassination and 9/11 official reports do not reasonably account for what happened. Just because one doubts the official explanations as to each does not mean one is a crazy person deluded by conspiracy theory.
“This isn’t to say that things aren’t all mixed up. Libya and Syria are only the latest examples of the “no one really knows all the factors and factions” involved.”
Yep. And?
“If we leave the conspiracy theories behind, two assumptions follow in relation to Syria and Libya and beyond. First, everyone who has a self-interested stake in the future of Syria and Libya are on the ground in one way or another. Second, the Syrian and Libyan people’s need for justice, freedom and security is, at best, a second thought for the political actors involved. The political actors act for their own interests. The people suffer.”
Yep.
Too, Who benefited from the Iraq War? Who would benefit form a war on Iran?
“This includes Israel and the Palestinians.At some point or another, everyone involved has played both sides of the political street. The classic example is Jordan. My current favorite is Turkey. Turkey isplaying both sides of the Israel, Kurdish, European Union, Islamic revival and NATO issues.”
Who benefits more from the current status quo, Israel or the Palestinians? And how long has this been so? Turkey was working with Israel until Israel murdered some Turkish citizens on the Free Gaza boat. When is Israel not playing Kurdish, EU, Islamic revival, and NATO issues? Are Turks not supposed to notice?
This doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t take a stand. It means that we have to focus on history, on the political players, on ourselves as political actors and somehow move within and beyond all of them. Otherwise we won’t be able to avoid occupying a Presidential debate stage of our own making.
Perhaps every stage is relative to its time and place. Wherever we find ourselves we are. The danger is that we will become an empty stage.
Sometimes I think that laughing at Netanyahu and Ahmadinejad is the easy way out.
Ahmednezad and Nathanyoo can be comapred on many levels but one of them is powerless to influnce US and Europe and UN.The other person is who is doing his bids for years without any criticsim or denuciation and is enjoying the benfits of doing so .The other person is seeing how his country is slowly sinking into economic abyss.This other person has offered numerous valid negotiating positions and has worked within the international legal rights and obligtaions. Nathyoo has oblitetaed the concept of international laws,and responsibility.