24 July 2012

Read for yourself

Preface:

Now it's the 9th of August, and these lines from today's Philadelphia Enquirer editorial get partly to the problem, but don't really reach it:
"Intolerance in this country has been exacerbated by the economic uncertainty that touches us all so soon after the recession. America will get over the fiscal crisis, just as it recovered from the Great Depression. The more difficult job is to overcome the hatred that can't be obliterated in a political environment that stresses antagonism above cooperation."
Sikh temple attack a product of intolerance
Tragicomic mistake of generic ID and denial of people as persons. "I'm an individual but he's an it."
It is highly likely that the attack was also the result of boneheaded but all-too-common ignorance. With all the opportunities we have now to learn about others, a frightening many people flaunt their lack of interest in learning what they don't already think they know. They spend their time hating for its own sake, spend their social skills my preciousing their hate, and most dangerous of all, ascribe intentions to others that exist only in the addled minds of these hate-polishers.
I don't agree with others, however, who want hate sites to be shut down. Better to know that they exist, and what they say. And I would hope, put them on Watch Lists that actually do something socially beneficial. 
And so we get to the post below that I put on this site some days ago, about a hate site that is attacking me and others--falsely ascribing and raving in the typical incoherent but violent language that hate sites do. The guy behind it is typically unrevealing about himself, but a fervent networker. Is he dangerous? That depends, doesn't it? Even the man who assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin is a "hero" to some. Just how many is an unknown but frightening prospect.
There's a vilification campaign being waged here, here, and in the writer's networking, against me (and many others who have dared to speak out); and though on one hand, I don't think I should honour this insanity by answering, on the other hand, the context should be known. The paragraph taken and twisted to be used against me comes from this thread (of 2005), where I posted extensively, and invite you to read my postings as well as the others.  The particular post that the paragraph comes from, I've also pasted below for your perusal (apologies for the sloppy typing mistakes I've made in the thread [like counties instead of countries] all made in the flurry of thinking but not proofing).

But before you read that, you might be interested to see other relevant, and more recent postings on my blog.

Holocaust teaching beyond the "The"
In the name of . . .
Is one passport too much to ask for?

My first novel, Spotted Lily, is also about the shifting morality of religion. As a Jew, I feel that is is not only important to criticise that which is I see as morally wrong, but my duty.

Anyway, onwards to the piece that the quote came from: 
Posted on Sunday, July 10, 2005 - 06:23 pm:  
Al [Duncan], I agree with everything you say here, and in particular, your concern with religious fanaticism. Yes, it and its outcomes have been with us throughout history. In my own family, I remember clearly a conversation in which the family tree was taken apart in terms of which relative died in which camp. But then that is only some of them. Others escaped pogroms earlier, and yet one escaped a fate as a rabbi in a revered line. He was fiercely non-tribal, viewing people for how they live as part of the family of man, which means everyone. But the 'family of man' idea is out of vogue now, I am very sorry to say.
(see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brisk_yeshivas
Postscript, 9th of August:
I originally pasted the whole 2005 thing here, but it's been here long enough. The rest is here on the Nightshade site.  I'm not disclaiming any of it, and am happy for it all to appear in bold here, if there were a reason, but there isn't any more.

There have been developments that are interesting and pertinent, concerning one of the crooks I mentioned in the paragraph that caused such foaming at the mouth. See "Career since release" in Wikipedia's Rodney Adler entry. The truth might offend, but then it often does.

I highly recommend:
Beyond Tribal Loyalties: Personal Stories of Jewish Peace Activists
Editor: Avigail Abarbanel
Date Of Publication: Jan 2012
Cambridge Scholars Publishing

6 comments:

Adam Browne said...

Anna, Red Wolf is beneath your consideration. That he's targeted you is a bit scary, I guess, but above all, he makes me sad. What a waste of a brain.

anna tambour said...

Adam,
Thank you for your quite-true comment. I happened to see the first or second post of this nutcase when it had been on the web for a while. After reading the headline and a para I left, shrugging my shoulders. He and his pathetic little band have attacked before, and are not worth replying to, as they don't know how to reason, let alone converse. And so I would have continued to ignore his diatribes if I hadn't been contacted by someone who asked if I were "in the loop" about it. I'm not in any loop, nor do I network. So, probably because my immune system was down, I thought I'd better say something, though I do regret it. The creep flatters himself by thinking my post a reply to him.

Adam Browne said...

he seems to be saying you're not a true Jew too. Do you know the 'no true scotsman' logical fallacy? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_true_Scotsman

But don't regret the reply, cos it gave me an opportunity to offer support.

anna tambour said...

Thank you to the link to this logical fallacy, though fallacy is in the eye of the beholder. Viewed as the pedestal upon which to view society, it is the basis for House Un-American Activities Committee, which has been dug up from the dead and is thriving again.
See www.rightwingnews.com's 3 Un-American Activities of Barack Obama.

Adam Browne said...

i'm not going to follow the links, thanks, though; too depressing

is it my imagination, or is the right wing madder than it ever was? is it a sign they're feeling like they've been backed into a corner. I hope so.

anna tambour said...

Unfortunately, it's not madness due to fear, but to disease.
On Friday's PBS Newshour, David Brooks said:
"I had a meeting with one of the most conservative people in the United States Senate. And he was terrified of being primaried from the right. And if he is -- if this guy is really conservative, but if he is primaried, they are all terrified of it. And it really is having a powerful influence.