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| Anti-Semitism and the Left that DoesnÂ’t Learn |
| 2007-12-12 |
| Mitchell Cohen, Dissent Magazine A DETERMINED offensive is underway. Its target is in the Middle East, and it is an old target: the legitimacy of Israel. Hezbollah and Hamas are not the protagonists, the contested terrains are not the Galilee and southern Lebanon or southern Israel and Gaza. The means are not military. The offensive comes from within parts of the liberal and left intelligentsia in the United States and Europe. It has nothing to do with this or that negotiation between Israelis and Palestinians, and it has nothing to do with any particular Israeli policy. . . . It is shaped largely by political attitudes and arguments that recall the worst of the twentieth-century left. . . . There is a left that learns and there is a left that doesn’t learn. . . . You know who I mean by the left that never learns: those folks who twist and turn until they can explain or ‘understand’ almost anything in order to keep their own presuppositions—or intellectual needs—intact. Once some of them were actual Leninist; now they more regularly share some of Leninism’s worst mental features—often in postmodern, postcolonial, or even militantly liberal guise. Sometimes they move about on the political spectrum, denouncing their former selves (while patting their moral backs). You can usually recognize them without too much difficulty: same voice, that of a prosecuting commissar, even if their tune sounds different. . . . Their explanations, their “understandings,” often rewrite history or re-imagine what is in front of their eyes to suit their own starting point. Since their thinking usually moves along a mental closed circuit, it is also the end point. Sometimes it is an idea, sometimes a belief system (which they refuse to recognize in themselves), sometimes really a prejudice, and sometimes just ambition. Goblins were often part of the story for the older left that never learned, and so too is the case today. If things don’t work out as you know they must, some nefarious force must lurk. After all, the problem couldn’t possibly be your way of thinking, or your inability to see the world afresh, or that you got something very wrong in the past. No, it is much easier to announce that you, unlike anyone who could disagree with you, engage in ‘critical’ thinking. And if your critical thinking is criticized in any way, denounce your foe immediately for “McCarthyism.” Pretend that your denunciation is an argument about the original subject of dispute. That’s easier than answering any of the criticism. . . . HISTORY MAY not progress but sometimes it regurgitates. Over the last decade, a lot of the old junk has come back. The space for it opened for many reasons. They range from the sad failures of the social-democratic imagination in the era of globalization to the postmodern and postcolonial influence in universities to George W. Bush’s ascendancy with its many, many miserable consequences (not only in Iraq). The left that never learns often became the superego of the twentieth century’s left. Its attempt to play that same role in the twenty-first century needs to be frustrated. Nothing exemplifies the return of old junk more than the ‘new’ anti-Semitism and the bad faith that often finds expression in the statement: “I am anti-Zionist but not anti-Semitic.” The fixation on Israel/Palestine within parts of the left, often to the exclusion of all other suffering on the globe, ought to leave any balanced observer wondering: What is going on here? This fixation needs demystification. . . . His conclusion, that "anti-Zionism" is just a new brand name for old-fashioned Protocols-of-the-Elders-of-Zion-with-a-cherry-on-top anti-Semitism, is nothing new to us over here on the intellectual right. What's interesting is that the author is a self-described socialist, and he's calling his fellow leftists out, and probably making a bunch of enemies in the process. Good on him! |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #10 Whomong Guelph4611, I am not sure I agree. Upon closer inspection of history, what would be apparent is that anti-semitism is very old, with periods of relative decrease and increase. It all converges back to the time of exodus. Not much time to explain. I may have to do it on my blog, because it is hard to summarize it in several points without a historical context that is not entirely in agreement with prevalent historical othodoxy. Putting it on my TTD list. |
| Posted by: twobyfour 2007-12-12 23:43 |
| #9 Interesting point, Whomong Guelph4611. Somehow I'd never thought that far. Thank you! :-) |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2007-12-12 23:18 |
| #8 I read and article somewhere, maybe here on rantburg, that anti-semitism has morphed as follows: First it was against individual Jews (action against individuals claiming they were witches, etc.), then against Jews as a race (Hitler) and now it is against Jews as a nation (Israel). As the ugliness of their action becomes exposed, the haters just change the wording and continue on. |
| Posted by: Whomong Guelph4611 2007-12-12 21:34 |
| #7 Intellectual nowadays means navel gazing, self-centered, nihilistic, hedonistic, morally stunted, cognitively disonant bufoon. I'd rather not wear that label. |
| Posted by: twobyfour 2007-12-12 18:57 |
| #6 I r an intulectuel? Weeeelll sheeiiitee. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2007-12-12 18:47 |
| #5 I think Oprah qualifies as an "intellectual" on the left side. Cuz she reads books 'n...stuff. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2007-12-12 15:19 |
| #4 N o, there are no intellectuals in teh right. That is people who spend their time looking at their navel. We only have engineers, scientists, economists... We left actors, philosophers, singers and similar losers for the left. |
| Posted by: JFM 2007-12-12 15:14 |
| #3 Intellectual right? *chuckle* |
| Posted by: Thineger Bonaparte3267 2007-12-12 14:43 |
| #2 His conclusion, that "anti-Zionism" is just a new brand name for old-fashioned Protocols-of-the-Elders-of-Zion-with-a-cherry-on-top anti-Semitism, is nothing new to us over here on the intellectual right. No, it is not plain old anti semitism. I refuse to put them in the same nag that those dyed in the wool Pole antisemits who not for sympathy for Jews but for plain humanitty gave their life to save Jews in WWII. What we have heare it is far more evil. Their goal is to have the PArabs end the job Hitler started. That is why I call them alter-nazis. Oh and BTW, I have a Gentile name. |
| Posted by: JFM 2007-12-12 14:38 |
| #1 To which the left will reply, "Cohen. Sounds like a Jewish name." They will say this and have no clue what evil they are perpetuating in so doing because identity politics and the truth of a supposition being dependent on the apartheid class of the speaker is now all the virtue they know. Goebbels would have smiled. |
| Posted by: Excalibur 2007-12-12 13:17 |