- Beyond the Golden Gate, on a sandy shore of the cold
North Pacific, spayed by black rocks and frequented by Sirens, lies Marin
County. In this most delightful part of California, the Sirens do not ravish
seamen; well-nourished mammals (also called manatees or sea-cows) peacefully
flock on the beach, near equally peaceful and tranquil humans. They (humans,
not sea-cows) are pleasant, blond and suntanned, given to yachting, white
wine and Sufi poetry; or so it seemed to me after a fly-through visit.
The comfortable life does not make the residents sluggish and placid, probably
due to relatively bracing climate: Marine County is the home to this rare
breed, the American radical. There are more of our readers and friends
there than in the whole city of New York.
- More than once I found myself mumbling: Northern California
and its people are too good for the United States. The border should be
drawn at Monterey. Let the Yanks keep the urban spread of LA with its toothy
lawyers, their broad-backed spouses, the steroid instructors and silicon
starlets who provide their relief. Northern California should be hitched
to a few large whales and moved to the Atlantic shore of Europe, somewhere
next to Normandy. Not in vain did this strip of land belong to Russia for
a while, and it retains some of the Russian soulfulness, though it faces
the Pacific rather than the Baltic.
- Their local paper, the Coastal Post, is mind-bogglingly
free from subservience to the Lobby.
-
- So free that they
- http://www.coastalpost.com/08/05/01.html ran my
piece Carter and Swarm, in defence of President Jimmy Carter after he
-
- http://www.chris-floyd.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1519&Itemid=135 crossed
the line
-
- and the Lobby
- http://www.zoa.org/sitedocuments/pressrelease_view.asp?pressreleaseID=394 served
him the black mark
- and threatened him with prosecution under a quaint law
of 1799.
-
- The ferocious Jewish political police, the ADL http://www.jewishsf.com/content/2-0-/module/displaystory/story
- _id/35386/format/html/displaystory.html attacked
the paper and me "objecting to unsubstantiated perpetuation of stereotypes
of a malicious cabal of Jews pushing for war," as well as Shamir's
stereotype of "Jewish media-lords" that "clinch the party
line."
-
- Here is my reply to the ADL's attack:
-
- In Defence of Prejudice
-
- Stereotypes and prejudice are a legitimate part of our
life. They are here to make our life easier. If you walk the dark streets
of an urban ghetto and notice a gang of male teenagers without a single
woman among them, your prejudice tells you to make a prudent detour. If
a tramp in rags proposes to sell you a gold watch, your prejudice advises
you to avoid the deal. If a charming stranger is eager to get bedded, your
prejudice calls you to use a condom or run away. ADL correctly states
that there is a stereotype of a "malicious cabal of Jews" who
are "pushing for war," as well as that of "Jewish media-lords"
that "clinch the party line."
-
- A stereotype, or prejudice, usually is a result of many
unpleasant experiences by persons who did not heed them. Ghetto teenagers
may beat you up, the tramp is likely to unload hot goods, a brazen hussy
may supply you with the clap. And organised Jewry did push for World War
Two, for the Iraq War, and now for the war with Iran and Syria, while supporting
apartheid in Israel. American mainstream media from The New York Times
and Washington Post to the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times has
Jewish owners and sticks to the party line.
-
- Prejudice makes life difficult for stereotyped persons,
and this is sometimes unfair: the tramp may be a rightful heir and owner
of the golden watch, a charming stranger may be a chaste creature swept
away by your wit and looks, the teenagers may discuss Plato's Cave, while
a publicity-shy Israel Taub, an octogenarian scion of a great Hassidic
dynasty, a Jewish prince, of sorts, spends his personal fortune rebuilding
Palestinian houses destroyed by Israeli soldiers. Together with a Palestinian
prince Nashashibi and a WASP Professor McGowan he erected a memorial to
the victims of the Zionist-perpetrated " Deir Yassin Massacre.
For him, Jimmy Carter is right, while AIPAC is even worse than the Israeli
destroyers. Still, such men are rather the exception to the rule, and in
chance encounters, a prudent man will hope for best and expect the worst.
-
- A person unhappy with a stereotype or with prejudice
may fight it. There is a good, hard way to fight a stereotype you
dislike: act contrary to the stereotype. At the end of 19th century, Asians
were stereotyped as weaklings and walkovers, doomed to submit to the White
Man's Destiny. The Japanese did not like the stereotype, pulled up their
socks and sank the Russian Navy, before doing the same trick to the American
one. In 1950s, Japanese goods were stereotyped as 'shoddy'. They did not
complain, but worked harder and by the 1980s, Japan-made cars became a
byword of quality.
-
- Indeed, prejudice may be defeated. If you are a ghetto
dweller, be stranger-friendly and make your ghetto a nice place to visit,
proving that prejudice is baseless. This was done by the Chinese who suffered
from terrible prejudice in the beginning of 20th century. They got together,
eliminated petty crime, and now their ghetto, Chinatown, is a delightful
place to come for a stroll or for a dinner out. Prejudice against the Chinese
died out, or rather got limited to Mia Farrow.
-
- The Jews fought against prejudice a few times and won
every time. In the 18th century they were considered illiterate and to
be living in the Dark Ages. In the 19th century they were considered unmanly.
Each time, they listened to the received wisdom of stereotype and acted
to correct their behaviour. They can do it now again. They may engage in
work conducive to the general benefit, shy away from stock markets and
banks, give Christmas presents, demand "troops out of Iraq, no aid
to apartheid Israel", be friendly to their non-Jewish neighbours.
Do not demonise nor threaten with legal action everybody who does not agree
with you. Do not turn the media into your private reserve. Try this, and
an old stereotype will wither and vanish. Actually, Zionism came into being
as an idea of fighting the stereotyping of Jews by turning Jewish money
and media men into peasants and soldiers. This was partly successful, but
the old habits die hard.
-
- The ADL and their wealthy Jewish supporters went by an
easier way: sticking to stereotypes and intimidating those who notice their
relevance. Together, they fit stereotype to a tee: they are warmongering
(against Iraq and now Iran), interfering with free speech (see their attack
on Carter), protecting of thieves (remember Marc Rich?), spying on dissidents
(as in the Blankfort case in California), abusing the legal system (by
suing their ideological opponents), acting as a cabal (defending and hiding
Israeli crimes). And they still dare to speak of "unsubstantiated
perpetuation of stereotypes"! Next we may expect a Spaghetteria fighting
the stereotype of Italians eagerly devouring spaghetti.
-
- Jews are usually quite happy applying stereotypes and
prejudice, that is if they apply it to somebody else. Michael Kinsley,
a star of Jewish punditry (Harvard, Oxford, LA Times, Slate, CNN, New Republic,
Time, Economist, Harper) " blessed stereotyping of Arabs: "When
thugs menace someone because he looks Arabic, that's racism [because it
is done by others - ISH]. When airport security officials single out Arabic-looking
men for a more intrusive inspection, that's something else [because it
is done under control of a good Jew, Mr Chertoff ISH] , for the airport
security folks have a rational reason for what they do. An Arab-looking
man heading toward a plane is statistically more likely to be a terrorist.
That likelihood is infinitesimal, but the whole airport rigmarole is based
on infinitesimal chances."
-
- Well, the whole life rigmarole is based on small chances,
but the chances that your average Jewish pundit will be violently anti-Arab,
pro-war, against Iran and generally will stick to their party line are
not small at all. They are better than winning in rouge et noir. There
are exceptions, but they are aware that they are exceptional. The stereotyping
of Jews is quite justifiable, and only their behaviour change will change
it.
-
- The ADL serves as a bad example to other groups. Instead
of working harder or changing behaviour, they copycat Jews and moan about
prejudice. If the Japanese would do that, they still would be producing
shoddy cars, but the hate laws would forbid us to mention it. Hate laws
and political correctness may hush up a problem but never solve it.
-
- I know of it first-hand: my own Russian community had
a bad image problem in admittedly prejudiced Israel. Instead of whining,
the Russians created their own theatre, now arguably the best in Israel,
promoted their own newspapers and political parties, and eventually asserted
its place. Granted, they were helped a lot by Putin's Russia which reasserted
Russian pride. In California, I've met the Black Muslims, well-spoken and
well-dressed men and women, who are respected without appealing to hate
laws. They remind me of the youngish senator Barak Obama, another leader
who does not need anybody's condescension or defence.
-
- People should be equal in law, this goes without saying.
But stereotyping and prejudice usually correspond to reality, and they
will change with the change of reality.
-
- The ADL is not a means of prevention of the stereotype,
but an important reason for its perpetuation. With their army of lawyers,
their seemingly unlimited resources and their access to power they may
forbid every related public expression of people's feelings. But they can
not forbid the feelings, and suppressed feelings will burst out sooner
or later with greater, devastating force.
-
- They are repeating the error of Soviet days: the Party
had banned criticism, people suppressed their feelings, and their outburst
swept away the Party rule. The democratic regimes allowed for free speech
and criticism because this provided an outlet for people's feelings and
moderated the need for violent revolution. Now, with their supreme power
of censorship and intimidation, organised Jewry has almost recovered the
ground lost by the Party.
-
- If all three major-party contenders for the Presidency
of the Republic go, hat in hand, to proclaim their fealty to AIPAC, if
a former President is unable to express his views without being brutally
abused by the ADL, America may need a revolution in order to regain its
freedom to express its feelings, unless the whining lot of ADL activists
is somehow reined in first.
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