.

And by a prudent flight and cunning save A life which valour could not, from the grave. A better buckler I can soon regain, But who can get another life again? Archilochus

Tuesday, November 28, 2017

Just Chillin'

from The Independent
Class struggle is back as the main determining factor of our political life – even if the stakes appear to be totally different, from humanitarian crises to ecological threats, class struggle lurks in the background and casts its ominous shadow

Sometimes, the best way to appreciate a piece of news is to read it alongside another piece of news – only such a confrontation enables us to discern the true stakes of a debate.

Let’s take reactions to one incisive text: in the summer of 2017, David Wallace-Wells published the essay titled “Uninhabitable Earth” which immediately became a legend. It clearly and systematically describes all the threats to our survival, from global warming to the prospect of a billion climate refugees, and wars and chaos all this will cause.

Rather than focusing on the predictable reactions to this text (accusations of scaremongering and so on), one should read it together with two facts linked to the situation it describes.

First, there is, of course, Trump’s outright denial of ecological threats; then, there is the obscene fact that billionaires (and millionaires) who otherwise support Trump are nonetheless getting ready for the apocalypse by investing into luxury underground shelters where they will be able to survive isolated for up to a year, provided with fresh vegetables, fitness centres, and everything else you could possibly imagine.

Another example is a text by Bernie Sanders and a piece of news about him which just hit the press. Recently, Sanders wrote an incisive comment on the Republican budget where the title tells it all: “The Republican budget is a gift to billionaires: it’s Robin Hood in reverse.” The text is clearly written, full of convincing facts and insights – so why didn’t it find more echo?

We should read it alongside the media report about the outrage which exploded when Sanders was announced as an opening night speaker at the upcoming Women’s Convention in Detroit. Critics claimed it was bad to let Sanders, a man, speak at a convention devoted to the political advancement of women’s rights. No matter that he was to be just one of the two men among 60 speakers, with no transgender speakers (a fact that was apparently accepted as unproblematic.)

Lurking beneath this outrage was, of course, the reaction of the Clinton wing of the Democratic Party to Sanders: its uneasiness with Sanders’s leftist critique of today’s global capitalism. When Sanders emphasises economic problems, he is accused of “vulgar” class reductionism.

So should we conclude from all this that our task is to depose Trump as soon as possible? When Dan Quayle, not exactly famous for his high IQ, was Vice President to Bush Senior, a joke was running around according to which the FBI had a secret order what to do if Bush dies: to kill Quayle immediately.

Let’s hope the FBI has the that same order for Mike Pence in the case of Trump’s death or impeachment – Pence is, if anything, much worse than Trump, a true Christian conservative.

What makes the Trump movement minimally interesting is its inconsistencies – recall that Steve Bannon not only opposes Trump’s tax plan but openly advocates raising taxes for the rich up to 40 per cent, plus argues saving banks with public money as “socialism for the rich” – surely not something Pence likes to hear.

Steve Bannon recently declared war, but against whom? Not against Democrats from Wall Street, not against liberal intellectuals or any other usual suspects but against the Republican Party establishment itself. After Trump fired him from the White House, he is fighting for Trump’s mission at its purest, even if it is sometimes against Trump himself – let’s not forget that Trump is basically destroying the Republican Party.

Bannon aims to lead a populist revolt of underprivileged people against the elites – he is taking Trump’s message of a government by and for the people more literally than Trump himself dares to do. That’s why Bannon is worth his weight in gold: he is a permanent reminder of the antagonism that cuts across the Republican Party.

The first conclusion we are compelled to draw from this strange predicament is that class struggle is back as the main determining factor of our political life – a determining factor in the good old Marxist sense of “determination in the last instance”: even if the stakes appear to be totally different, from humanitarian crises to ecological threats, class struggle lurks in the background and casts its ominous shadow.

The second conclusion is that class struggle is less and less directly transposed into the struggle between political parties, and more and more a struggle which takes place within each big political party.

In the US, class struggle cuts across the Republican Party (the Party establishment versus Bannon-like populists) and across the Democratic Party (the Clinton wing versus the Sanders movement).

We should, of course, never forget that Bannon is the beacon of the alt-right while Clinton supports many progressive causes like fights against racism and sexism. However, at the same time we should never forget that the LGBT+ struggle can also be coopted by the mainstream liberalism against “class essentialism” of the left.

The third conclusion thus concerns the left’s strategy in this complex situation. While any pact between Sanders and Bannon is excluded for obvious reasons, a key element of the left’s strategy should be to ruthlessly exploit division in the enemy camp and fight for Bannon followers.

To cut a long story short, there is no victory of the left without the broad alliance of all anti-establishment forces. One should never forget that our true enemy is the global capitalist establishment and not the new populist right which is merely a reaction to its impasses.
-Slavoj Zizek, "Alt-right Trump supporters and left-wing Bernie Sanders fans should join together to defeat capitalism"

70 comments:

FreeThinke said...

What the HELL is the "Alt Right?"

Ccould they possibly be talkung abkugt PALEO CONSERVATIVES –– like me?

I don't like the Left making up new terms that purport to define ME –– or any of my fast-disappearing kind.

FreeThinke said...

I can't understand why you have such a fervent interest in those who are, apparently, serious about trying to do away with CAPITALISM.

I am an ARDENT and DEVOTED fan of Capitalism. My maternal grandparents arrived here penniless, had eight chldren and within thorty-five or forty years the family had an aggregate net worth of several milliion dollars –– back when a million was still a LOT of money.

Today, I am privileged to belong to a group of only ten million citizens who have a million or more. I am grateful, and I thoroughly enjoy the privilege, even though the PURCHASUNG POWER of what I have is only about ONE-TENTH of what it was when I was in college.

I have a tremendous sense of responsibility to use what I have as wisely and charitably as I can. There have been numerous people in dire straits I've helped materially over the years –- with no TAX ADVANTAGE WHATSOEVER.

If we weren't strangled and suffocated by rotten stinking government taxation a city, county, state and federal levels, I could –– and WOULD –– be a lot more charitable. As itnis I .give 35% of my incme away each year, and am glad to be able to do it.

If you want to call this "virtue-signaling" on my part, please go right ahead, but I don't look at it that way. The term reeks of cynicism to me, and I assufre you, I am anything BUT cynical.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS!

Thersites said...

I have an interest because capitalism is a lot like "freedom". Without "limits" there could be no "liberty". The same holds true for capitalism. For it to be ome a universal good, like liberty, it requires limits.

jez said...

The term "alt-right" arose from the perhaps intentionally provocative sentiments expressed on certain young hip internet forums such as 4chan, in imitation of the popular music press' habitual use of the alt- (short for "alternative") prefix for musical genres (eg. alt-country, alt-rock). It is characterised by white nationalism, protectionism, antisemitism, Islamophobia, antifeminism, misogyny and homophobia (per wikipedia article on the alt-right).

While plenty of the alt-right's loose manifesto happens to be old-fashioned, it doesn't seem to me to be a movement driven by tradition, whereas paleo-conservatism is explicitly rooted in the traditions and values of pre-FDR America. It's a more complete outlook as it harkens back to the whole cultural framework of that bygone era and encompasses interesting ideas like limited government and anti-federalism, while the alt-right seems to fixate on just the bits that seem transgressive to more modern sensibilities.

In short, the alt-right is mostly about style, while paleo-conservatism has some substance to it. Which of the two terms would best fit Trump?

-FJ the Dangerous and Extreme MAGA Jew said...

It is characterised by white nationalism, protectionism, antisemitism, Islamophobia, antifeminism, misogyny and homophobia

A definition most certainly ascribed to the term by a Leftist of the "identity politics" SJW variety. :)

jez said...

Perhaps. :) How would you describe the alt right?

-FJ the Dangerous and Extreme MAGA Jew said...

I would describe it as a nationalist, culturally conservative group.

-FJ the Dangerous and Extreme MAGA Jew said...

Neoconservatism was once described as "economically conservative" and "culturally liberal". The alt-Right is a "backlash" to this Neo-conservative paradigm.

-FJ the Dangerous and Extreme MAGA Jew said...

The real difference was that the neoconservatives were economic globalists, NOT economic conservatives (nationalists). The old paleo-conservatives were economic nationalists and cultural conservatives. The alt-Right differs from the paleo's in that they are generally more socially liberal and libertarian in outlook like the neocons were, but still opposed to neo-cultural identities like race/sex/gender.

-FJ the Dangerous and Extreme MAGA Jew said...

In that respect, they "bridge" the gap between neocons and paleocons.

jez said...

"The alt-Right is a "backlash" to this Neo-conservative paradigm."

Agree. I can't quite shake the impression that the vast majority of the alt-right is some kind of anti-PC prank though.

FreeThinke said...

FJ said, "[C]apitalism is a lot like "freedom". Without "limits" there could be no "liberty". The same holds true for capitalism. For it to become a universal good, like liberty, it requires limits.

Thank you, FJ. I agree completely. You have give an excellent rationale for reinstating Christian Doctrine as a primary source of Moral Authority into the realm of public discourse and political debate, and for advocating the development of what-I-learned-toregard-as a Christian Conscience via the systems of Public Education –– as we always did prior to the advent of the depraved Counterculture that emerged in the SICK-sties.

Madalyn Murray, O'Hair, Sex, Drugs & Rock 'n Roll, Endless Protest, Militant Disorder, arrant Disrespect for, Rejection and Repudiation of established Norms, traditional Mores, and Authority in general, –– along with an all out embrace of Sloth and Degeneracy blended incongruousy with a truculent aura of Self-RIghteousness –– defined the SICK-sties Counterculture.

Much of this horrifying debacle was brought about and supported by a series of ill-advised Supreme Court decisions.

Whether one accepts all that or not, no sane persin could deny that society worked more smoothly, more harmoniously and far more pleasantly when 80-90% attended church regularly, and opening exercises in every public school included a reading from the Bible, and a recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance, and the curriculum inckuded an open and enthusiast celebration of the religious aspects of Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter

As I recall, we, as children, never thought much about these things one way or another, –– they were in fact a very small part of our lives –– but I have been grateful all my adult life for this gentle-but-firm moral grounding that has enabled me to face many a personal crisis with relative equanimity. Not a day goes by that i do not sat a prayer of gratitude because of the faith instilled in me from early childhood.

I hate to think of what likely would have happened if no one had been there to plant these seeds of affirmative, empathetic feelings of. trust in the essential goodness of others, and the obligatiion to be kind and generous by extending a helping hand to the greatest extent possible in transactions both great and small.

We were taught this oath in the Boy Scouts:

On my honor, I will do my best
To do my duty to God and my country
To obey the Scout Law;
To help other people at all times;
To keep myself physically strong,
Mentally alert, and morally straight.


Few of us could live up the ideals we were taught in the Boy Scouts, Sunday School, and in the public school classes we attended. I was no exception, but to have had these cherished ideals set before me has done just what FJ said above. This grounding has SET LIMITS in what I felt I could and should do in nearly every encounter I have experienced regardless of how important or trival they seemed.

How, therefore, could I NOT feel hostile to and alienated by a threatening atmosohere dominated by rudeness, cynicism, fecklessness, insouciance, carelessness, willful perversity –– an atmosphere I have found chaotic, cold-hearted, utterly lacking in warmth, graciousness, gentility, refinement, consideration, and the kind of deference and respect we were taught is due everyone we meet in daily life regardless of his or her station?

FreeThinke said...

FJ wrote:

[The Alt Right] is characterised by white nationalism, protectionism, antisemitism, Islamophobia, antifeminism, misogyny and homophobia]

A definition most certainly ascribed to the term by a Leftist of the "identity politics" SJW variety. :-)

Thank you, FJ, for affirming my instinctive understanding that this pointedly pejorative term was invented to fling like a missile at a sociopolitical phenomenon that LEFTISTS not obly FEAR, but absolutely DESPISE. I suspect too that the Left not only wishes to discredit and defeat these people, but utimately to ANNIHILATE them.

The use of mockery, aggressive insolence and relentless rude rejection has been a hallmark of the methodology of leftist activist insurgency since what-we-generally-think-of-today-as "The Left" emerged a little over a hundred years ago.


FreeThinke said...

On Forced, Politically-Motivated,
Trendy Linguistic Change

Why treat with Feministic drearyin'?

Let's just go back and speak Chaucerian!

If that's obscured in misty wreathin',

Then let's go with Elizabethan!


~ FreeThinke ]:^}>

jez said...

It was coined by Richard Spencer, not anyone from the Left.

I both fear and despise racial supremacists of all flavours. Annihilate them, sure! Preferably intellectually, but i'm cool with whatever means are necessary.

FreeThinke said...

________ Why Be A Leftist? ________

Willfulness is part of what it takes;
Haughtiness makes a component too.
Yearning for a better life’s heartaches
Beset by Self-Deception’s shuttered view

Earns suicidal urges ‘mongst the Rich,
And fosters dreams of Vengeance in the Poor
Deny this truth? You’re apt to lose your niche
Ending up locked outside your own door.

Money too diffused loses its power.
Our hope to see Equality for All
Creates a fractious mental climate sour
Resulting in Revolt bound to appall.

A misperception of our truest needs
Traps us where upon ourselves we feed.


~ FreeThinke

FreeThinke said...

___ How Could We Hope to Beat the Odds? ____

O, Christ, why can’t we hear it through the din?
Under what extreme conditions might we learn?
Rape invited’s wicked, though we’re in
Denial that our fate we richly earn.

Everyone must someday realize
Beating life can’t be. We’re bound to crash.
The Law of Averages whittles down to size.
The brightness of Ascent soon feels the lash

Held by hidden Masters of Deceit ––
Rapacious, ruthless, fearful and despotic ––
Each a perfect model of conceit ––
A joyless soul, pathetic and neurotic.

To be at the beck and call of godless knaves
Strengthens faith that none but Jesus saves.


~ FreeThinke

FreeThinke said...

___ To a Room Mate from a Hospital Bed ___

You’re born to fit the mold; for this you think
The Lord has made you righteous, fine, “the best.”
In quiet dignity you watch the rink
Of life; cheer for your kind –– deride the rest.

And yet, your way of life shines like the morn.
Those who cannot join must yearn in pain ––
Anger for the strong who fight with scorn ––
Weeping for the weak who dream in strain.

Anguish for us all, because we hate
Anything that questions what we are.
All we know is what we’re taught by Fate
Keeping us suspicious, wary, far

From joining in the glowing Christian Feast ––
As distant as the West is from the East.


~ FreeThinke

FreeThinke said...

AND NOW, AS WE MOVE TOWARD CHRISTMAS, WE GIVE YOU A SONG:

The Twelve ISLAMIC Days of Christmas

On the FIRST Day of Christmas, the Imam sent to me
A head mounted on a thorn tree!

On the SECOND Day of Christmas the Imam sent to me
Two scimitars
And a Head mounted on a Thorn Tree!

On the THIRD Day of Christmas the Imam sent to me
Three bearded thugs
Two scimitars
And a head mounted on a thorn tree!

On the FOURTH Day of Christmas the imam sent to me
Four Whining Dhimmis
Three bearded thugs
Two scimitars
And a head mounted on a thorn tree!

On the FIFTH Day of Christmas the Imam sent to me
Five IED’s
Four Whining Dhimmis
Three bearded thugs
Two scimitars
And a head mounted on a thorn tree!

On the SIXTH Day of Christmas the Imam sent to me
Six severed hands
Five IED’s
Four Whining Dhimmis
Three bearded thugs
Two scimitars
And a head mounted on a thorn tree!

On the SEVENTH Day of Christmas the Imam sent to me
Seven Christians fleeing
Six severed hands
Five IED’s
Four Whining Dhimmis
Three bearded thugs
Two scimitars
And a head mounted on a thorn tree!

On the EIGHTH Day of Christmas the Imam sent to me
Eight rifles firing
Seven Christians fleeing
Six severed hands
Five IED’s
Four Whining Dhimmis
Three bearded thugs
Two scimitars
And a head mounted on a thorn tree!

On the NINTH Day of Christmas the Imam sent to me
Nine women’s corpses
Eight rifles firing
Seven Christians fleeing
Six severed hands
Five IED’s
Four Whining Dhimmis
Three bearded thugs
Two scimitars
And a head mounted on a thorn tree!

On the TENTH Day of Christmas the Imam sent to me
Ten drowned in cages
Nine women’s corpses
Eight rifles firing
Seven Christians fleeing
Six severed hands
Five IED’s
Four Whining Dhimmis
Three bearded thugs
Two scimitars
And a head mounted on a thorn tree!

On the ELEVENTH Day of Christmas the Imam sent to me
Eleven dead cartoonists
Ten drowned in cages
Nine women’scorpses
Eight rifles firing
Seven Christians fleeing
Six severed hands
Five IED’s
Four Whining Dhimmis
Three bearded thugs
Two scimitars
And a head mounted on a thorn tree!

On the TWELFTH Day of Christmas the Imam sent to me
Twelve bombs a bursting 
Eleven dead cartoonists
Ten drowned in cages
Nine women’s corpses
Eight rifles firing
Seven Christians fleeing
Six severed hands
Five IED’s
Four Whining Dhimmis
Three bearded thugs
Two scimitars
And CHRIST’S HEAD mounted on a thorn tree!


~ Anne Animus

FreeThinke said...

__ The Holy Enfant __

Born in a manger
___ a low start in life
Given to see
___ that no one is alone
Ill-fated child
___ destined only for Grief
The Star disappeared
___ Herod killed not the One

But hundreds of others
___ God saved Him for us.
He was to show us
___ that we could be saved
Be happy and free
___ from all animus.
But we work to kill Him
___ we are so depraved

God loves us. ’Tis we
__ are the ones who destroy.
Each trust betrayed
___ each gift that is spurned
Is a stab in the heart
___ of an Innocent Boy
But, we’ll all feel the agony
___ all we have learned:

He suffered the Cross
___ to bring height to our goals
______ light to our minds
_________ and flight to our souls.



~ FreeThinke, The Sandpiper, Winter 1996-97

Thersites said...

Richard Spencer is a white nationalist. He'd like people to believe his preferred "identity group" is MUCH larger than it really is.

"Rule #1 -Power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have." -Saul Alinsky, "Rules for Radicals"

Their relatively small group of white nationalists are but a small fraction of the alt-Right, much like the proportion of black bloc anarchists are to the whole in the coalition calling itself "Progressives."

Thersites said...

ps - BAMN is a coalition of intellectual midgets. Don't throw your hat in the ring with those idiots.

Thersites said...

...learn a lesson from Herod.

Thersites said...

(see FT's poem above). You can't smother Hitler in the cradle without becoming Hitler.

Beantown AntiFacist said...

Boycott Fiji Water!

jez said...

Are alt-right condemnations of white nationalists more or less prominent than eg. mainstream Muslim condemnations of radical Islamic terrorists?

"any means necessary" is just a phrase for me, not a specific group.

You're right, I suggest infants be spared (I learned that lesson from the Pharaoh).
But at some point we do have to dispose of Hitler.

FreeThinke said...

t will never be possible to "dispose of Hitler," because –– and this the most prominent, unacknowledged Open Secret among all sectors of humanity –– There is a little "HITLER" lurking inside ALL of us.

JESUS CHRIST has given us the key that could enable us to unlock the gate of the Mental Prison every one of us inhabits

BUT we work to kill Him
___ we are so depraved.

GOD loves us. ’Tis WE
__ are the ones who destroy.
Each Trust betrayed
___ each Gift that is spurned
Is a Stab in the Heart
___ of an Innocent Boy,
But, we’ll ALL feel the Agony
___ all we have learned:

He suffered the Cross
___ to bring height to our goals
______ light to our minds
_________ and flight to our souls.


Continually searching for "good reasons" to ARGUE forever AGAINST the Gospel, and therefore REJECT our Salvation is a slow, inexorable, extraordinarly painful form of committing suicide.

I hasten to add this has NOTHING to do with pledging allegiance to ANY form of temporal organization INCLUDING the Church.

It does, however, strenuously imply that –– sooner or later –– we, as individuals, must realize that a higher form of acquiring Knowledge imbued with Wisdom, Courage and the Capacity to Produce SALUBRIOUS, CONSTRUCTIVE Endeavors exists beyine the blind worship of mere human intelligence.

MERRY CHRISTmas!

<);^}>

-FJ the Dangerous and Extreme MAGA Jew said...

As you can see, jez, FT is a Christian nationalist. I and he don't pretend that he isn't a Christian. And that's where we differ from the Left and radical Islamicists. I don't pretend that white nationalists aren't a part of the alt-Right. But we're not "all" white or Christian nationalists. I for one, no longer even consider himself a Christian. I am "white" though. I simply believe that people of any colour or religion can be good "Americans" provided they don't hold their particular ideological "distinction" above the nationalism that unites us.

FreeThinke said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
FreeThinke said...

That's right, FJ, although I don't believe "nationalist" should be attached to my self-identificaton as a Christian. Neither am I "anti-Intellectual," despite many things i have said that might indicate otherwise.

I do believe that IF by some miracle ALL people eventually could ACCEPT and work hard to try to ABIDE BY Christ's teachings, –– instead of continually railing against them by citing such obvious horrors as The Inquisition and the historic treatment of the Jews as "proof" that belief in Christ Jesus is buncombe ––, your idealistic vision of a world where all people, __ regardless of their outward appearance and superficial differences in culture, COULD live in harmony to the mutual benefit of all ––, WOULD not only be possible, it would be INEVITABLE.

ALSO, I don't believe the "Alt-Right" exists, except in the mind of the agenda-driven person who conceived the concept and created the term. In reality I suspect it has no more significance than identifying someone as a "Branch Davidian," a "Scientologist" a "Holy Roller," a "Racist," a "White-Nationalist," a "Black Nationalist," or an "anti-Semite."

Invented terms like these serve only to spark DIVISION and foment hostility with the goal in mind of GAINING POWER from the TURMOIL thus created.

"He who troubleth his own house shall inhert the wind." ~ Proverbs, 11:29

We may remember that, but tend to forget the rest "and the fool shall be a servant to the wise of heart."

The aggressive Arrogance that emanates from Conceit and cocksure Complacency is probably the greatest Evil we must deal with aside from Disease and Natural diasasters.

Faith of ANY kind must be continually tested to remain vital.

FreeThinke said...

And now to muddy the waters a bit, just to show how many-faceted Reality is –– and to keep the cynics guessing:



______ A Primly Righteous Pose ______

A primly moral pose can serve to mask
Bilious temperament and vile conceit ––
In fact the urge to cripple and defeat
The one once loved now harshly brought to task.
Counterfeit religion acts the fiend,
Hobbling Affection’s natural course
Overcoming love with fake remorse.
No bliss survives when righteously demeaned.
What makes a creepy, sickening sense of shame
Haunt happiness as though ‘twere harlotry ––
Even husband’s needs belong with varletry?
Evil righteousness kills Passion’s flame.
Let him whose pious poison mars affection
Suffer from rebellion and rejection.

~ FfreeThinke

FreeThinke said...

___________ CHRISTMAS in INDIA ___________

Dim dawn behind the tamerisks –– the sky is saffron-yellow ––
As the women in the village grind the corn,
And the parrots seek the riverside, each calling to his fellow
That the Day, the staring Easter Day is born.
Oh the white dust on the highway! Oh the stenches in the byway!
Oh the clammy fog that hovers
And at Home they're making merry
____ 'neath the white and scarlet berry ––
What part have India's exiles in their mirth?

Full day behind the tamarisks ––- the sky is blue and staring --
As the cattle crawl afield beneath the yoke,
And they bear One o'er the field-path,
____ who is past all hope or caring,
To the ghat below the curling wreaths of smoke.
Call on Rama, going slowly, as ye bear a brother lowly ––
Call on Rama ––he may hear, perhaps, your voice!
With our hymn-books and our psalters we appeal to other altars,
And to-day we bid "good Christian men rejoice!"

High noon behind the tamarisks -- the sun is hot above us --
As at Home the Christmas Day is breaking wan.
They will drink our healths at dinner ––
___ those who tell us how they love us,
And forget us till another year be gone!
Oh the toil that knows no breaking!
____ Oh the Heimweh, ceaseless, aching!
Oh the black dividing Sea and alien Plain!
Youth was cheap –– wherefore we sold it.
Gold was good –– we hoped to hold it,
And to-day we know the fulness of our gain.

Grey dusk behind the tamarisks –– the parrots fly together ––
As the sun is sinking slowly over Home;
And his last ray seems to mock us shackled in a lifelong tether.
That drags us back how'er so far we roam.
Hard her service, poor her payment ––
____ she is ancient, tattered raiment ––
India, she the grim Stepmother of our kind.
If a year of life be lent her, if her temple's shrine we enter,
The door is shut –– we may not look behind.

Black night behind the tamarisks ––
____ the owls begin their chorus ––
As the conches from the temple scream and bray.
With the fruitless years behind us,
____ and the hopeless years before us,
Let us honor, O my brother, Christmas Day!
Call a truce, then, to our labors ––
____ let us feast with friends and neighbors,
And be merry as the custom of our caste;
For if "faint and forced the laughter," and if sadness follow after,
We are richer by one mocking Christmas past.


~ Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)

________________________________________
INFORMATION for the CURIOUS

Tamarisk (plant)
The genus Tamarix is composed of about 50–60 species of flowering plants in the family Tamaricaceae, native to drier areas of Eurasia and Africa. The generic name originated in Latin and may refer to the Tamaris River in Hispania Tarraconensis.

Scientific name: Tamarix
Higher classification: Tamaricaceae
Rank: Genus
Did you know: .

jez said...

FJ: "And that's where we differ from the Left and radical Islamicists."

In what sense would you say they are related?

FT: I recognise that many (most?) individuals have a few psychological tendencies in common with Hitler, but I think it's still possible and highly desirable to defeat the political manifestation of those tendencies. To take another very widespread psychological issue as an analogy: many of us have some (very small in most cases) inclination towards lying and cheating in our private lives. Does that psychological truth make it impossible to combat corruption in politics and business? Well, different nations have had varying levels of success, so it's obviously somewhat possible. It takes effort, and it's clearly worthwhile (I greatly favour living in one of the less corrupt nations). I feel the same way about "defeating Hitler."

"... no more significance than identifying someone as a "Branch Davidian," a "Scientologist" a "Holy Roller," a "Racist," a "White-Nationalist," a "Black Nationalist," or an "anti-Semite."
... or a "marxist"?

I think some of these labels are quite descriptive. There's a big difference between being a Scientologist, for example, and not being a one. What is it that you want these words to achieve that they fail at?

-FJ the Dangerous and Extreme MAGA Jew said...

In what sense would you say they are related?

Many Leftists deny that the terrorism has anything to do with Islam. It's like arguing that rape isn't about sex (it's about "power"). No. It's BOTH. Like they say, you can't spell Sexual Harassment with including the words SEX and ASS.

FreeThinke said...

Consistency is said to be "the hobgoblin of small minds."

That strikes me as correct, so I reserve my right to exercise my penchant for selecting enemies and adversaries to vilify, excoriate, abuse and condemn at will without restraint.

Like it or not we are in a WAR to determine whether to preserve and maintain the SOUL of Western Civilization as it evolvedover the past eight or ten over centuries, or to KILL it, MOVE ON and adopt an entirely NEW paradigm made up out of whole cloth.

Without going into the long song and dance (possiby an entire OPERA! ;-) it would require to elaborate I'll simply leap to the conclusiion you know I was going to reach anyway, and dare to quote this well-worn adage:

"ALL's FAIR in LOVE and WAR."

FreeThinke said...

The terms invented for the specific purpose of creating or exacerbating tensions, sparking conflict, acheiving or accruing greater political power are ARTIFICIAL constructs deliberately designed to cast aspersions on factions that draw resentment simply because they exist –– or because they make a nuisance of themselves by working with utmost stridency to make themselves promininent when prominence is unwarranted.

Joe Conservative said...

:)

jez said...

Are you saying that FT's nationalism is informed by his Christianity, just as (you would claim) the middle-eastern terrorist's violence is informed by his Islamism?

I think the point of saying "rape isn't about sex" is not to deny that rape is a sexual act, but to suggest that to understand the rapist, it is probably a mistake to assume he is motivated by sexual attraction. Under that assumption, you might assume that skimpily dressed young women are the most likely targets, but these assumptions are not borne out by any statistics. As far as I can tell, it is fairly routine for there to be no sexual attraction invovled. How much of prison rape, for example, is motivated by desire?

Let's try an analogy: if I were to say that knife crime isn't about stabbing, I would be literall wrong; but there is a reasonable point to make about motivation: these people don't attack one another with knives simply for the joy of making cuts. Most often, it is the means to an unrelated end. (I expect I'd find consensus more easily if I rewrote this paragraph to be about guns, but I'm short of time...)

I can't speak for the Left, but when I comment on middle-eastern terrorism, often it is to express that I don't think their particular theology explains the terrorists' motivation. (I can readily agree that religious fervour in general seems to enable terrorist extremism: as Steven Weinberg remarked, only religion has the capacity to induce good people to do evil things.)

Joe Conservative said...

How much of prison rape, for example, is motivated by desire?

All of it. Sexual abstention creates pain. All pleasure is the "relief" of pain (Plato, "Philebus"). And there's nothing more "pleasurable" than an orgasm.

It's a desire to relieve the pain. If not acted upon, the male will have a nocturnal emission on a 25 day cycle (much like a female's 28 day menstrual cycle).

Joe Conservative said...

Are you saying that FT's nationalism is informed by his Christianity, just as (you would claim) the middle-eastern terrorist's violence is informed by his Islamism?

Of course it is. Islam is a theocratic religion. The Ayaotollah Khomeini's heresy in (Hokumat-e Islami: Velayat-e faqih) was to put a system of State governance, theocracy, back into Islam. The ability to kill oneself for the establishment of said State, the suicide bomber, was the end result.

Joe Conservative said...

knife crime isn't about stabbing...

But an Isamicist "beheading" is ALL about the removal of the enemies' head.

Joe Conservative said...

I don't think their particular theology explains the terrorists' motivation.

But a particular theology complete explains their most effective tactic - the suicide bomber.

Joe Conservative said...

America has little to fear from ordinary "terrorism". It has a LOT to fear from the suicide bomber. And the only way to reduce the number of suicide bombers is to "un-sanction" Islam's sanctions (the Khomeini heresy).

Joe Conservative said...

The only solution to terrorism lies through religion.

jez said...

I would say that suicide bombing is a result of asymmetric warfare, the only way eg. Iran or Syria can possibly hope to repel the US (or Britain, in the old days) is by resorting to these kinds of tactics. Adam Curtis may have given you the impression that suicide bombing was new in the 1980s, and while his narrative is very valuable it isn't absolutely true: the tactic has been used occassionally throughout history, often by non-muslims.

I think a more robust solution to suicide bomb terrorism would be avoiding asymmetric conflicts that provoke it.

-FJ the Dangerous and Extreme MAGA Jew said...

So you would now argue that the Japanese suicide tactics had nothing to do with their code of Bushido?

-FJ the Dangerous and Extreme MAGA Jew said...

For it's the cultural component that "legitimizes" the military tactic.

avoiding asymmetric conflicts that provoke it.

Just how could America have avoided 9/11?

-FJ the Dangerous and Extreme MAGA Jew said...

It's like saying that America should have "avoided" Dec 7, 1941.

jez said...

I wouldn't say that, no. Most of the examples I had in mind were defensive, unlike the Japanese raids I think. I'm not informed enough to say much about it except to point out that the Japanese didn't invent the tactic in WW2 either.

History shows that young soldiers can be persuaded to engage in suicide attacks without appealing to Islam nor the warrior ethic of the Samurai.

jez said...

I think Adam Curtis has some ideas about how America could have indirectly avoided a 9/11. When was it that the middle east started referring to America as the "great satan"?

FreeThinke said...

_______ I’m A Muslim Too _______


Like the Wahabbi, Sunni tribe, Shiites too
Like those Muslims
I'm a Muslim too
Boo Hoo!
Boo Hoo!

Just like Burka Babe, Blackened Eyes,
Big Hook Nose
Like those Muslim gals
I'm a Muslim too
Boo Hoo!
Boo Hoo!

Some Islamic Jihad day
Without a sound
I’ll hide bombs away
Make Boston a Hole-in-the-Ground

And I'll have piles of stones, IED’s, missiles too
Which will go to prove
I'm a Muslim too
Boo Hoo!
Boo Hoo!

With my brutal Sheik
He’ll rape me with no break.
And I'll be pregnant night and day
Looking like a gunny sack
With three jihadists at my back
And one more on the way

Like the Wahabbi, Sunni tribe, Shiites too
Like those Muslims
I'm a Muslim too
Boo Hoo!
Boo Hoo!

Just like Rising Dick, Falling Pants, Blowing Nose
Like those Muslims
I'm a Muslim too
Boo Hoo!
Boo Hoo!

Some Arabian summer's day
Though I feel fear
I may just run away
With a handsome Emir

And then he’ll drag me back, bury me in the sand
And they’ll kick my head till the sands run red
I’ll will then be dead
‘Cause I'm a Muslim too
Boo Hoo!
Boo Hoo!


~ Oyvink Boylinn

FreeThinke said...

______________ DEFINING the ENEMY ______________


The ENEMY has NO concept of HONESTY, DECENCY, MORALITY, INTEGRITY, PROBITY or FAIRNESS, NO RESPECT for TRUTH, and NO SENSE of HUMOR.


When we insult, deride, hector, badger, lampoon and defame The Enemy, "IT" fully deserves every bit of Mockery, Derogation, Cruelty, and Nose-Thumbing Dismissal we can muster.


HOWEVER, when The Enemy attempts to insult, bully, badger or LIE about US, "IT" fully deserves every bit of Mockery, Derogation, Cruelty, and Nose-Thumbing Dismissal we can muster. };^)>


The Enemy is either The Great Deceiver, Himself, or One of His Ardent Disciples. Therefore, The Enemy deserves NO Consideration, and must be shown NO Indulgence, given NO Quarter, NO Mercy, NO Tolerance, WHATSOEVER.


Never –– EVER –– forget what The Enemy did to Czar Nicholas and His family in the basement of "The House of Special Purpose."


The ENEMY still eagerly makes EXCUSES for the Savage Bolshevik Beasts.


The ENEMY is The BEAST –– the Servant, the Handmaiden, the Henchman, the Toady, the SLAVE and ASSKISSER to everything VILE.


The Enemy is AWAYS on the attack –– no matter what. The Enemy NEVER approves, affirms, finds Satisfaction, or takes Delight in ANYTHING. The Enemy never Laughs, because “IT” is incapable of appreciating the HUMOROUS side of life. The Enemy can only MOCK, SCORN, DERIDE,COMPLAIN and ACCUSE.


The Enemy cannot be treated diplomatically; "IT" must be DESTROYED.


[Just be sure you identify "IT" correctly, and know who "IT" is before you start pumping bullets into "IT." };^]>


____________________________________

The ENEMY is ever the one to sneer the loudest at every opportunity to denounce, magnify, distort, and condemn even the slightest flaw in others. His high and mighty insolence and perpetually sneering posture betrays a pathological penchant for placing his imaginarily august SELF high above US "The Common Crowd," doesn't it? His Sado-masochistic relationship with the rest of humanity reveals him to be a pathetic, very LITTLE person. Most Scoffers, Scorners, Debunkers, Deriders, Contrarians, Refutationists and other Devotees of Negativism are.

People of this despicable ilk should be welcome to our pity, but should never hope to win our respect.

-FJ the Dangerous and Extreme MAGA Jew said...

The point is that the "culture" provides the justification for the "tactic". So, to insist beyond all reason that it's NOT the culture (Islam) that gives life to the "tactic" is pure insanity. It would be like me saying that America does nothing at all to provoke attack. Yet I acknowledge that the post-WWII order (as Adam Curtis would argue) is a significant contributor to the problem. I'm all for Trumpism changing THAT order. Much more so than the typical Europhile.

-FJ the Dangerous and Extreme MAGA Jew said...

btw - While I agree with Curtis that America "manufactured" al Qaeda, I don't agree that al Qaeda and the conflict would have "disappeared" absent its' WoT response.

-FJ the Dangerous and Extreme MAGA Jew said...

Osama bin Laden's dream, leading to the attack, was an "Islamic" dream, inspired almost entirely by the Islamic religion... of the creation of a multi-national Islamic army independent of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for the express purpose of re-establishing/re-unifying the caliphate.

jez said...

Islam may be unusually easy to bend to support a campain of suicide attacks, but is that true of the other cultures that have resorted to suicide attacks? (I've just been reading the list at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_attack). Are there any warrior cultures which would reliably exclude it? For example, although I don't know of any occassions where it actually happened, I can imagine how a medieval knight steeped in Chivalry could be persuaded to persue the tactic.

-FJ the Dangerous and Extreme MAGA Jew said...

I doubt you'd find your knight. Suicide is prohibitted by Christianity, as it was by Islam pre- Khomeini.

-FJ the Dangerous and Extreme MAGA Jew said...

btw - My FIL was a former Marine with a "Death before Dishonor" tattoo. Don't take that as a propensity to kill himself in battle. It's not the same thing.

jez said...

The chivalric code might have to be bent, but I think it could be done... See http://www.medievalists.net/2015/07/is-it-better-to-die-in-battle-or-to-flee-a-medieval-view/

jez said...

That's the part of trumpism I like best, but as with everything he says we have to question his sincerity and competence.

-FJ the Dangerous and Extreme MAGA Jew said...

Die in battle is NOT suicide. You do not choose your death, the enemy does.

-FJ the Dangerous and Extreme MAGA Jew said...

The 300 did not commit suicide.

Delphi's prophesy:

For you, inhabitants of wide-wayed Sparta,
Either your great and glorious city must be wasted by Persian men,
Or if not that, then the bound of Lacedaemon must mourn a dead king, from Heracles' line.
The might of bulls or lions will not restrain him with opposing strength; for he has the might of Zeus.
I declare that he will not be restrained until he utterly tears apart one of these

jez said...

Yes, but neither is suicide in preference to enemy capture and probable torture (a la Bushido) the same as kamikaze. All these warrior codes needed to be bent, otherwise the tactic would've been far more commonplace throughout history, wouldn't it?
Here in the abstract, you and I can consider self-sacrifice to save a comrade, self-sacrifice to secure victory, and self-sacrifice as a routine tactic as distinct cases. As a young soldier in the heat of war, with a corrupt military command using whatever combination of threats and cultural levers are at his disposal to exploit his troops in this foul manner, these distinctions must get blurry.

-FJ the Dangerous and Extreme MAGA Jew said...

Islam is bent. Yet you say there's no problem with Islam.

The kamikaze's stopped when the empoeror told them to stop. The suicide bombers won't stop until the Islamic clerics tell them to stop.

Only foolish Leftists say that the problem isn't the warp in Islam.

jez said...

I don't recall saying there's no problem with Islam. But I don't see why its helpful to ignore the history of suicide attacks pre-1980 (or pre-1942).

(((Thought Criminal))) said...

Bah. The "alt-right" (which is neither "alt" nor "right-wing") is what happens when leftists discover Karl Marx plagiarized George Fitzhugh.

-FJ the Dangerous and Extreme MAGA Jew said...

You need to understand context for THAT, Jez. And w/o the "core", context is lost, and we're left at the mercy of the deconstructionists.

-FJ the Dangerous and Extreme MAGA Jew said...

For who, today, enjoy's Shakespeare's "popular" plays?

Titus Andronicus is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1588 and 1593, probably in collaboration with George Peele. It is thought to be Shakespeare's first tragedy, and is often seen as his attempt to emulate the violent and bloody revenge plays of his contemporaries, which were extremely popular with audiences throughout the 16th century.[1]

The play is set during the latter days of the Roman Empire and tells the fictional story of Titus, a general in the Roman army, who is engaged in a cycle of revenge with Tamora, Queen of the Goths. It is Shakespeare's bloodiest and most violent work, and traditionally was one of his least respected plays; although it was extremely popular in its day, by the later 17th century it had fallen out of favour. In the Victorian era, it was disapproved of primarily because of what was considered to be a distasteful use of graphic violence, but from around the middle of the 20th century its reputation began to improve

jez said...

I saw a production of Titus about ten years ago -- I might be the only person in the world to have seen that, but not Hamlet!

-FJ the Dangerous and Extreme MAGA Jew said...

Hamlet is in every way a "modern" until act IV sc iv... ;)

How all occasions do inform against me,
And spur my dull revenge! What is a man
If his chief good and market of his time
Be but to sleep and feed? A beast, no more.
Sure, he that made us with such large discourse,
Looking before and after, gave us not
That capability and godlike reason
To fust in us unused. Now, whether it be
Bestial oblivion, or some craven scruple
Of thinking too precisely on th' event—
A thought which, quartered, hath but one part wisdom
And ever three parts coward—I do not know
Why yet I live to say “This thing’s to do,”
Sith I have cause and will and strength and means
To do ’t. Examples gross as earth exhort me.
Witness this army of such mass and charge
Led by a delicate and tender prince,
Whose spirit with divine ambition puffed
Makes mouths at the invisible event,
Exposing what is mortal and unsure
To all that fortune, death, and danger dare,
Even for an eggshell. Rightly to be great
Is not to stir without great argument,
But greatly to find quarrel in a straw
When honor’s at the stake. How stand I then,
That have a father killed, a mother stained,
Excitements of my reason and my blood,
And let all sleep—while, to my shame, I see
The imminent death of twenty thousand men,
That for a fantasy and trick of fame
Go to their graves like beds, fight for a plot
Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause,
Which is not tomb enough and continent
To hide the slain? Oh, from this time forth,
My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth!