Michael Lumish
Rubin is spot-on in his analysis of Martin Luther King, Jr.
He points out, as I have been pointing out, that western-left identity politics and its attendant "intersectionality theory" are deeply bigoted because they divvy-up the political sphere into degrees of deserving or undeserving based on a racialized and entirely prejudicial worldview.
As for socialism, very few Americans who are inclined toward it have the slightest clue what it means and there has yet to be a historical example of it that has worked and that has not resulted in slaughter, poverty, starvation, and misery.
My focus, as the readers here know, is on the unfortunate relationship between the western-left and pro-Israel Jewry.
I generally avoid advocating for broad economic regimes because I do not believe that I know enough about macroeconomics... or, even, microeconomics, for that matter - but if by socialism we mean that workers own the means of production then we are obviously talking about a form of authoritarianism.
Well-meaning, left-leaning, western socialists may argue strenuously to the contrary, but if legal enforcement of the workers' possession of the venues of production means that the government owns those venues that means blood, repression, and the stamping out of the individual.
Today's western-left has lost its way because it has given up on the liberal (and countercultural) ideal of the rebel. It values conformity and group-think over argumentation. It values ideological blinkertude over Abbie Hoffman.
Socialism has a dull appeal and the left has become as boring and mainstream and restrictive as Big Nurse is over Randle McMurphy.
The Day of the Dhimmi is Done - Michael Lumish, PhD, proprietor. (mike.lumish@gmail.com)
If MLK were alive, he'd probably be no more respected than anyone else, especially if he maintained his belief in a color blind society and that anti-Zionism is antisemitism.
ReplyDeleteWe have a way of tearing down everyone and everything, and it's more pronounced with the advent of social media, where any idiot feels entitled to opine about everyone and everything, depending on the team one roots for.
Y'know, School, I honestly do not get how so many on the left can support King and, yet, still think that color-blindness is a form of racism. The cognitive dissonance is blatant.
DeleteNow I understand what is going on here, full Ayn Rand. Altruism is for suckers, religion is for idiots, compassion and understanding for fools. The essence of Judaism is contained in the oldest surviving stele containing biblical admonitions, "Take care of your widows and orphans." Take care of those who can't take care of themselves. That is for us Jews, for those who aren't familiar with the tenets of Judaism, Ayn Rand makes perfect sense. Identity politics, by the way, are fine. Jews engage in it all the time, read "John Lennon and the Jews" for a fuller explanation. The purpose of minorities forming groups is for the goal of protection (ADL, NAACP, Knights of Columbus, etc.) while large groups form collectives for the purpose of persecution (KKK and so on). While the goal of small group identity politics is self-preservation, the ultimate goal is group cooperation, apparently something that is not within the purview around here. And true socialism has been tried, and very successfully. The place it was tried is Israel, founded by communists. Perhaps your familiar with a thing called Kibbutz?
ReplyDeleteI see. We're all into Ayn Rand, have no compassion, and Israel is a successful communist state.
DeleteJust don't wear that tin foil hat in the rain.
I didn't say Israel is a communist country, I said it was founded by communists, Ben Gurian and Golda Meir, for example. And yes, Rubin is a Randian. The opposite of communism is not capitalism, it is oligarchy. Oligarchy is the reason that Venezuela is failing, the money going to the privileged few in the government. Norway, the country Trump wants immigrants from, is a socialist country, and those citizens don't seem to want to move here.
DeleteFriedrich Hayek provided the most useful definition of socialism in Chapter 1 of _The Road to Serfdom_. Government takeover of business enterprise is socialism, an expansive welfare state is not. Norway has an expansive welfare state, but I do not know enough about the structure of Norway's economy to say whether or not business enterprises are mostly privately or government owned.
DeleteThat said, India was socialist, in the sense of government ownership of business enterprise, for several decades after independence. This did not limit India's democratic development, but it did limit India's economic development.
Joseph!
DeleteThanks for dropping in, man. You are always welcome.
You are probably right in everything that you have written above, but I need to look a bit more closely at the charges.
btw, Ayn Rand?
Have we discussed Ayn Rand?
I would be happy to do so, but I simply do not recall us doing so in the past.
Joseph,
DeleteThis is what you wrote,
"Now I understand what is going on here, full Ayn Rand. Altruism is for suckers, religion is for idiots, compassion and understanding for fools."
Want to walk that back a little?
Sar Shalom,
Thanks.
Joseph is engaging in what I call "ideological shadow-boxing" which is a form of non-engagement with what is actually being said.
DeleteFor reasons of his own he has concluded that we are uncaring Randian libertarians and, thus, cruel anti-socialists... or something quite along those lines.
We've all come across this before. People who misinterpret what you are saying out of their own political inclinations, but with little reference to your actual views.
I think of us as people who care about the ugly relationship between Israel, the Jews, and the western-left.
What I fail to understand - among the very many things that I fail to understand - is the accusatory nature of the charges.
But, I tell ya what, this seems to be a moment for making clear ideological statements.
In truth, I am libertarian.
I am not an economic libertarian, but I am generally a social libertarian.
That is, I would prefer for the government to stay out of our bedrooms.
What I am not is an economic libertarian.
I believe in regulatory capitalism.
I believe in a social safety-net.
I believe in the regulation of polluting industries and the ensurance of worker safety laws.
If Joseph disagrees with either my economic stance or my social-libertarian stance, I would be happy to discuss.
Mike,
DeleteJoseph is only "probably right" within the strict and limited parameters he chooses to present, as usual.
His comments about communism and "full Ayn Rand" are of the same sort and as dependable as his claims for Sharia.
"The opposite of communism is not capitalism, it is oligarchy. "
Marxists love saying this.
I would like the government (and SJW's) out of my studio as well. Free expression, you know.
DeleteI'm in close agreement with you about the rest.
The guy means well.
DeleteI used to be a bit more like Joseph.
Isn't he a bit like you and me?
Delete(name that tune)
Jeff, when I was at Trumbull High School my English teacher played "Nowhere Man" for the class and we discussed it.
DeleteDamn Hippie!
:O)
But, I gotta say, I want to hear Joseph's criticisms.
I honestly do.
Maybe we're poking a bit of fun, but I always want to hear opposing or alternative views, as I know that you do.
In any case, it is a beautiful day here somewhere on the west coast of the United States!
Blue skies.
Speak for yourself. Some of the West Coast is cloudy and wet.
DeleteWould rather speak to people than about them, but have the feeling that Joseph is less interested in opposing views. From the rhetoric, he seems influenced by the progressive tendency to interpret in the worst light.
This could be due to their leaders, who paint things with such a broad brush, with the media alongside. 90% negative stories about Trump. Or it may be fueled by some unknown rage at living the highest quality of life ever known to humanity. Are they ever satisfied?
He, like others, seems woefully uniformed about what the opposition positions actually are. He does not get to define them anyway, despite the attempts, but could at least get it right. It's because he does not seem interested in listening. Perhaps trying to understand, rather than judge, would be a good start.
There's a recent book by Ken Stern, former CEO of NPR, that explains what can happen when a progressive opens his or her eyes.
In other words, where is the acceptance for calling and thinking people deplorable and irredeemable, while expressing such outrage over Trump's every utterance? When that type of acceptance takes place, maybe the sides can see that we have something worth protecting, even if it's not perfect by any stretch.
The book's link:
https://www.amazon.com/Republican-Like-Me-Liberal-Learned/dp/0062460781
MYTH: Capitalism is theft.
ReplyDeleteFACT: Socialism is theft.
===================================
Winston Churchill said this in year 1921 CE:
“Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities, but the influence of the religion [Islam] paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde* force exists in the world.”
* VOCABULARY NOTE:
The word RETROGRADE refers to an object which moves in the backward direction or degenerates to a worse condition.
SOURCE 1: Churchill and the Jews
(chapter 6, page 53) by Martin Gilbert, year 2007 CE
SOURCE 2: An older source for this quote:
The River War, by Winston Churchill in 1899 CE,
www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1592070/posts
CHRONOLOGY:
Winston Churchill was British Prime Minister
from 1940 to 1945 CE and from 1951 to 1955 CE.
Winston Churchill said this in a parliamentary debate 1921 June 14:
ReplyDeleteThe Wahabis*, Churchill noted, “profess a life of exceeding austerity, and what they practice themselves they rigorously enforce on others. They hold it as an article of duty, as well as of faith, to kill all who do not share their opinions and make slaves of their wives and children. Women have been put to death in Wahabi villages for simply appearing in the streets. It is a penal offense to wear a silk garment. Men have been killed for smoking a cigarette…”
* HISTORY NOTE: In July 2004, the 9/11 Commission identified Wahabism as a cause of Islamic Terrorism.
SOURCE: Churchill and the Jews
(chapter 7, page 67) by Martin Gilbert, 2007 CE
CHRONOLOGY:
Winston Churchill was British Prime Minister
from 1940 to 1945 CE and from 1951 to 1955 CE.
In the year 1922 CE Winston Churchill said this:
ReplyDelete“Left to themselves, the Arabs of Palestine would not in a thousand years have taken effective steps towards the irrigation and electrification of Palestine.
They would have been quite content to dwell, a handful of philosophic people, in the wasted sun-scorched plains, letting the waters of the Jordan continue to flow unbridled and unharnessed into the Dead Sea.”
SOURCE: Churchill and the Jews
(chapter 7, page 81) by Martin Gilbert, year 2007 CE
CHRONOLOGY:
Winston Churchill was British Prime Minister
from 1940 to 1945 CE and from 1951 to 1955 CE.
____________________________________________
This comment from Winston Churchill appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle dated 1929 September 12, one day after he said it:
“The Jews have developed the country, grown orchards and grain fields out of the desert, built schools and great buildings, constructed irrigation projects and water power houses and have made Palestine a much better place in which to live than it was before they came a few years ago. The Arabs are much better off now than before the Jews came, and it will be a short time only before they realize it.”
SOURCE: Churchill and the Jews
(chapter 8, page 91) by Martin Gilbert, year 2007 CE
CHRONOLOGY:
Winston Churchill was British Prime Minister
from 1940 to 1945 CE and from 1951 to 1955 CE.
____________________________________________
The 1929 September 13 edition of the New York Times printed an article which quoted Winston Churchill saying:
“To Jewish enterprise, the Arab owes nearly everything he has.
Fanaticism and a sort of envy have driven the Arab to violence and for the present the problem is one of proper policing until harmony has been restored.”
SOURCE: Churchill and the Jews (chapter 8,
page 92) by Martin Gilbert, year 2007 CE
CHRONOLOGY:
Winston Churchill was British Prime Minister
from 1940 to 1945 CE and from 1951 to 1955 CE.
____________________________________________
As for the Arabs of Palestine, [Winston] Churchill wrote [in year 1929 CE], they had been brought, as a result of the Jewish presence there:
“Nothing but good gifts, more wealth, more trade, more civilization, new sources of revenue, more employment, a higher rate of wages, larger cultivated areas, a better water supply; in a word, the fruits of reason and modern science.”
SOURCE: Churchill and the Jews (chapter 8,
page 92) by Martin Gilbert, year 2007 CE
CHRONOLOGY:
Winston Churchill was British Prime Minister
from 1940 to 1945 CE and from 1951 to 1955 CE.
I doubt anyone could make a sensible case that Israel is a socialist country since 1985. That was a period of economic calamity in Israel that sealed the socialist coffin shut. Since then it's been economically a mixed bag of pragmatism and hybrid systems and politically it's been right wing, internally in their own view, since around 1995.
ReplyDeleteIt's like calling Denmark a socialist country. Which it's not. It has the money to give lavish benefits to people but that's hot socialist. That's welfare. Switzerland had welfare and it's not a socialist country.
By the by the next time you have chat with a democrat or similar left winger in the US and they start prattling on about 'Sweden' ask them how they're going to sell the tax policy of taxing EVERYONE from the FIRST dollar. The first dollar. Everyone pay taxes, even the poor even the welfare recipients even people on permanent disability. Ask them how they plan on selling that to the 47% of Americans who pay zero federal and state taxes now. Oh we're going to take your money and trust us, we can do a better job with it than you can. And if not all of it goes back to you, well thank you very much.
You see therein is the nugget. Socialism really is in theory, an 'all for all' system, not a 'give me what's yours' system. So let me know how that conversation goes.
"Ask them how they plan on selling that to the 47% of Americans who pay zero federal and state taxes now."
DeleteEveryone who works pays 6% payroll tax for social security and a smaller percentage for Medicare. And yes, that is from the first dollar. You're not entitled to your own facts Trudy.
Income tax? Nope. Nope Nope Nope. Sorry.
Delete