12-13-2019, 12:32 AM
I do not accuse President Trump of fomenting antisemitic violence directly.He is creating a climate of hate by stoking resentments that can go violent. He has done little to make America a better place for people not already filthy rich.
Economic resentments often lead to religious and ethnic bigotry, and bigotry erodes the civility that makes domestic tranquility possible. Face it -- under-educated white people are being left behind, and some of them shout "Jews will not replace us!" (presumably with non-white people).
I recognize an ironic affinity to Jews through the German part of my heritage. When Germany was a leader in cultural creativity (that ended in 1933, and if you want some idea of how great Germany could have been in cultural creativity, then just look at German cinema around 1930. That talent did not fade away; the Jewish part found its way to Hollywood. Jewish actors, writers, and directors endowed America with cinematic masterpieces still eminently watchable to this day. Germany became for all practical purposes a cultural fossil.
But it goes beyond that. Even with the crony capitalism that we now endure as neoliberalism we still have some room for spectacular achievement. People not at the top of the game will get the dubious privilege of survival at the terms of an economic and administrative elites who recognize no right for the person of ordinary talent to do anything other than to suffer for the gain, indulgence, and power of those elites. Those elites seek monopoly control over everything.They want a few giant corporations to control everything. So if you want to start a small business -- you can no longer operate a store, restaurant, or bank as a cottage industry. Even the tax laws strongly favor the dinosaurs of our time... and don't let me get into the power of advertising. So if you want to be an independent professional you will have to start with gigantic student loans.
The bad parts of our heritage bite us back when the economic elites go from being innovators who make improvements the quality of life for most people (what Arnold Toynbee called a creative elite) into one adept at commanding its subjects into making great sacrifices just for the questionable survival (which is what Toynbee's dominant elite does).
Maybe we cannot quite return to chattel slavery, but much of America can revert to the debt-bondage of sharecropping. Thoroughly-rotten social orders have a missionary zeal to spread the nastiness where such is unwelcome --which means that Manifest Destiny might get a sick revival.
Economic resentments often lead to religious and ethnic bigotry, and bigotry erodes the civility that makes domestic tranquility possible. Face it -- under-educated white people are being left behind, and some of them shout "Jews will not replace us!" (presumably with non-white people).
I recognize an ironic affinity to Jews through the German part of my heritage. When Germany was a leader in cultural creativity (that ended in 1933, and if you want some idea of how great Germany could have been in cultural creativity, then just look at German cinema around 1930. That talent did not fade away; the Jewish part found its way to Hollywood. Jewish actors, writers, and directors endowed America with cinematic masterpieces still eminently watchable to this day. Germany became for all practical purposes a cultural fossil.
But it goes beyond that. Even with the crony capitalism that we now endure as neoliberalism we still have some room for spectacular achievement. People not at the top of the game will get the dubious privilege of survival at the terms of an economic and administrative elites who recognize no right for the person of ordinary talent to do anything other than to suffer for the gain, indulgence, and power of those elites. Those elites seek monopoly control over everything.They want a few giant corporations to control everything. So if you want to start a small business -- you can no longer operate a store, restaurant, or bank as a cottage industry. Even the tax laws strongly favor the dinosaurs of our time... and don't let me get into the power of advertising. So if you want to be an independent professional you will have to start with gigantic student loans.
The bad parts of our heritage bite us back when the economic elites go from being innovators who make improvements the quality of life for most people (what Arnold Toynbee called a creative elite) into one adept at commanding its subjects into making great sacrifices just for the questionable survival (which is what Toynbee's dominant elite does).
Maybe we cannot quite return to chattel slavery, but much of America can revert to the debt-bondage of sharecropping. Thoroughly-rotten social orders have a missionary zeal to spread the nastiness where such is unwelcome --which means that Manifest Destiny might get a sick revival.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.