Category Archives: Cultural

The left is the party of hate and malice

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This is the start of an article by Roger Kimball.

Denis Diderot, model of the French Enlightenment that he was, gave memorable expression to that movement’s inveterate anti-clericalism. “Man will never be free,” said the energetic Encyclopédiste, “until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.”

They don’t talk much about kings and priests, but the civilization-hating anarchists of the Black Lives Matter movement would applaud Diderot’s sentiments. Although they sometimes wrap their destructive actions in fine-sounding rhetoric about justice and anti-racism, what they are really about is hate.

Recapping Thursday’s madness, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany noted that “A federal agent’s hand was impaled by planted nails, another federal agent was shot with a pellet gun, leaving a wound deep to the bone, and tragically, three federal officers were likely left permanently blinded by the rioters using lasers pointed directly into their eyes.”

No wonder Brooks Brothers, Nike, Uber, and practically every other wretched business you have ever dealt with are falling all over themselves to proclaim their solidarity with Black Lives Matter and committing to end “systemic racism” in the United States.

How to explain the mind-boggling disjunction between the violent savagery of the BLM crusaders, on the one hand, and the nauseating spectacles of frightened though congratulatory self-abasement by the white elite, on the other? Are the latter pleased by the news emanating from Portland and similar enclaves of vicious woke sentimentality?

Please don’t talk to me about the violent career criminal George Floyd. As I have noted repeatedly, the violence engulfing various Democratic-controlled cities has nothing to do with Floyd’s demise. “The death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25,” I wrote in early June “is merely the pretext for the violence. The cause is hatred.”

Let me end with the penultimate para which sums it up.

You might think that thugs rampaging through the streets of our cities are imperfect representatives of any “enlightened age.” In fact, ignorant though they are, they are proud and legitimate progeny of that echt Enlightenment figure Karl Marx, whose abiding passion was hatred of the civilization that created him and whose legacy was tyranny, immiseration, and death—wrapped up, naturally, in sweet-sound bulletins about the brotherhood of man and the ultimate emancipation of human aspiration.

Malice and hatred is what brings the masses to the streets, and all the better since they can pretend to do what they do for only the most noble reasons they can conjure. Reptilian and repulsive, but what is there to defend ourselves with?

Ba mir bistu sheyn

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A wonderful song but now with its history which is just as wonderful. But also with this as an economic lesson. The narrator tells how the song is eventually sold by its writers for thirty 1937 US dollars as if they had been shortchanged in some way. But as you follow the story along with the various bends in the road you see that there is more luck than genius as in many (most?) such stories. And for myself, I would rather be remembered as the person who wrote the song than as someone who had been paid a lot of money for something I once did but had no such success as part of my life story.

Frauds, snares and delusions in the age of the rhetorical virus

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Just picked up a quite excellent book in our local second-hand bookshop. It is titled, Fallacy: the Counterfeit of Argument, and was written in 1959. By happenstance, this is part of the introduction:

The triumph of rhetoric is like the spread of a virus infection. When an epidemic spreads through an area, it is said to prevail there, and local measures may be taken. But to say that it prevails does not mean that everyone is infected. Some persons may escape infection; others are immune. It is not necessary to labour the analogy in order to show that it would be a good idea if the community could somehow develop a serum against some forms of persuasion.

Few can hope to become immune to all the tricks of persuasion since, like viruses, there are too many of them. People are daily exposed to appeals to blind faith, self interest, fear, prejudice, fancy. This book cannot discuss persuasion in all its variety and complexity, but it can attempt to describe and illustrate some of the most dangerous strains.

Logic is the defence against trickery. The kinds of argument with which logic deals are the reasonable ones. Mistakes are possible, even frequent, in applying the forms of logical argument, and these mistakes are regarded as fallacies, many having been noted as early as Aristotle. We shall wish to guard against them. But the most common fallacies today are of a very different sort. It is a small comfort to know that an argument is entirely logical but that its validity derives its conclusion from its premises, and that all the rules of the syllogism, or whatever, are observed to a nicety, if it turns out that the premises are frauds, snares, delusions. There are brilliant tricks for getting people to accept all sorts of false premises as true (some of these tricks have been spotted since the time of the ancient Greeks), and these tricks are so prevalent that even when people realise that something is being pulled on them, they tend to let it pass.

Which brings me to this: The COVID Coup by Angelo Codevilla. It is the best political discussion of the political dimension of Covid-1984 I have come across so far. It was also posted at Instapundit where the “best” comment reads, in full, “Fantastic article”. From the article’s intro:

What history will record as the great COVID scam of 2020 is based on 1) a set of untruths and baseless assertions—often outright lies—about the novel coronavirus and its effects; 2) the production and maintenance of physical fear through a near-monopoly of communications to forestall challenges to the U.S.. ruling class, led by the Democratic Party, 3) defaulted opposition on the part of most Republicans, thus confirming their status as the ruling class’s junior partner. No default has been greater than that of America’s Christian churches—supposedly society’s guardians of truth.

Just read it long though it may be. If anything is needed more than reasoned discussion at this time, I cannot think what that is.

How do Democrats get a single vote?

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President of Portland police union, targeted
in protests, says community has ‘had enough’
Oregonian, by Tom Hallman, Jr. Original Article
Hours before what is expected to be the 53rd straight night of protests in the city, the head of the Portland police union said the community has “had enough.” Portland Police Association President Daryl Turner, surrounded by 20 faith leaders, business owners, police officers and neighborhood residents, held a news conference in front of the union’s offices in North Portland. On Saturday, protesters broke in and lit a fire inside. The building itself was covered with graffiti.
‘
Seattle rioters seen damaging,
looting stores; police say fire
sparked at precinct, officer hospitalized
Fox News, by Bradford Betz Original Article
At least two people were arrested in Seattle and a police officer is in the hospital Sunday after a march through downtown devolved into property damage and looting, police say. Police said Sunday evening the demonstrators had broken out several windows of the East Precinct, then threw a device into the lobby that ignited a small fire. The fire was later extinguished and no injuries were reported, police said. The demonstration started between 2 and 3 p.m. near the intersection of 3rd Avenue and Pine Street. A photo posted on Seattle’s DOT traffic channel showed crowds blocking an intersection.
‘
Bill Barr appoints immigration judge who’s
a fmr director at FAIR, known for hard-line
immigration policies
BizPac Review, by Vivek Saxena Original Article
Members of the left are upset that Attorney General Bill Barr has appointed an immigration judge who actually respects and believes in America’s immigration laws. “The judge, Matthew J. O’Brien, was officially named to his new position in the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Executive Office of Immigration Review (EOIR) in June — but was just formally inducted into the largest ever corps of immigration judges along with 45 others,” Law & Order, a far-left news website, complained Saturday. “‘From 2016 to 2020, he served as the director of research at the Federation for American Immigration Reform.’ … The group, known in immigration law circles by its acronym, FAIR,
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These were the latest three posts at lucianne.com

The Seven Deadly Sins and the evil of the modern left

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This chart put out by the Smithsonian in Washington disappeared too rapidly since it really does say what needs saying about the modern left. It is evil to its very core. Everything listed on that chart are seen as bad. White Culture is seen as bad. If you want to understand politics in the West today, you need to absorb what you are being explicitly told. These values, these beliefs are bad for you and bad for any society in which these occur.

What you see in this chart is the explicit rejection of the Seven Virtues and the adoption of the Seven Deadly Sins. Here they are in order as represented by the moral vultures seen everywhere on the left.

Envy is the resentful covetousness towards the traits or possessions of others.

Sloth is a habitual disinclination to exertion, a desire for something for nothing, the belief that the world owes them a living.

Greed is a rapacious desire and pursuit of material possessions but without first attempting to produce the valuable goods and services that could be exchanged for what they want.

Wrath is uncontrolled feelings of anger, rage, and even hatred. In its purest form, wrath presents with injury, violence, and hate.

Pride also known as hubris is identified as dangerously corrupt selfishness, the putting of one’s own desires, urges, wants, and whims before the welfare of other people. It is considered the original and most serious of the seven deadly sins.

Lust is usually thought of as intense or unbridled sexual desire. However, lust can also mean unbridled desire in general; thus, lust for money, power, and other things.

Gluttony is the overindulgence of anything to the point of waste.

The President’s Lady and the Battle of New Orleans

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I have just finished a novel on Andrew Jackson’s wife, The President’s Lady written by Irving Stone in 1951:

In this acclaimed biographical novel, Irving Stone brings to life the tender and poignant love story of Rachel and Andrew Jackson. “Beyond any doubt one of the great romances of all time.” — The Saturday Review of Literature.

An incredible story of both of them, but it ends just as he becomes president and she almost exactly at the same time passes away. She never even made it to the inauguration. They both had an amazing life – he meets her when she is 16 and already married in what we would today call an abusive relationship. But in 1792 a divorce was only available at the initiative of her husband, which must go through the state legislature which her first husband, unbeknownst to her, never undertakes although she thinks he has. So beyond everything else – including a duel to the death – the marriage is a major political scandal where he is elected although she is, according to the morality of the time, an adulteress!

He arrives in Washington without his beloved wife and finds the atmosphere cold and distant. This, however, is how the book ends.

But he reckoned without the mob of his followers who had come to Washington City from ever part of the Union to witness his inauguration. They poured down Pennsylvania Avenue, streamed through the gates of the White House, found their way into the East Room, devoured the ice cream and cakes and orange punch. They climbed on the furniture to catch a glimpse of Andrew, soiling the damask chairs with their muddy boots, staining the carpets, breaking glasses and china, shouting and surging and pushing, all thousands of them, wanting to reach Andrew and embrace him.

He stood at the back of the room, imprisoned, yet feeling the first glint of happiness since Rachael’s death. These were the people; they had stood by him. They had loved Rachael, they had vindicated her. For that, he loved them, and would fight for them the rest of his days.

They were “the deplorables” of their own time. I was not the first to notice how similar Donald Trump is to Andrew Jackson, but it is more obvious to me now than it was before.

The video of the Battle of New Orleans above is all that I can find of the movie made from the book at the time. In the book, the battle is a minor moment in the story since it is mostly about her and not him. Lots about him, but almost everything is only seen through her own eyes. If she was not present, virtually all other events are only described where she is being told about them either by her husband or by others. A brilliant book and a story I had never even heard hinted at before. This, btw, is the flyer for movie that was made from the book.

General Invincible295.jpeg

Even more than before, I understand that Donald Trump is the Andrew Jackson of our own time.

And here is The Battle of New Orleans as sung by Johnny Horton:

As amazing to me as anything is that this is a compilation of the pictures with the words put together by Diana West which has had almost 18 million hits. If only American Betrayal had had as many hits and readers.

And then there is this, the story of how The Star Spangled Banner was written.

I may have been born and brought up in Canada where the War of 1812 has always had a different meaning. But I am at one with freedom and liberty and in the world today it means to side with the United States of America against its enemies both foreign and domestic.

The Jewish Arts quarter in Elsternwick

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An artist's impression of the proposed Jewish Arts Quarter in Elsternwick.

An artist’s impression of the proposed Jewish Arts Quarter in Elsternwick.

In the morning, on the way to the station I turn right onto Sinclair Street and there is Sholem Aleicham with all of the children playing in the playground. And then I turn left onto Selwyn Street which is where the Holocaust Centre is located. Same Jewish children exactly, only separated by place and date. It often spooks me out. This is from The Age today:‘Our own Lygon Street’: Jewish arts precinct set for Elsternwick.

Melbourne could get its own “Jewish Lygon Street”, showcasing the diaspora’s art, history and culture in the city’s south.

The proposed Jewish Arts Quarter, on Selwyn Street in Elsternwick, includes a new eight-storey building featuring exhibition, co-working and education spaces.

From Israeli dance workshops to Yiddish performances, art and craft markets, and street festivals, it is hoped the quarter will be a creative hub to learn, shop, eat, meet and schmooze.

Project co-chair Joe Tigel grew up blocks away from the Kadimah, where his father, a Holocaust survivor, threw himself into cultural life after arriving in Australia from Poland through Germany following the Second World War.

“The Kadimah was this massive repository of Jewish life because the post-Holocaust generation … came to see it as its cultural home,” he said. “It gave you a richness of being.

“We just enjoyed [a] celebration of being who we were and freedom.”

Mr Tigel, who is also the Kadimah’s vice-president, described the new quarter as an expansion and reimagining of the area that would provide a cultural home for generations to come.

He said while Melbourne had many Jewish religious and educational institutions, it lacked a hub that catered to the diversity of Australian Jews.

“We want to be a broad church and that is to give a sense of Jewish culture, creativity, expression, without dogma,” he said.

Mr Tigel hoped the precinct would attract all Melburnians, similar to how people travel to Oakleigh for Greek culture and to Footscray for Vietnamese experiences.

“This is an opportunity for our community to celebrate itself, but also for others to be welcome in it and start to get a feel for our food and culture,” he said.

Jewish Museum of Australia director Jess Bram said it was “phenomenally exciting” and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the organisations to offer an experience as a collective.

The design also features a sprawling plaza, to be surrounded by shops and restaurants.

“It’s a reinvigoration of Jewish life and culture in one streetscape,” she said. “There’s a profound impact that will have, not only in the way that we engage with our audiences and the Jewish community, but more globally as well in terms of the storytelling that we can do.

“There’s going to be some magic that comes to Elsternwick.”

MP for Caulfield David Southwick said it would help fight growing anti-Semitism.

“The best way to combat hate is through education and experience,” he said. “It will teach the worst atrocity known to man … the Holocaust, but also show … how resilient the Jewish community has been. It’s creating our own Jewish Lygon Street.”

Glen Eira mayor Margaret Esakoff said although the proposal was yet to go before the council, it had been well received.

“It has certainly been something that we’ve envisioned as being appropriate for this particular part of Elsternwick,” she said.

“It should be something that ends up very valuable and vibrant.”

Residents have been rallying against another proposal for Selwyn Street, on the corner of Sinclair Street, where supermarket giant Woolworths wants to turn ABC’s old studios into twin towers, one 14 storeys high.

The proposal by the supermarket, which is before the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, includes selling a 1000-square-metre space to the Jewish Arts Quarter at a reduced rate.

Stop the Elsternwick Towers member Kathy Deacon said the group was in favour of the Jewish quarter, but against the Woolworths development.

Locating a supermarket on a site that can only be serviced by trucks running along small side streets and opposite the School must be against every form of zoning regulation ever devised. We hardly need another supermarket in the area, but this would be unique. And in a perfect setting for what it wishes to become.