Posted on 07/31/2006 12:29:38 PM PDT by veronica
Edited on 07/31/2006 1:43:28 PM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
I was just in the middle of writing a long and tedious essay, about how to tell a real anti-Semite from a person who too-loudly rejects the charge of anti-Semitism, when a near-perfect real-life example came to hand. That bad actor and worse director Mel Gibson, pulled over for the alleged offense of speeding and the further alleged offense of speeding under the influence, decided that he needed to demand of the arresting officer whether he was or was not Jewish and that he furthermore needed to impart the information that all the world's wars are begun by those of Semitic extraction.
Call me thin-skinned if you must, but I think that this qualifies. I also think that the difference between the blood-alcohol levels—and indeed the speed limits—that occasioned the booking are insufficient to explain the expletives (as Gibson has since claimed in a typically self-pitying and verbose statement put out by his publicist). One does not abruptly decide, between the first and second vodka, or the ticks of the indicator of velocity, that the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion are valid after all.
There's a lot to dislike about Gibson. He is given to furious tirades against homosexuals of the sort that make one wonder if he has some kind of subliminal or "unaddressed" problem. His vulgar and nasty movies, which also feature this prejudice, are additionally replete with the cheapest caricatures of the English.
also ......... learn how to read.
The fact is that from the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD up until the founding of Israel in 1948 AD, the Jewish people were scattered around the world with no realistic home base. They were a religious minority wherever they were.
For most of history religion and kinship were the source of all meaning for pretty much everybody. One's existence and social value was defined by one's kinship ties and ability to participate in the required rites of the common religion.
Jews were not related to the general populace of any land by physical kinship nor could they participate spiritually in the rites.
People are naturally suspicious of outsiders - it is a gut human reaction to be on your guard around people whose culture and values are not immediately understandable to you.
Add to the outsider status that Jews culturally prized learnedness among their leadership (Talmudic scholarship was a badge of status and authority in the Diaspora) through long centuries where the general populace preferred military prowess in their leadership (early medieval Europe, Islam throughout history).
This emphasis on learning did two things: it gave Jews a decided advantage as society became more complex - Jewish cultural achievement morphed into an important skillset; and it inspired unscrupulous non-Jewish leaders to employ Jews in vitally important but disrespected capacities (tax-farming and banking were not considered polite employments for proper Christian gentlemen, but without these jobs getting done, the great European powers would enver have been so secure and civilized).
Therefore, Jews were viewed as bookish, unmanly outsiders who wielded power and influence disproportionate to their numbers.
This view was not a rational one, but one completely based on resentment and narcissism. Ideas like the blood libel were fleshed out and articulated to create some kind of justifiable rationale for an ultimately irrational phenomenon, dressing up uncharitable hatred as religious zeal.
The final analysis is that the Jews were simultaneously different from everybody else and generally really good at their jobs - and we can see from the class warfare the Democrats drum up every election cycle that a lazy rabble can always be counted upon to hate and fear success and successful people.
I am not convinced that Mr. Gibson is a hardcore anti-Semite. If he really is, I hope his heart is changed. But a man out driving his car at 2:00 am, drunk-as-a-skunk, who says what he said, obviously has some serious problems we don't know anything about. He is mortified with shame as it reflects on him, his WIFE and his CHILDREN, as he should be. As any of us should be. He has given what certainly appears to be a sincere apology, mentioning everything and everybody he can in showing remorse, and there's not even a HINT of an "excuse" from his statement to the press & public. WHAT MORE CAN HE DO TO FIX THE PROBLEM to EVERYONE'S SATISFACTION? Kill himself? Is that what the anti-Mel Gibson people want? To those who are not satisfied, WHAT MORE CAN HE DO OR SAY TO SHOW HE IS SERIOUS AND REMORSEFUL? Go to the Holocaust museum, trailed by the sanctified media? Attend a local Temple service? Renounce Christ and convert to Judiasm? (He's a Catholic.) Would that suffice everyone? There is NOT ONE PERSON reading this who is without sin. If you were in his shoes, do you think you could do a better job of satisfying all your critics? I know I couldn't. It would be impossible. I'm disappointed and shocked what came out of his mouth when he was drunk, but HE WAS DRUNK!
If this episode is what it takes to answer some questions in his own mind, whatever they are, then so be it. He doesn't and won't get a total pass on his public drunken behavior and dangerous DUI, and he'll have to go to court, plus he has and will have the media to answer to for the rest of his life. How many of us have had stupid things we've done and said splashed across the screen, day after day, for everyone to comment on? (If the sin in my life was fodder for the MSM, I probably wouldn't be breathing right now.) I think Mr. Gibson must have a lot of anguish inside right now, whether or not he's checked into a rehab unit, which is what they all do when something similar happens to "them." I think some are sincere, and some just do it to cool down the negative publicity. I hope Mr. Gibson is sincere. I really do. Hang in there, Mel.
I don't know if the president got special treatment or not, it was such a long time ago. But you shouldn't be so critical of him being stopped for the same thing you did.
I wasn't critical of him for getting caught driving drunk. I was critical about the RECORD of his getting caught driving drunk!
I want to add this to my post. When a person is drunk, it loosens inhibitions that normally are in place otherwise. It would be naive to say Mr. Gibson doesn't have certainly some "reservations" about Jews, but exactly what they are remains to be seen. So to anyone who would surmise I don't realize the effects alcohol creates, I add this. But judge Mr. Gibson on what he does, not on what he says when he's drunk. Disney has now pulled the T.V. mini-series production he was working on about a Dutch Jew during the Holocaust. So, Gibson is paying already. So, has Abe Foxman of ABC HELPED the Jews by doing this, or hindered them?
Hew moron................... I made NO SUCH argument!
I merely asked a question wishing for a serious answer.
Yesterday I posed that SAME question seven times. Five times other posters were kind enough to give me a serious and intelligent answer. It was very good of them and I learned a lot!
You and 'juliej' chose to take the low road, go on the attack and cast aspersions.
Your behavior is what makes some lean toward disdaining Jews.
I just wanted a serious answer. You two need help.
NO, you need help you bigot! I call it as I see it. I can read between the lines - I know a bigot when I see one.
learn how to . . . write.
Why would you lean toward disdaining Jews because of what a couple of non-Jews say?
Are you just looking for justification for your prejudice?
You've made some eye-brow raising statements on this thread that makes me wonder what your motivations are.
check smoking gun
look in the mirror and you will see paranoid. And obnoxious.
Hitchens has admitted he likes to imbibe. Gibson, on the other hand, is a sanctimonious hateful person who calls his wife a "saint" as he gropes two blondes in the photo posted in the NY Post.
.......... a paraniod, name-calling fool is what you are.
and you showed your true colors!
Yes, you sound very "plebish".
There you go again.
I did not say that I lean toward disdaining Jews. I do NOT! Please read.
LOL .......... are you standing behind me?
How would you know that if you didn't feel it yourself, to say nothing of the outright weirdness of the comment?
I'm pinging you two because I mentioned you.
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