tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7146512.post113392624895614728..comments2024-03-12T22:31:46.500-04:00Comments on What Would Phoebe Do?: Not-Bernard Lazare on anti-SemitismPhoebe Maltz Bovyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17996039330841139883noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7146512.post-1134170007285174542005-12-09T18:13:00.000-05:002005-12-09T18:13:00.000-05:00But for "Jewish" to become no more "special" than ...<I>But for "Jewish" to become no more "special" than "French" or "German" or "American," and thus to allow Jews to be impressive as individuals if they happen to be impressive individuals...</I><BR/><BR/>1) Isn't this part of the problem in France, that one cannot so easily remove the conflation of nationalism and ethnicity in some places?<BR/><BR/>2) This much less so in the US, but then, there's no "American" ethnicity since Americans rejected one of the main ethnicity-based traditions in favor of ruling themselves, then buying/stealing lots of land from a second and engaged in genocide upon a third quasi-grouping and importing/enslaving some others. Ethnicity is important, but not in the same way as this comparison implies; the closest one could come is the legacy of slavery (also known as let's-forget-about-those-other-groups and-fight-amongst-ourselves). Instead, we've chosen as a bunch of sub-national groups to engage in <I>other</I> types of stupidity.<BR/><BR/>3) Just how far am I from the original point of the post?<BR/><BR/>agmAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7146512.post-1134083628783531252005-12-08T18:13:00.000-05:002005-12-08T18:13:00.000-05:00I agree that Lazare overstates in his criticism. N...I agree that Lazare overstates in his criticism. Nationalist/ethnic chauvinism is still a part of politics in most states, and there are countervailing forces to it in Israel just as there are in other modern democracies. <BR/><BR/>The only respect in which I would agree with Lazare is in his reference to "the rhetoric of ethnic homogeneity and ethnic deportations, tabooed elsewhere in the West, is a routine element of Israeli political life," from Slezkine. This is something that, again, is certainly not unheard of in modern societies (Huntington, anyone?), but during my visit to Israel I was struck by the very overt and near-constant references to "the demographic threat", in newspapers, on TV talk shows, in graffiti. I understand the impulse behind it, but I did find it disturbing, especially since I was there as a guest of Muslim friends.Matt Dusshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01695225036534028942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7146512.post-1134016424328316362005-12-07T23:33:00.000-05:002005-12-07T23:33:00.000-05:00p.s. Obviously I should have made clear that I was...p.s. Obviously I should have made clear that I was referring to the secondary stress on the first syllable of 'Japanese' since the primary is on the third. <BR/><BR/>Yes, I'm beginning to get a feel for what you were talking about. Now that I've discovered my original characteristic I'd really rather just be non-annoying like everyone else. <BR/><BR/>I should really restart my own blog instead of just spilling out all over these pages.joehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05852303193050783556noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7146512.post-1134015656063559392005-12-07T23:20:00.000-05:002005-12-07T23:20:00.000-05:00It's really too bad that we don't pronounce 'j' as...It's really too bad that we don't pronounce 'j' as 'y' like in German because then "been my yen to be Japanese" would retain the phonic ring of "been my yen to be unique" while adding the pun layer as well. Well, on second thought the first syllable stress on 'Japanese' doesn't work as well as the second syllable stress of 'unique.' <BR/><BR/>Here's another phonically nice phrase: uniquely annoying. Yes, at long last I have found it, my original characteristic.joehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05852303193050783556noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7146512.post-1134010104424296972005-12-07T21:48:00.000-05:002005-12-07T21:48:00.000-05:00And it's always been my "yen" to be Japanese. Go f...And it's always been my "yen" to be Japanese. Go figure.Phoebe Maltz Bovyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17996039330841139883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7146512.post-1134009373031116252005-12-07T21:36:00.000-05:002005-12-07T21:36:00.000-05:00It works from this side of the fence too. Having a...It works from this side of the fence too. Having an extraordinarily ordinary demographic profile, it's always been my yen to be unique. I'm pretty sure that when I was young I thought I was Jewish and was pretty disappointed when I learned that, no, I wasn't one of the chosen people we just read good stories about them. But I might be constructing that memory in an effort to be unique; I'm not sure.joehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05852303193050783556noreply@blogger.com