At the instigation of a friend this morning, I've been reflecting on the poet and songwriter Leonard Cohen and, as sometimes happened, inspiration led to anger. In my professional life I work in politics. I am a public policy officer for a church, which means that I campaign on social justice issues. This never ceases to amaze me as I am an eccentric Christian with a deep distrust of the political system and of institutional religion, basically a kind of Green, New Age christian anarchist. With an anarchist's ingrained mistrust of party political rhetoric I find it hard to be self-righteous as it is so obvious that the more confident people are, the more likely they are to be wrong and the more agressively righteous and self-congratulatory, the more likely they are to be a danger to humanity. I know my feelings are very often *just* my feelings and I cannot prove I am right; I can only invite you into discussion with me.
I am not very politically-correct! One reason for this is that I notice that people who are always policing others' morals and accusing others of being 'racist' etc are very often horrible people personally, and those who go on about how much they hate 'fascists' are usually deeply supressive people who say derogatory things about the working classes in private and do not believe in democracy. I have observed this too often to believe it's a coincidence. Of course equality and social justice are infinitely worth fighting for, but just as it is often those with psychological flaws that end up ruling because of their desire to dominate, it is, ahem, not unknown for those working out their psychological problems through politics to end up as social justice campaigners. And to circulate political memes on Facebook. Legislating for 'good behaviour', policing people's thoughts and insisting that people are punished for not being nice are sad signs of a lack of faith in love and people's natural goodness. These are people who long for centralised power with which to control people's actions.
But in my line of work, not much is said about anti-semitism. One of the bizarre but often demonstrated reasons for this seems to be that not a few on the Left have a visceral dislike of Jewish people. This is covered over by the self-righteousness of 'I am a left liberal, no one is allowed to accuse *me* of racism. That is the weapon *I* use to attack *others* and silence them with'! Such people often attempt to court Muslim good-will while indulging their anti-semitic inclinations, without seeing that the problems faced by Muslims are those that have been faced by Jewish people. Often it doesn't take long for generalised discussion of 'Jews' to lead to disturbing comments about wealthy banking elites, international conspiracies, and before you know it you are listening to the (fake) Protocols of the Elders of Zion and other neo-medieval horrors.
Anti-semitism! To me it is the most inexplicable virus of the mind in human history. Left-wingers often misuse the word 'prejudice': for the grievances and dangerous grudges between different kinds of people are often not prejudice, but rather the raw anger of the unsophisticated, bad feeling, the desire for vengeance and redress that must eventually turn into reconciliation. But anti-semitism is - apart from its wrong-headed bigotry that has become genocide on a scale of millions and is never to be forgotten - a genuine prejudice. Europe has been served by Jewish people far more than it has served them. So this is a sign of a kind of madness beyond even malice as ordinarily understood.
The very religion of Europe's last 2000 years is a Jewish revelation - or heresy depending who you ask. And yet the history of Christianity is the history of marginalising the Jewish background to Christianity. Spiritual Christianity is incomprehensible without the Kabbalah and indeed the Talmud and Midrash. To get a genuine feeling for Jesus, listen to the Canadian Jewish (Buddhist!) poet Leonard Cohen, especially songs like Suzanne. Or read the mystical writings of Hazrat Inayat Khan, an Indian Sufi combining Eastern and Semitic inspiration and remember the deep shared roots of Judaism and Islam. You will find more of the spirit of Jesus there than in the professed spiritual leadership of North Europe or America. Thus will the Abrahamic faiths find reconciliation to the blessing of the whole world.
So many of the world's greatest musicians, writers, philosophers, scientists and mystics have been Jewish. In fact for my money the most talented people in the Western world have been Russians and Jews, with Russian Jews absurdly over-represented!
I do not want to talk about Nazism. But I do want to reflect on why certain people project their own soul-failings onto Jewish people. Firstly Christians: there have always been a healthy proportion of guilt-mongering, self-righteous Christians. After Hitler's holocaust, Christendom was never again going to be complacent about its 'righteousness', its assumed privilege to make others wrong, or its unacknowleged anti-semitism. So campaigning against Israel and Zionism all too easily becomes a psychological mechanism - see, Jewish people are bad (or 'bad too'); I can get away with saying this and *they* can stop making me feel guilty for being a Christian. A classic example of self-important ego inflation and megalomania being at the roots of guilt. For all Israel's problems, Jewish people have observed that Christians are particularly quick to criticise Israel for things they tolerate in other countries or indeed in their own lands. This is true.
Then there are the conspiracy theorists - ironically this trope of far-right fundamentalist paranoia has been adopted by many the Left and again it is a guilt-compensation mechanism that obscures the truth. For the truth is that a wealthy elite does indeed run the world: but it is ludicrous to suggest this has anything to do with a 'Jewish' conspiracy. Rather, materialism and power run the show, with the implicit collusion of those who use unadmitted anti-semitism to avoid seeing that is people just like them who rule the world, with a rather similar psychology indeed. It is easier to speak of Jews or paranoid delusions of 'reptilian shape-shifters' than to admit that one is envious of the global elite that control the world. And also to admit that while moaning about the Bilderberg Group, they are personally the best off and most privileged genereration that has ever lived. How easy to revive conspiracy theory: much easier than helping the poor or putting oneself to any inconvenience, or admitting that one *likes* the status quo and feels guilty.
Various archetypes and images have been projected onto Jewish people throughout history. Ahasuerus the Wandering Jew is one - but then as Jesus said 'Foxes have holes and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay hid head'. The Jewish people before, during and after Jesus life, have generally been denied a place to lay their head. The cliched insults hurled at Jewish people - words like cunning, avaricious, insular - are actually distinguishing marks of humanity, intelligence and culture misconstrued through envy and bad faith. Those in denial of humanity or filled with self-hatred insult Judaism to insult themselves. Those who love humanity will always give the Jews special recognition for what they have given humanity. Egypt, Babylon, Ancient Greece have fallen, but the Jewish people have preserved their culture, their wisdom within their own unique identity.
Yet of all archetypes we see in Jewish history, Job stands out. Afflicted, tested, tormented, abandoned, he never loses faith nor yet does he deny a jot of his reality. Humanity is Job. And we ache for our fallen brothers and sisters, those who have fallen before reaching the Promised Land. And we love our fellow humans with whom we rejoice and suffer, live and die in this corporeal world. This compassion is spiritual yet deeply somatic, of blood, bones and skin. Our heart faints within us in expectation.
"But the skylight is like skin for a drum I'll never mend
and all the rain falls down amen
on the works of last year's man"
Leonard Cohen, Last Year's Man
Shalom.
Thank you very much. It's so well said and to the point.
ReplyDeleteValeria