Peter Beinart & Omer Bartov on UPenn President Resignation, Gaza & the Weaponization of Antisemitism

 

Frankly, I don’t care at all about the “sensitivities” of any Jew (and I’m one) as Israel rampages through Gaza, breaking every decent standard of god and man.  

But I’m not a hyper-narcissistic ethno-supremacist. I have other, healthy ways to “feel good about myself” that don’t require happily allowing the despicable misuse of the memory of one genocide to allow another (or close enough).  

Not that I’m so great of course but I find that doing right garners valid self-regard (itself sort of beside the point) as opposed to marinating in the kind of self-aggrandizing victimhood that all too easily morphs into victimizing others.  

But there will always be those who need to fill the void with the free handout—the participation trophy—of ethnonarcissism, regardless of the cost to others. In fact, the sadistic thrill of the cost to others—obvious to those outside the cult-bubble—is the point, as is camouflaging it with self-righteousness. It’s the tacit agreement between the creators and consumers of the propaganda, but the creators know the consumers will love them for the opportunity not to look in the mirror, to find a sanctioned enemy on which to displace all their own failures.  

Better to have the minimal courage to own your own failures, and thus go a long way towards inoculating yourself from propaganda, rather than lying aspread breathlessly inviting any seduction, no matter the vileness of the suitor. Unpopular conclusion; it will become increasingly so as the results of our collective failure on carbon increasingly bites. 

Old story; hardly limited to this situation or these ethnicities. I refuse to play ball with any version of it.