What is Anarchistic Judaism?
This question was recently posed to me. The article on the link below is my level best tentative response, in so far as I am currently able to answer this very difficult question.
http://tinyurl.com/syelf
The Hebrew version of this essay entitled, not surprisingly,
?מהי יהדות אנרכיסטית is to be found on the following URL: http://tinyurl.com/ulcan
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat (Safed), Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Monday, September 18, 2006
Possible Way to Defeat Radical Islam
As background to this post, I'd like to turn the readers' attention to an absolutely stunning video entitled "Obsession". If you have not seen it; I recommend that you set aside one hour and seventeen minutes and see some of the most nitty-gritty footage of radical Islam ever assembled. The video is to be found on this URL:http://tinyurl.com/sxkov
I discussed the Obsession video with others.They watched part of it and want to see the rest when they have time.
One of them, kidding, said: "Guess we'll have to become Muslims."
A light went on when he said that.
YES!
That may just be the only way to beat them.
Just as they have infiltrated our countries; we must infiltrate their Islam by "converting" and destroy if from within.
With a flood of phony converts who undermine Islam from within we can destroy Islam. Their "religion" will never be the same if millions of Western people intent on uprooting Islam feign conversion.
I believe that the churches weakened themselves by forcing conversion.
There were many converts who talked the talk, but they never were Christians inside and their mass effect over generations weakened the power structure of the churches.
As we know, any Jewish "Conversos" who were forcibly converted in Spain and Portugal pretended to be Catholics, but they undermined the religion and secretly passed Jewish teachings on to their children and they to their children and so on. Today there are families in the Spanish-speaking world who were converted over 500 years ago to Catholicism by force who are returning to their Jewish roots.
Armed warfare with Islam is impossible. They are in every country and their armies are massive.
The only way to beat them is from within.
Understand that I mean this as a last resort. I am certainly not running off to my nearest mosque for a quicky conversion, but if Armeggedon comes; I think this may be the best way to deal with the situation.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
__________________
As background to this post, I'd like to turn the readers' attention to an absolutely stunning video entitled "Obsession". If you have not seen it; I recommend that you set aside one hour and seventeen minutes and see some of the most nitty-gritty footage of radical Islam ever assembled. The video is to be found on this URL:http://tinyurl.com/sxkov
I discussed the Obsession video with others.They watched part of it and want to see the rest when they have time.
One of them, kidding, said: "Guess we'll have to become Muslims."
A light went on when he said that.
YES!
That may just be the only way to beat them.
Just as they have infiltrated our countries; we must infiltrate their Islam by "converting" and destroy if from within.
With a flood of phony converts who undermine Islam from within we can destroy Islam. Their "religion" will never be the same if millions of Western people intent on uprooting Islam feign conversion.
I believe that the churches weakened themselves by forcing conversion.
There were many converts who talked the talk, but they never were Christians inside and their mass effect over generations weakened the power structure of the churches.
As we know, any Jewish "Conversos" who were forcibly converted in Spain and Portugal pretended to be Catholics, but they undermined the religion and secretly passed Jewish teachings on to their children and they to their children and so on. Today there are families in the Spanish-speaking world who were converted over 500 years ago to Catholicism by force who are returning to their Jewish roots.
Armed warfare with Islam is impossible. They are in every country and their armies are massive.
The only way to beat them is from within.
Understand that I mean this as a last resort. I am certainly not running off to my nearest mosque for a quicky conversion, but if Armeggedon comes; I think this may be the best way to deal with the situation.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
__________________
Ontological Anarchy, Quantum Physics and Judaism
As background to Ontological Anarchy please see:
http://tinyurl.com/mxyrl
Having considered the concepts of Ontological Anarchy and Quantum Physics, at least briefly; we can now tie them to Judaism.
It might seem that if we accept that Anarchy is ontological then we have to reject the set Laws in Torah. Or, if we accept that the universe is ruled by the Laws in Torah, then we cannot posit ontological Anarchy.
One or the other needs to go. Right? I think not.
Remember that all of the letters in Hebrew are numerical values. Since numerical values all have an infinite number of substitution values; it is true that there is always an infinite number of alternative, equivalent readings of the Torah effective.
See: The Imperative of Moral Mathematics
http://tinyurl.com/6o3no
-and-
ALEPH – The Unending One
http://tinyurl.com/zghyg
In other words, we have to start to think of that which is written in Torah in a "quantum" manner, to describe the thinking in modern jargon. We are used to thinking of Torah "collapsed" into one possibility of reading/computation, but in reality it is in infinite states of reading/computation and availing itself of infinite interpretation always. It is we who solidify it into one state when we observe it in a state of mochin katnut (restricted consciousness in Aramaic), even as we do the very same to the physical world when we train our consciousness on it.
As background to the following discussion please see:
Anarchy and the Spiritual Quest
http://tinyurl.com/mr9pk
Our consciousness is, in large part, predicated upon our interactions with others in society. As we relate to one another, so we conceptualize and take cognizance of the phenomena presented to our consciousness, or more correctly, take cognizance of the fact that our consciousness is producing that which is presented to it. It is generally accepted that how we use language determines our consciousness, that consciousness is a function of linguistics. Looking deeper into the matter; it will become apparent that our language is nothing other than memeplexes - that is our conceptual inheritance, the ways in which we were taught from infancy to relate to other human beings, as those who came before us did. Among the media of exchange of this information are language; observable behavior among people: caring or indifference, deference to some, lack of respect for others, addressing some by their titles, addressing others by their proper names, not addressing some at all and so on; the way in which we relate to others' material substance.
If we wish to perceive תורה in its "quantum" majesty, if we wish to the following passage from Henry David Thoreau's WALDEN to apply to us, as תורה-living Jews: "He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him; or the old laws be expanded, and interpreted in his favor in a more liberal sense, and he will live with the license of a higher order of beings" ; it is imperative that we build a society that allows us to relate to one another in far more cooperative, expansive, creative ways.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat (Safed), Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
dandor@013.net - עברית
As background to Ontological Anarchy please see:
http://tinyurl.com/mxyrl
Having considered the concepts of Ontological Anarchy and Quantum Physics, at least briefly; we can now tie them to Judaism.
It might seem that if we accept that Anarchy is ontological then we have to reject the set Laws in Torah. Or, if we accept that the universe is ruled by the Laws in Torah, then we cannot posit ontological Anarchy.
One or the other needs to go. Right? I think not.
Remember that all of the letters in Hebrew are numerical values. Since numerical values all have an infinite number of substitution values; it is true that there is always an infinite number of alternative, equivalent readings of the Torah effective.
See: The Imperative of Moral Mathematics
http://tinyurl.com/6o3no
-and-
ALEPH – The Unending One
http://tinyurl.com/zghyg
In other words, we have to start to think of that which is written in Torah in a "quantum" manner, to describe the thinking in modern jargon. We are used to thinking of Torah "collapsed" into one possibility of reading/computation, but in reality it is in infinite states of reading/computation and availing itself of infinite interpretation always. It is we who solidify it into one state when we observe it in a state of mochin katnut (restricted consciousness in Aramaic), even as we do the very same to the physical world when we train our consciousness on it.
As background to the following discussion please see:
Anarchy and the Spiritual Quest
http://tinyurl.com/mr9pk
Our consciousness is, in large part, predicated upon our interactions with others in society. As we relate to one another, so we conceptualize and take cognizance of the phenomena presented to our consciousness, or more correctly, take cognizance of the fact that our consciousness is producing that which is presented to it. It is generally accepted that how we use language determines our consciousness, that consciousness is a function of linguistics. Looking deeper into the matter; it will become apparent that our language is nothing other than memeplexes - that is our conceptual inheritance, the ways in which we were taught from infancy to relate to other human beings, as those who came before us did. Among the media of exchange of this information are language; observable behavior among people: caring or indifference, deference to some, lack of respect for others, addressing some by their titles, addressing others by their proper names, not addressing some at all and so on; the way in which we relate to others' material substance.
If we wish to perceive תורה in its "quantum" majesty, if we wish to the following passage from Henry David Thoreau's WALDEN to apply to us, as תורה-living Jews: "He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him; or the old laws be expanded, and interpreted in his favor in a more liberal sense, and he will live with the license of a higher order of beings" ; it is imperative that we build a society that allows us to relate to one another in far more cooperative, expansive, creative ways.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat (Safed), Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
dandor@013.net - עברית
Sunday, September 17, 2006
Israel is a Democracy! Right?
Israel most certainly is a democracy and a beaut of one it is too. In the space of this essay we will define democracy properly and it will become painfully apparent just how democratic the State of Israel is.
In order to make clear what democracy is, I should like to share the following with the reader:
There was once a particularly well done and disturbing episode of The Twilight Zone on American television. In an imagined 'future' there were some five or six state-sanctioned physical and mental types for each both men and women. Everyone had to undergo the operations necessary to become one of these types. The choice of which type to become was free, but the types were set. Each of the types were considered physically perfect and deemed mentally and emotionally desirable in this futuristic society. There was one young woman who, though physically plain and quirkily imperfect, didn't want to become one of the state-sanctioned types. She accepted herself as she was and didn't think that becoming another doll-like mannequin would be an improvement. She was subjected to a great deal of social temptation to become one of the state-sanctioned types. She was told that it was to her benefit to undergo the operations and those benefits were described, tantalizingly, to her. Yet, she persisted in wishing to remain herself. She was afterward cajoled, then she was ridiculed. As she persisted in holding her ground, ridicule turned to pressure, to making her feel isolated and unwanted and ultimately to threats. Yet, she held out and did not undergo the operation. It was explained to her 'rationally' that she was being unreasonable, irrational and unnecessarily iconoclastic. She was cajoled. She was told that she was being a troublemaker. She was told that she was, incidentally, rather repulsive physically as well. She was told that after undergoing the operations and becoming perfect in every way she would be happy that she did. Every manner of social pressure was heaped upon the young woman for the "crime" of wishing to be and remain herself.Finally, she did break and in the chilling last scene of the episode she is seen standing in front of a mirror, admiring her new-found perfection, every vestige of her interesting individuality completely lost. It could be inferred from that last scene that all of the others who had become state-sanctioned types had also once been individualistic, had tried to defend their own being and integrity insofar as they were able to, but they broke under "democratic" pressure to be like everyone else.That episode was aired when I was about ten years old. It had a tremendous impact on me and even at that young age I was able to understand that it was an only slightly hyperbolic description of the American society that I was living in. I understood that this was the maximum amount of freedom that was allowed to me and to the people around me by the American regime - we were allowed to 'choose' to become one of a limited number of state-sanctioned types.
You may say: "But we citizens and denizens of democracies can be vociferously critical of our governments. We can say and write what we think publicly without being censured or fear for our freedom and welfare."
I answer: Indeed. Have you ever noticed that the dissenters in democratic societies level the same criticisms, employing the same cliché phraseology, adopt the same modes of comportment and so on. There are state-sanctioned expressions of dissent. They are not only harmless to the government; they serve it by giving people the illusion that they are voicing critique. In fact, the critiques they level are mere parroting of that which they hear in the media in exactly the way in which they hear them in the media. That is to say, those "critiques" have been OK'ed by the powers that prevail. If a real critic of society, expressing original thoughts and employing original phraseology voices his or her opinion she or may be sure that she or he will be anathematized at the very least, first and foremost by the brainwashed masses of democracy, then jailed and isolated from "decent" people by those bodies who receive their salaries from the Plutocrats who are running this ersatz "democracy" to preserve "law and order" at the worst.
Democracy, in truth, is the mass illusion of personal and societal freedom created by the "manufacturing of consent" and the "engineering of consent" as developed by such "engineers of public opinion" as Walter Lippmann, Edward Bernays. Their equally nefarious, reptilian spawn, the "shapers of public opinion" continue their work to this day, having refined their techniques. It is they who are hired by the Plutocrats that run society to train the masses to think and behave as the Plutocrats wish them to. I should mention at this juncture that Edward Bernays was not only a nephew of Sigmund Freud, he was also an admirer of Ivan Pavlov, whose techniques he incorporated into his "engineering of consent".
As Edward Bernays expounds chillingly in his book PROPAGANDA, published in 1929, once individuals with some leadership skills and organizational abilities have been inculcated with the values, tastes and attitudes that the ruling classes wish the masses to be inculcated with to the extent that they think those values, tastes and attitudes are their own and arise from their own free will and inclinations; they will influence others to think similarly. A free .pdf download of PROPAGANDA and my book review in English on: http://www.crimsonbird.com/history/propaganda.htm .
Democracy capitalizes on human gregariousness and need for belonging. We humans are biologically, psychologically and emotionally constituted to be part of a group. Most of us experience the need to be loved, to be respected, to have as much status as we are able to accrue to ourselves and to belong as imperatives.
Democracy threatens us with alienation and isolation if we do not adopt acceptable behavior, speech and attitudes.
Democracy is the tyranny of the ubiquitous, immense, inchoate masses that have been conditioned to perceive the true dissenter as an alien and a threat that must be eradicated and whose behavior and reactions have been "engineered" and "manufactured" by the "engineers of public opinion" in the employ of the Plutocrats to beat the individualist into submission.
Only the 'hold-outs' are the true and genuine and can ever be free. Those who cannot be tempted, cajoled, ridiculed, insulted or threatened into submission and giving up what they are are those who are free. They are the ones who smash the idols (even if they are being made in our own fathers' workshops) and who slaughter the sacred cows (of the mind – let there be no misunderstands of my intentions in writing this). Abbey Hoffman is quoted as having said: "Sacred cows make the tastiest hamburgers." Playful nose-snubbing, rather than strident ranting, at the establishment is the hallmark of the true dissident. Their ability to be playful derives from the fact that they were not broken as children by the "free" public school system.
The truly free can never be a state-sanctioned type. The person of integrity bends to no social lie - no matter what the reward of doing so may be, no matter what the punishment of not doing so may be. It is for that reason that dissenters are, always have been and always will be the objects of public derision and private envy.
The best piece of advice that I can extend to Israelis is to turn off your radios and television sets. It is astonishing how these media of mass hypnosis, opinion forming and emotion arousing are ubiquitous in this country, even by Western standards. One can nary go into a waiting room without a TV being situated there "for entertainment" and to "give you something to do while waiting". Every cab driver and bus driver feels compelled to have the radio droning in the background continuously. In every supermarket the talking head blather on and on and... Big Brother is Big Brother even if it shimmies and shakes and sings and is presented to us in too, too bright colors and cutesy, catchy slogans and jingles. We do not need distraction from ourselves. We do not need to be told what to think, what is right and what is wrong, what is beautiful, what is desirable, what we must buy. We most certainly do not need to have our emotions artificially aroused by media that entice us onto a daily rollercoaster of alternate fear, sexual excitation, anger, feelings of superiority, feelings of inferiority, feelings of helplessness and what not.
Turn those damned machines off and read a book. Better yet, think for yourself. You will find that your mind is vastly more interesting that anything that can be staged and scripted for you in the media.
What is the alternative to "democracy"? True Anarchy, as described on the following URL: http://www.geocities.com/dordot2001/AuthenticAnarchyHEB.htm
The Hebrew version of this article is to be found on:
http://www.geocities.com/dordot2001/IsraelDemocracyRightHEB.htm
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Yisra'el
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Israel most certainly is a democracy and a beaut of one it is too. In the space of this essay we will define democracy properly and it will become painfully apparent just how democratic the State of Israel is.
In order to make clear what democracy is, I should like to share the following with the reader:
There was once a particularly well done and disturbing episode of The Twilight Zone on American television. In an imagined 'future' there were some five or six state-sanctioned physical and mental types for each both men and women. Everyone had to undergo the operations necessary to become one of these types. The choice of which type to become was free, but the types were set. Each of the types were considered physically perfect and deemed mentally and emotionally desirable in this futuristic society. There was one young woman who, though physically plain and quirkily imperfect, didn't want to become one of the state-sanctioned types. She accepted herself as she was and didn't think that becoming another doll-like mannequin would be an improvement. She was subjected to a great deal of social temptation to become one of the state-sanctioned types. She was told that it was to her benefit to undergo the operations and those benefits were described, tantalizingly, to her. Yet, she persisted in wishing to remain herself. She was afterward cajoled, then she was ridiculed. As she persisted in holding her ground, ridicule turned to pressure, to making her feel isolated and unwanted and ultimately to threats. Yet, she held out and did not undergo the operation. It was explained to her 'rationally' that she was being unreasonable, irrational and unnecessarily iconoclastic. She was cajoled. She was told that she was being a troublemaker. She was told that she was, incidentally, rather repulsive physically as well. She was told that after undergoing the operations and becoming perfect in every way she would be happy that she did. Every manner of social pressure was heaped upon the young woman for the "crime" of wishing to be and remain herself.Finally, she did break and in the chilling last scene of the episode she is seen standing in front of a mirror, admiring her new-found perfection, every vestige of her interesting individuality completely lost. It could be inferred from that last scene that all of the others who had become state-sanctioned types had also once been individualistic, had tried to defend their own being and integrity insofar as they were able to, but they broke under "democratic" pressure to be like everyone else.That episode was aired when I was about ten years old. It had a tremendous impact on me and even at that young age I was able to understand that it was an only slightly hyperbolic description of the American society that I was living in. I understood that this was the maximum amount of freedom that was allowed to me and to the people around me by the American regime - we were allowed to 'choose' to become one of a limited number of state-sanctioned types.
You may say: "But we citizens and denizens of democracies can be vociferously critical of our governments. We can say and write what we think publicly without being censured or fear for our freedom and welfare."
I answer: Indeed. Have you ever noticed that the dissenters in democratic societies level the same criticisms, employing the same cliché phraseology, adopt the same modes of comportment and so on. There are state-sanctioned expressions of dissent. They are not only harmless to the government; they serve it by giving people the illusion that they are voicing critique. In fact, the critiques they level are mere parroting of that which they hear in the media in exactly the way in which they hear them in the media. That is to say, those "critiques" have been OK'ed by the powers that prevail. If a real critic of society, expressing original thoughts and employing original phraseology voices his or her opinion she or may be sure that she or he will be anathematized at the very least, first and foremost by the brainwashed masses of democracy, then jailed and isolated from "decent" people by those bodies who receive their salaries from the Plutocrats who are running this ersatz "democracy" to preserve "law and order" at the worst.
Democracy, in truth, is the mass illusion of personal and societal freedom created by the "manufacturing of consent" and the "engineering of consent" as developed by such "engineers of public opinion" as Walter Lippmann, Edward Bernays. Their equally nefarious, reptilian spawn, the "shapers of public opinion" continue their work to this day, having refined their techniques. It is they who are hired by the Plutocrats that run society to train the masses to think and behave as the Plutocrats wish them to. I should mention at this juncture that Edward Bernays was not only a nephew of Sigmund Freud, he was also an admirer of Ivan Pavlov, whose techniques he incorporated into his "engineering of consent".
As Edward Bernays expounds chillingly in his book PROPAGANDA, published in 1929, once individuals with some leadership skills and organizational abilities have been inculcated with the values, tastes and attitudes that the ruling classes wish the masses to be inculcated with to the extent that they think those values, tastes and attitudes are their own and arise from their own free will and inclinations; they will influence others to think similarly. A free .pdf download of PROPAGANDA and my book review in English on: http://www.crimsonbird.com/history/propaganda.htm .
Democracy capitalizes on human gregariousness and need for belonging. We humans are biologically, psychologically and emotionally constituted to be part of a group. Most of us experience the need to be loved, to be respected, to have as much status as we are able to accrue to ourselves and to belong as imperatives.
Democracy threatens us with alienation and isolation if we do not adopt acceptable behavior, speech and attitudes.
Democracy is the tyranny of the ubiquitous, immense, inchoate masses that have been conditioned to perceive the true dissenter as an alien and a threat that must be eradicated and whose behavior and reactions have been "engineered" and "manufactured" by the "engineers of public opinion" in the employ of the Plutocrats to beat the individualist into submission.
Only the 'hold-outs' are the true and genuine and can ever be free. Those who cannot be tempted, cajoled, ridiculed, insulted or threatened into submission and giving up what they are are those who are free. They are the ones who smash the idols (even if they are being made in our own fathers' workshops) and who slaughter the sacred cows (of the mind – let there be no misunderstands of my intentions in writing this). Abbey Hoffman is quoted as having said: "Sacred cows make the tastiest hamburgers." Playful nose-snubbing, rather than strident ranting, at the establishment is the hallmark of the true dissident. Their ability to be playful derives from the fact that they were not broken as children by the "free" public school system.
The truly free can never be a state-sanctioned type. The person of integrity bends to no social lie - no matter what the reward of doing so may be, no matter what the punishment of not doing so may be. It is for that reason that dissenters are, always have been and always will be the objects of public derision and private envy.
The best piece of advice that I can extend to Israelis is to turn off your radios and television sets. It is astonishing how these media of mass hypnosis, opinion forming and emotion arousing are ubiquitous in this country, even by Western standards. One can nary go into a waiting room without a TV being situated there "for entertainment" and to "give you something to do while waiting". Every cab driver and bus driver feels compelled to have the radio droning in the background continuously. In every supermarket the talking head blather on and on and... Big Brother is Big Brother even if it shimmies and shakes and sings and is presented to us in too, too bright colors and cutesy, catchy slogans and jingles. We do not need distraction from ourselves. We do not need to be told what to think, what is right and what is wrong, what is beautiful, what is desirable, what we must buy. We most certainly do not need to have our emotions artificially aroused by media that entice us onto a daily rollercoaster of alternate fear, sexual excitation, anger, feelings of superiority, feelings of inferiority, feelings of helplessness and what not.
Turn those damned machines off and read a book. Better yet, think for yourself. You will find that your mind is vastly more interesting that anything that can be staged and scripted for you in the media.
What is the alternative to "democracy"? True Anarchy, as described on the following URL: http://www.geocities.com/dordot2001/AuthenticAnarchyHEB.htm
The Hebrew version of this article is to be found on:
http://www.geocities.com/dordot2001/IsraelDemocracyRightHEB.htm
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Yisra'el
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Friday, September 15, 2006
Ontological Anarchy
Peter Lamborn Wilson (aka Hakim Bey) is a genius, in my humble and correct opinion. Like most people who get to the frontiers of consciousness, he sometimes drifts off into deep space and gets ridiculous. That goes with the (lack of) territory. I don't agree with a lot of the things that he writes and I certainly don't follow him around on his various trips into inner and outer space. He's a member of NAMbLA. I do not know if he practices paedophilia or non-violent paederasty. I have no problem with the latter. To my mind, the age of consent should be when both puberty and a reasonable awareness of what the ramifications of a pubescent person engaging in sexual and emotional intercourse with another pubescent person commences. This is obviously very individual and no law can possibly regulate it.
At any rate, Wilson/Bey wrote an essay entitled: "Quantum Mechanics & Chaos TheoryAnarchist Meditations on N. Herbert'sQuantum Reality: Beyond the New Physics"
that impressed me, which is to be found on this URL:
http://www.hermetic.com/bey/quantum.html
While I do not agree with his timeline of human development, I think there has been a lot of overlap and at any given time all forms were present to one extent or another; I must certainly do agree with his thesis that our societal relationships impact on how and what we are able to perceive and vice versa.
I agree with Wilsom entirely that Anarchy is Ontological. The political and social aspects of Anarchy are expressions of Ontological Anarchy on the human level.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat (Safed), Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Peter Lamborn Wilson (aka Hakim Bey) is a genius, in my humble and correct opinion. Like most people who get to the frontiers of consciousness, he sometimes drifts off into deep space and gets ridiculous. That goes with the (lack of) territory. I don't agree with a lot of the things that he writes and I certainly don't follow him around on his various trips into inner and outer space. He's a member of NAMbLA. I do not know if he practices paedophilia or non-violent paederasty. I have no problem with the latter. To my mind, the age of consent should be when both puberty and a reasonable awareness of what the ramifications of a pubescent person engaging in sexual and emotional intercourse with another pubescent person commences. This is obviously very individual and no law can possibly regulate it.
At any rate, Wilson/Bey wrote an essay entitled: "Quantum Mechanics & Chaos TheoryAnarchist Meditations on N. Herbert'sQuantum Reality: Beyond the New Physics"
that impressed me, which is to be found on this URL:
http://www.hermetic.com/bey/quantum.html
While I do not agree with his timeline of human development, I think there has been a lot of overlap and at any given time all forms were present to one extent or another; I must certainly do agree with his thesis that our societal relationships impact on how and what we are able to perceive and vice versa.
I agree with Wilsom entirely that Anarchy is Ontological. The political and social aspects of Anarchy are expressions of Ontological Anarchy on the human level.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat (Safed), Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Monday, September 11, 2006
Anecdote: The Day I Became a "Real" Israeli in the Shuq (Market)
I wrote the following to a woman who grew up in England. She contends that she is dismayed at the prejudice she sees in England "of late". I explained to her that prejudice has always been rife in England and that if she did not see it it is probably because she grew up in a demographically heterogeneous area.
Her riposte was that once when her family were on vacation her brothers spent the day playing with a little Pakistani boy.
I answered:
In order to make my point clear; I'll offer an anecdote.
Here in Israel we have open market days once a week called the shuq. Typically, food is a good deal cheaper in the shuq than in stores. The produce is also farm-fresh. One of the reasons that some of the foodstuffs are cheaper is because they come in bulk and are weighed out to the customer, rather than being pre-packaged. The fact that the foods are in bulk, and in large, open containers, sacks or boxes makes it easy for people to just reach in and taste the wares: dried fruits, cookies, sweets, etc. For many years I found the idea of taking from food that countless people reached into and ate from (sometimes more than one taste) extremely off-putting. Gradually, I got over the queasiness as I realized that no one around me seemed to be suffering any ill effects from the practice. One day when I was in the market I reached into a bag and took one of the types of cookie I intended to buy and ate it. Delighted with my new level of integration into Israeli society; when I got I said to my son: "Today I became a real Israeli. I ate from one of the open boxes of cookies in the shuk (market)!" He looked at me levelly and said: "You're still not a real Israeli, Mom. You'll be a real Israeli when you do it and never give it a thought." And so I say to you: You will be a really unprejudiced person when you do not preface the children that your brothers played with as "Pakistani" or whatever other than English preface you put to them, just as you do not say: "My brothers played with English children".
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
I wrote the following to a woman who grew up in England. She contends that she is dismayed at the prejudice she sees in England "of late". I explained to her that prejudice has always been rife in England and that if she did not see it it is probably because she grew up in a demographically heterogeneous area.
Her riposte was that once when her family were on vacation her brothers spent the day playing with a little Pakistani boy.
I answered:
In order to make my point clear; I'll offer an anecdote.
Here in Israel we have open market days once a week called the shuq. Typically, food is a good deal cheaper in the shuq than in stores. The produce is also farm-fresh. One of the reasons that some of the foodstuffs are cheaper is because they come in bulk and are weighed out to the customer, rather than being pre-packaged. The fact that the foods are in bulk, and in large, open containers, sacks or boxes makes it easy for people to just reach in and taste the wares: dried fruits, cookies, sweets, etc. For many years I found the idea of taking from food that countless people reached into and ate from (sometimes more than one taste) extremely off-putting. Gradually, I got over the queasiness as I realized that no one around me seemed to be suffering any ill effects from the practice. One day when I was in the market I reached into a bag and took one of the types of cookie I intended to buy and ate it. Delighted with my new level of integration into Israeli society; when I got I said to my son: "Today I became a real Israeli. I ate from one of the open boxes of cookies in the shuk (market)!" He looked at me levelly and said: "You're still not a real Israeli, Mom. You'll be a real Israeli when you do it and never give it a thought." And so I say to you: You will be a really unprejudiced person when you do not preface the children that your brothers played with as "Pakistani" or whatever other than English preface you put to them, just as you do not say: "My brothers played with English children".
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Monday, August 28, 2006
Let It Be Known
Let it be known outside of Israel that:
1) 1000 of the 5000 meals that were donated by a charity went unaccounted for every day. The worker at the Municipality who was in charge of distribution told local reporters that he was told to put the 1000 meals aside daily and to leave no written record as to having received them.
2) A truck load full of air conditioners that were donated for the poorly-ventilated, sweltering bomb shelters vanished into, well, thin air.
3) Ditto for the TVs that were donated. In contradistinction, the workers of the Municipality (that is, the 17 out of 350 who didn't desert the city entirely) arranged deluxe, "VIP" shelters for themselves, replete with color TV, A/C and Internet.
4) The free days in hotels, including free meals, that were donated by the hotels themselves and were specifically designated for the infirm and elderly first and foremost were, instead, used by workers in the Municipality. As the result of not getting one of those rooms, one woman whose 8-year-old handicapped, wheelchair-bound daughter, who must be kept in sterile conditions, contracted an infection and had to be hospitalized. Some relative of some worker of the City got the room that little girl should have had. No matter, eventually she got a nice room - in the hospital.
5) A huge number of disposable diapers that was donated likewise disappeared. What the hell can someone do with tons of nappies??? As a result of most of the Municipality workers running for the own lives and leaving us here to die, the army sent in a regiment of reserve soldiers to run the city. They did an exemplary job of handling the exigencies, but the potential peril of the precedent of being deserted by the democratically-elected government of the city and being governed almost entirely by high-ranking officers in the army need not be elaborated upon.
Tzfat has been dubbed "The Ignominy of the Galilee" in the national press.
I am LIVID and despite the fact that I have been advised by frightened citizens that if I do not shut up; I run the risk of arrest and possibly being jailed, I will not shut up.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat (Safed), Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Let it be known outside of Israel that:
1) 1000 of the 5000 meals that were donated by a charity went unaccounted for every day. The worker at the Municipality who was in charge of distribution told local reporters that he was told to put the 1000 meals aside daily and to leave no written record as to having received them.
2) A truck load full of air conditioners that were donated for the poorly-ventilated, sweltering bomb shelters vanished into, well, thin air.
3) Ditto for the TVs that were donated. In contradistinction, the workers of the Municipality (that is, the 17 out of 350 who didn't desert the city entirely) arranged deluxe, "VIP" shelters for themselves, replete with color TV, A/C and Internet.
4) The free days in hotels, including free meals, that were donated by the hotels themselves and were specifically designated for the infirm and elderly first and foremost were, instead, used by workers in the Municipality. As the result of not getting one of those rooms, one woman whose 8-year-old handicapped, wheelchair-bound daughter, who must be kept in sterile conditions, contracted an infection and had to be hospitalized. Some relative of some worker of the City got the room that little girl should have had. No matter, eventually she got a nice room - in the hospital.
5) A huge number of disposable diapers that was donated likewise disappeared. What the hell can someone do with tons of nappies??? As a result of most of the Municipality workers running for the own lives and leaving us here to die, the army sent in a regiment of reserve soldiers to run the city. They did an exemplary job of handling the exigencies, but the potential peril of the precedent of being deserted by the democratically-elected government of the city and being governed almost entirely by high-ranking officers in the army need not be elaborated upon.
Tzfat has been dubbed "The Ignominy of the Galilee" in the national press.
I am LIVID and despite the fact that I have been advised by frightened citizens that if I do not shut up; I run the risk of arrest and possibly being jailed, I will not shut up.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat (Safed), Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
A New Invention in Honor of Tzfat
Tzfat's (Safed's) having been dubbed "The Ignominy of the Galilee" in the national press, is the afflatus for a new gadget I've developed that will prove to be very useful for the residents of Tzfat.
A patent is already pending. So, no one better even think of stealing it.
It is called the Ignominometer.
It is a special cuff to measure the elevation of one's blood pressure in response to the anger as a result of, or the lowering of one's blood pressure in response to the shame of, the various degrees of ignominy which Tzfat is characterized by at any given moment.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat (Safed), Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Tzfat's (Safed's) having been dubbed "The Ignominy of the Galilee" in the national press, is the afflatus for a new gadget I've developed that will prove to be very useful for the residents of Tzfat.
A patent is already pending. So, no one better even think of stealing it.
It is called the Ignominometer.
It is a special cuff to measure the elevation of one's blood pressure in response to the anger as a result of, or the lowering of one's blood pressure in response to the shame of, the various degrees of ignominy which Tzfat is characterized by at any given moment.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat (Safed), Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
הממשלה הוכיחה כי היא מיותרת
http://www.geocities.com/dordot2001/MysticalAnarchyII.html
דורין אלן בל-דותן,צפת
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
http://www.geocities.com/dordot2001/MysticalAnarchyII.html
דורין אלן בל-דותן,צפת
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Sunday, August 27, 2006
The Israeli Government Proved Itself to be Superfluous
The local government of the city of Tzfat (Safed) and, to a far lesser extent, the national government collapsed during the war. The local government of the city of Tzfat was simply non-existent.
Here in Tzfat only 17 of the 350 workers in the Municipality remained in the city during the war.
Reserve soldiers had to be brought in to see to it that the special needs of the city were taken care of. That is to say, that the supposedly democratic local government of the city of Tzfat deserted us and we were run militarily for a month. The precedent is so potentially dangerous that I need not elaborate.
In their absence the Municipality proved that they are superfluous. We simply do not need them. They are not even parasites. They are superfluous. They have realized their worst nightmare as politicians. They are not only not wanted, they are needed, not in the least.
There are many citizen-run organizations that can easily be modified slightly in order to become the bodies that take care of all of the functions of this city.
Milgam, Inc., the company that provides our water in Tzfat, is not a municipal agency. They are a private company. Our gas is provided by private companies. Although the electric company is a government company; it could be modified to be a worker-run collective with concerted effort.
Instead of the charity organizations, of which we have a very respectable number here in Tzfat, being organized to pick up where the government leaves off and, in so doing, perpetuate, rather than alleviate, poverty; they can be modified to be the bodies that care for the various needs of the residents of Tzfat.
If the charity organizations became the organizations and agencies that provide necessaries to all, not merely giving hand-outs to the needy, we would be able to eradicate indigence, as befits Jews. We would all have our needs provided for truly. Imagine no one having to beg for their subsistence. Imagine no one being punished with poverty for the "crime" of being aged, handicapped, widowed, orphaned or unemployable for whatever the reason. We can do better vastly better for ourselves and one another than can the government National Insurance Agency!
Instead of turning to the city for every need and want big and small be must learn to rely upon ourselves and upon one another. The concept is called Mutual Aid. We trade that which we can provide for that which we need. We become as maximally self-reliant as possible and create a culture of cooperative sharing.
There is nothing that the Municipality is doing for us that we cannot do far more efficiently, promptly, cost-effectively, fairly, caringly and honestly ourselves – and in a far more personalized manner, providing the services such that they fit individual needs and not strapping every citizen to a procrustean bed.
It is high time that the Israeli public was weaned from the co-dependent addiction and sickness of turning to the government only to get nothing but a kick in the teeth and then turning to the government again for comfort because they have been kicked in the teeth....
Since the Municipality of Tzfat was the first in the country to collapse utterly, it devolves upon Tzfat to become the premier model city for self-government on the part of the residents.
We can supplant the Municipality and take over every one of their functions. All we have to do is believe in ourselves and in one another and organize.
Let's send the workers of the Municipality of the City of Tzfat on a permanent vacation to Eilat!
Both the Hebrew and the English versions of this essay can be found on the following site:
http://www.geocities.com/dordot2001/MysticalAnarchyII.html
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
The local government of the city of Tzfat (Safed) and, to a far lesser extent, the national government collapsed during the war. The local government of the city of Tzfat was simply non-existent.
Here in Tzfat only 17 of the 350 workers in the Municipality remained in the city during the war.
Reserve soldiers had to be brought in to see to it that the special needs of the city were taken care of. That is to say, that the supposedly democratic local government of the city of Tzfat deserted us and we were run militarily for a month. The precedent is so potentially dangerous that I need not elaborate.
In their absence the Municipality proved that they are superfluous. We simply do not need them. They are not even parasites. They are superfluous. They have realized their worst nightmare as politicians. They are not only not wanted, they are needed, not in the least.
There are many citizen-run organizations that can easily be modified slightly in order to become the bodies that take care of all of the functions of this city.
Milgam, Inc., the company that provides our water in Tzfat, is not a municipal agency. They are a private company. Our gas is provided by private companies. Although the electric company is a government company; it could be modified to be a worker-run collective with concerted effort.
Instead of the charity organizations, of which we have a very respectable number here in Tzfat, being organized to pick up where the government leaves off and, in so doing, perpetuate, rather than alleviate, poverty; they can be modified to be the bodies that care for the various needs of the residents of Tzfat.
If the charity organizations became the organizations and agencies that provide necessaries to all, not merely giving hand-outs to the needy, we would be able to eradicate indigence, as befits Jews. We would all have our needs provided for truly. Imagine no one having to beg for their subsistence. Imagine no one being punished with poverty for the "crime" of being aged, handicapped, widowed, orphaned or unemployable for whatever the reason. We can do better vastly better for ourselves and one another than can the government National Insurance Agency!
Instead of turning to the city for every need and want big and small be must learn to rely upon ourselves and upon one another. The concept is called Mutual Aid. We trade that which we can provide for that which we need. We become as maximally self-reliant as possible and create a culture of cooperative sharing.
There is nothing that the Municipality is doing for us that we cannot do far more efficiently, promptly, cost-effectively, fairly, caringly and honestly ourselves – and in a far more personalized manner, providing the services such that they fit individual needs and not strapping every citizen to a procrustean bed.
It is high time that the Israeli public was weaned from the co-dependent addiction and sickness of turning to the government only to get nothing but a kick in the teeth and then turning to the government again for comfort because they have been kicked in the teeth....
Since the Municipality of Tzfat was the first in the country to collapse utterly, it devolves upon Tzfat to become the premier model city for self-government on the part of the residents.
We can supplant the Municipality and take over every one of their functions. All we have to do is believe in ourselves and in one another and organize.
Let's send the workers of the Municipality of the City of Tzfat on a permanent vacation to Eilat!
Both the Hebrew and the English versions of this essay can be found on the following site:
http://www.geocities.com/dordot2001/MysticalAnarchyII.html
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
"People are Nothing But Sheep! They are Nothing But Lemmings!"
So the brainwashed, who are the unpaid, inadvertent agents of brainwashing, in turn say - a countless number of times every day just about everywhere.
I say:
We see in small children two tendencies:
1) to be original, individual and individualistic
2) to be like those they admire
They can, depending upon how they are educated, go either way. We are educated, forcibly, such that the sheep-like tendency is fostered. We are broken in the public schools by means that would be considered mental, emotional and physical torture if they were appraised honestly.
Like Pat Benetar sang: "Hell is for Children".
After being stunted, stultified, crippled and truncated we are told that we can't be set free because people are lemmings and sheep-like. Those who claim that "people are nothing but sheep and lemmings" are merely, and mindlessly, repeating what they have been told about themselves and what they have heard everyone else being told about themselves and telling one another all their lives. They are reinforcing the brainwashing.
Fight like hell to break out of the vicious cycle of repeating to yourself that you and everyone around you are incapable of independent thought and action!
The reader might be interested in looking into the educational system of one Francisco Ferrer. His theories of education served as the basis of what was called "Modern Schools" in a number of countries, including the US. There are accounts of ex-students of his school in New Jersey on the net. They remember being free, creative and, above all, happy children.
As one might expect, he was put to death for being a radical in his native Spain. Setting people free is a dangerous avocation.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
So the brainwashed, who are the unpaid, inadvertent agents of brainwashing, in turn say - a countless number of times every day just about everywhere.
I say:
We see in small children two tendencies:
1) to be original, individual and individualistic
2) to be like those they admire
They can, depending upon how they are educated, go either way. We are educated, forcibly, such that the sheep-like tendency is fostered. We are broken in the public schools by means that would be considered mental, emotional and physical torture if they were appraised honestly.
Like Pat Benetar sang: "Hell is for Children".
After being stunted, stultified, crippled and truncated we are told that we can't be set free because people are lemmings and sheep-like. Those who claim that "people are nothing but sheep and lemmings" are merely, and mindlessly, repeating what they have been told about themselves and what they have heard everyone else being told about themselves and telling one another all their lives. They are reinforcing the brainwashing.
Fight like hell to break out of the vicious cycle of repeating to yourself that you and everyone around you are incapable of independent thought and action!
The reader might be interested in looking into the educational system of one Francisco Ferrer. His theories of education served as the basis of what was called "Modern Schools" in a number of countries, including the US. There are accounts of ex-students of his school in New Jersey on the net. They remember being free, creative and, above all, happy children.
As one might expect, he was put to death for being a radical in his native Spain. Setting people free is a dangerous avocation.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Sunday, August 20, 2006
אל לישראל לשוב למצב לפני המלחמה
http://www.geocities.com/dordot2001/IsraelMustNotReturnToTheStatusQuoHEB.htm
דורין אלן בל-דותן, צפת
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
http://www.geocities.com/dordot2001/IsraelMustNotReturnToTheStatusQuoHEB.htm
דורין אלן בל-דותן, צפת
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Israel Must Not Return to the Status Quo Ante Bellum
Now, with the cessation of fire in Lebanon when we are no longer under constant threat of death, we look around us and allow ourselves to estimate the full extent of the devastation. We bury our dead. We mourn. We clear away the rubble of what once were homes and other structures. We assess the ecological loss of forestry that was set back fifty years. We ask: "Why? We ask: "Did this have to be?" We ask: "Why weren't the lives of our soldiers protected to the absolute maximum?" We ask: "Did our government betray and attempt to befuddle us?" We ask: "How could Hezbollah have been left to arm itself and train without disturbance for six long years?" We ask: "Why didn't our leaders obviate this war?" We know that something, many things really, were blundered horrifically. Young men paid with their lives and the integrity of their bodies and psyches. Families are devastated.
But the execrable prosecution of this war was not just a matter of blundering. It is not just a matter of faulty intelligence. Our government always disappoints us. They always fail us. They always abuse use. We always pay for their luxurious lifestyles with the quality of our lives, if not our lives themselves. During wartime the faults of governments are highlighted because they are exaggerated. The truth is, governments are always bodies characterized by the crudest methods of intimidation and grossest excesses of mendacity. They are always peopled by those who, were they wiser and better, would refuse to be government officials for the shame of the debauchery, improbity and moral squalor being part in a government necessarily entails. We simply see this in greater relief clearly after a war, but we see nothing that is not always apparent, just somewhat less so. It is only after a war that we all become agreed that the failings of government must be addressed.
The government of Israel will now be faced with questions, but they will still not be faced with the questions that most urgently need to be asked in the forms in which those questions really must be formulated. They will be faced with questions that they are eminently capable of fielding and they will answer on their terms. They will answer the questions posed to them such that they retain their political positions; such that the economic status quo in Israel, which keeps a full one third of Israel's children below the poverty line, remains intact; such that Israeli workers continue to be worked to exhaustion and live in constant trepidation of losing their jobs, not being able to pay their mortgages or the many payments they are responsible for; such that Israel's children remain the victims of violence in public schools, to which they are sent in order to be systematically broken into docile, subservient citizens who run to their death when the government calls them to wars that need not have been fought, wars they do not know how to prosecute, wars that are fought so that the filthy businesses of the super-wealthy who produce armaments continue at a brisker pace.
In the wake of this war we are at a crossroads. We can change society substantially. Israel must not return to the status quo. The Israeli people, if we are not to continue to be used, abused and sent to our deaths, if we are not to fool ourselves that any victory in war is anything but a Pyrrhic victory, must mature and take steps closer to the way in which mature, fully Human beings organize society - that is, the way of Anarchy.
The term anarchy has been much maligned. Anarchy does not mean a lack of order. Governments would have the public think that Anarchy is a state of violent chaos. It is anything but.
Governments and big businesses would paint pictures of Anarchists as those dedicated to the destruction of society. We are anything but. It is our purpose to build society – real society that is inhabitable for fully realized, fully human beings.
Anarchy means simply the absence of government. It is a condition in which there is no state – the people rule themselves and society is a dynamic kaleidoscope of purely voluntary social and economic interactions based on the common advantage of all who choose to take part in those interactions. So too in an Anarchistic society, one may choose freely not to take part in any human interactions that are not personally palatable, productive or otherwise satisfying or desirable.
Anarchy is a condition in which there is no private property. Everyone owns all, but of course, it is recognized that each individual needs certain private effects that may differ from the needs of others and those are provided for in such a way that the genuine needs of the person are fulfilled, while capital cannot be made of the effects nor can power accrue from them. Unlike Marxist Communism, as it is has been expressed so dreadfully, there is no central state that controls the modes of production. That which differentiates Anarchy from Marxism must be made clear. We are non-authoritarian and therefore do not accept the existence of any kind of state. The expression "dictatorship of the proletariat" is half honest. It is indeed a dictatorship, but in no wise represents the interests of or is concerned with the welfare of the proletariat. Moreover, we understand that people are more than just workers. Work is absolutely essential, of course, but we must associate in the fullness of our humanness in order to access, express and share the deepest levels of our being.
In an Anarchic society there is no state that retains an army and a police force that are illegally utilized to put people out of their homes and force them to live in tents. There is no value of commodities or labor. Anarchists understand that it is impossible to determine how much any item is "worth" based on the hours or difficulty of work that went into it per se. Therefore, our motto is: From each according to his or her ability, to each according to his or her need.
Anarchy is a condition in which children are not sent to prison-like schools, which are nothing but indoctrination facilities and holding pens in which they are subjected to monotony, humiliation, competition, violence and more – all intended to break the child's spirit and make him or her malleable.
In a state of Anarchy children learn for the sake of the joy of learning, as was the case in the system of education developed by Francisco Ferrer. The best in children is creatively drawn from them. They are not force-fed unsupported and unsupportable assumptions like ducks and geese being force-fed with pneumatic pumps for pate gras.
Anarchy is not only simply in keeping with Judaism, it is a particularly Jewish mode of living and interaction.
Before Israel took upon itself the government of a king we lived in a state of Anarchy. There was no centralized government during the periods of early prophets and the judges. Prophets lived communally with their students who attributed honor and authority to their revered and beloved Teachers solely on the basis of their loving-kindness and wisdom. Wise and trusted elders, who were known personally by the people who sought out their counsel, settled disputes. The Dead Sea Sect lived likewise communally.
The accepting upon ourselves of kings in order to be "a people like every other people" was a decision that proved to be a disaster – even the best of Israel's kings stumbled under the weight of a responsibility that no human being can bear. From this we learn that more than their appointed leaders, those who appoint leaders over themselves are reprehensible.
When we accepted kings upon ourselves we abrogated the right to self-determination. We became subjects, that is, we became slaves.
To this day the Jewish people remain slaves. We are slaves to government. We are slaves to public opinion, which is shaped by professional propagandizers, who are in the employ governments and, more particularly, international corporations, which retain governments as their private body guards. We are slaves to our jobs, which rob us of the lion's share of our production and force us to work brutally long hours under extreme physical and psychic pressure in workplaces that are always understaffed in order to "cut the cost of labor". (It was calculated by Anarchist economist over one hundred years ago that to attain a middle class standard of living for all, all that was required was four or five hours of labor a day. All labor above and beyond that was, and is, pocketed by employers.)
It is a precept that slaves are forbidden to perform some of the precepts of Jewish law. We cannot so much as understand the foregoing precept profoundly or correctly. We imagine that it applies to others. We imagine that we have understood the circumstances being described. We do not realize that it is we to whom it applies. We do not realize that it relates to our circumstances. I have explained how we, in fact, are slaves in so very many ways. We are, then, in fact, exempt from the practice of many precepts. When we insist upon practicing those precepts we do so without deep understanding and in the way of slaves, that is, hurriedly, under pressure and without real joy. We are, in fact, forbidden to practice many of the precepts that we, in our present state of slavery, try to do and in so doing we make a mockery and a travesty of Judaism, which is none other than Freedom. When we learn Torah we cannot possibly understand what we have read and carry out the commandments properly. Chained, shackled, mutilated, crippled and truncated as we are; we cannot move our bodies to do the precepts properly. Poisoned as we are by state propaganda as well as toxic air, water and food; we cannot possibly see or cognate clearly.
Do you know anyone personally who has attained true and complete emancipation of the Soul, body, mind and emotions as a result of carrying out the precepts as they are performed today? No! And neither will you find such a one. Of course we are told tales about perfectly righteous people who possess this freedom. Do you know them? Do they deign to come to your home and live amongst you? No! Why? Because they are yet more phantasmagoria concocted to enslave you still further.
True Judaism is nothing but Freedom and slaves know nothing of freedom and are not capable of living as free human beings.
It follows, if we are to practice Torah as we should, that our first order of business is to ransom one another, to emancipate ourselves and one another mutually. The only real precept that we can carry out in our present reduced state of bondage is to set ourselves free, to throw off the yoke of government, to unloose the chains and shackles that keep us captive to promises of that will never come to realization, to illusions and addictions, to become free moral and moral-spiritual agents.
To build an Anarchistic society is holy work. In fact, it is the only holy work that we are fitted to perform at this juncture. It is the sine qua non of being able to be fully realized Jews. We cannot pray more perfectly than to toil for the purpose of building such a society. No self-sacrifice is greater than this.
Only when we live in a non-authoritarian society characterized by propertylessness, when there will be no more rich and poor, when there will be no more institutionalized injustice that we must submit ourselves and our children to for fear of being prosecuted by state law, when we will have more free time to learn, interact with one another freely and reflect deeply - then and only then will we be able to know what it is to be Jews and know what Judaism is. Until such time the vast majority of our religious expression is frustrated impotency at best, a cruel and pathetic parody in the middling case, at worst manipulation and suppression of the very best in us by agents of the government who reduce masses of people to spiritual servility by heaping upon them meaningless acts to perform and distorted "interpretations" which are devised to prevent us from taking truly moral direct action to rebuild society.
How many are straddled with poverty because of this pseudo-religion? How many children subsist on white bread devoid of nutrition and unhealthy, artery-clogging margarine while their parents give the expected "presents" to their Rabbis and take part in pilgrimages and other "obligatory" religious practices, which seem to multiply exponentially? Those who turn to religion lonely, confounded and disillusioned by the cruelty of society find not a programme for reconstruction of the society that has failed them, but rather, have laws and customs heaped upon them until they are crippled and break.
On the following link you will find essays on Anarchy. Most are in English. Only the essay entitled אנרכיה מובהקת is in Hebrew, having been translated by my husband, Daniel Dotan, at my request. The original English version of אנרכיה מובהקת, under the rubric "Authentic Anarchy", is to be found on the site as well.
http://www.geocities.com/dordot2001/Mystical_Anarchy.html
Unfortunately, very little about true Anarchy is familiar to Israelis and, thus, there are practically no treatments of the subject in Hebrew. For the time being; we will have to suffice with the writings in other languages, principally English, and only those who can read other languages will be able to access this school of thought and programme of action we call Anarcho-Syndicalism. It is the hope of the writer that others will be inspired to take it upon themselves to translate Anarchistic essays, lectures and books into Hebrew.
Many of the greatest Anarchists were Jewish. It is not difficult to understand why. Anarchy is an integral part of true Judaism. No true Judaism is possible without it. Those Jews who have loved and love freedom best are those Jews who not only were attracted to Anarchy, it was they who best expressed the heart, soul and intent of true Judaism – emancipation of the human being for the sake of allowing each to actualize his or her absolute optimum and interact fully with others.
It has been said that Anarchists are non-believers, that they are atheists. This writer, it should be stated categorically, is not an atheist, but a convinced Jew.
It is true that most Anarchists do not believe in an authoritarian God who compels people to actions that are not in keeping with their will. It is true that Anarchists do not accept the authority of self-proclaimed religious leaders. It is true that Anarchists do not accept religious institutions bleeding the masses of their money and impoverishing them. It is true that Anarchists do not accept compulsory education of precepts without rational analysis. It is true that Anarchists reject any and all superstitions and the inculcating people with fear. It is true that Anarchists abhor telling the poor, hungry, cold, sick, lonely and miserable that a better life awaits them in the World to Come when a better world could be made for them here.
Are they, then, anti-religionists? No! It is by virtue of the foregoing rejections that they are the very truest of those who express Judaism. Emma Goldman (1869-1940), one of the most prominent Anarchist activists and lecturers of her time and who continues to be an inspiration to all of us, once addressed a large conference of clergymen. She explained her antireligious position. Upon finishing, a Rabbi who had heard her lecture said: "In spite of all Miss Goldman has said against religion, she is the most religious person I know." Anarchists walk the walk that the pseudo-religions only talk the talk about. Anarchists live to emancipate those who are enslaved – and they take great personal risks in so doing for governments and corporations do not easily surrender their power. Anarchists are the prophets and students of prophets of modern times and they pay all the prices for freedom that prophets and students of prophets of yore paid.
Is the realization of a society based on justice, equality and oneness not the discovery and expression of the God of Israel in creation? Is it not God which propels us toward this ultimate freedom which needs be and will?
I invite those of you who truly love freedom and are intrepid enough, who love humankind enough, to bear the responsibility of building a better world, here in this world, to enter the world of the Anarchists and to join hands with us. Is this not the Israel that we envisioned during our two thousand years long Diaspora?
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
August 2006
Now, with the cessation of fire in Lebanon when we are no longer under constant threat of death, we look around us and allow ourselves to estimate the full extent of the devastation. We bury our dead. We mourn. We clear away the rubble of what once were homes and other structures. We assess the ecological loss of forestry that was set back fifty years. We ask: "Why? We ask: "Did this have to be?" We ask: "Why weren't the lives of our soldiers protected to the absolute maximum?" We ask: "Did our government betray and attempt to befuddle us?" We ask: "How could Hezbollah have been left to arm itself and train without disturbance for six long years?" We ask: "Why didn't our leaders obviate this war?" We know that something, many things really, were blundered horrifically. Young men paid with their lives and the integrity of their bodies and psyches. Families are devastated.
But the execrable prosecution of this war was not just a matter of blundering. It is not just a matter of faulty intelligence. Our government always disappoints us. They always fail us. They always abuse use. We always pay for their luxurious lifestyles with the quality of our lives, if not our lives themselves. During wartime the faults of governments are highlighted because they are exaggerated. The truth is, governments are always bodies characterized by the crudest methods of intimidation and grossest excesses of mendacity. They are always peopled by those who, were they wiser and better, would refuse to be government officials for the shame of the debauchery, improbity and moral squalor being part in a government necessarily entails. We simply see this in greater relief clearly after a war, but we see nothing that is not always apparent, just somewhat less so. It is only after a war that we all become agreed that the failings of government must be addressed.
The government of Israel will now be faced with questions, but they will still not be faced with the questions that most urgently need to be asked in the forms in which those questions really must be formulated. They will be faced with questions that they are eminently capable of fielding and they will answer on their terms. They will answer the questions posed to them such that they retain their political positions; such that the economic status quo in Israel, which keeps a full one third of Israel's children below the poverty line, remains intact; such that Israeli workers continue to be worked to exhaustion and live in constant trepidation of losing their jobs, not being able to pay their mortgages or the many payments they are responsible for; such that Israel's children remain the victims of violence in public schools, to which they are sent in order to be systematically broken into docile, subservient citizens who run to their death when the government calls them to wars that need not have been fought, wars they do not know how to prosecute, wars that are fought so that the filthy businesses of the super-wealthy who produce armaments continue at a brisker pace.
In the wake of this war we are at a crossroads. We can change society substantially. Israel must not return to the status quo. The Israeli people, if we are not to continue to be used, abused and sent to our deaths, if we are not to fool ourselves that any victory in war is anything but a Pyrrhic victory, must mature and take steps closer to the way in which mature, fully Human beings organize society - that is, the way of Anarchy.
The term anarchy has been much maligned. Anarchy does not mean a lack of order. Governments would have the public think that Anarchy is a state of violent chaos. It is anything but.
Governments and big businesses would paint pictures of Anarchists as those dedicated to the destruction of society. We are anything but. It is our purpose to build society – real society that is inhabitable for fully realized, fully human beings.
Anarchy means simply the absence of government. It is a condition in which there is no state – the people rule themselves and society is a dynamic kaleidoscope of purely voluntary social and economic interactions based on the common advantage of all who choose to take part in those interactions. So too in an Anarchistic society, one may choose freely not to take part in any human interactions that are not personally palatable, productive or otherwise satisfying or desirable.
Anarchy is a condition in which there is no private property. Everyone owns all, but of course, it is recognized that each individual needs certain private effects that may differ from the needs of others and those are provided for in such a way that the genuine needs of the person are fulfilled, while capital cannot be made of the effects nor can power accrue from them. Unlike Marxist Communism, as it is has been expressed so dreadfully, there is no central state that controls the modes of production. That which differentiates Anarchy from Marxism must be made clear. We are non-authoritarian and therefore do not accept the existence of any kind of state. The expression "dictatorship of the proletariat" is half honest. It is indeed a dictatorship, but in no wise represents the interests of or is concerned with the welfare of the proletariat. Moreover, we understand that people are more than just workers. Work is absolutely essential, of course, but we must associate in the fullness of our humanness in order to access, express and share the deepest levels of our being.
In an Anarchic society there is no state that retains an army and a police force that are illegally utilized to put people out of their homes and force them to live in tents. There is no value of commodities or labor. Anarchists understand that it is impossible to determine how much any item is "worth" based on the hours or difficulty of work that went into it per se. Therefore, our motto is: From each according to his or her ability, to each according to his or her need.
Anarchy is a condition in which children are not sent to prison-like schools, which are nothing but indoctrination facilities and holding pens in which they are subjected to monotony, humiliation, competition, violence and more – all intended to break the child's spirit and make him or her malleable.
In a state of Anarchy children learn for the sake of the joy of learning, as was the case in the system of education developed by Francisco Ferrer. The best in children is creatively drawn from them. They are not force-fed unsupported and unsupportable assumptions like ducks and geese being force-fed with pneumatic pumps for pate gras.
Anarchy is not only simply in keeping with Judaism, it is a particularly Jewish mode of living and interaction.
Before Israel took upon itself the government of a king we lived in a state of Anarchy. There was no centralized government during the periods of early prophets and the judges. Prophets lived communally with their students who attributed honor and authority to their revered and beloved Teachers solely on the basis of their loving-kindness and wisdom. Wise and trusted elders, who were known personally by the people who sought out their counsel, settled disputes. The Dead Sea Sect lived likewise communally.
The accepting upon ourselves of kings in order to be "a people like every other people" was a decision that proved to be a disaster – even the best of Israel's kings stumbled under the weight of a responsibility that no human being can bear. From this we learn that more than their appointed leaders, those who appoint leaders over themselves are reprehensible.
When we accepted kings upon ourselves we abrogated the right to self-determination. We became subjects, that is, we became slaves.
To this day the Jewish people remain slaves. We are slaves to government. We are slaves to public opinion, which is shaped by professional propagandizers, who are in the employ governments and, more particularly, international corporations, which retain governments as their private body guards. We are slaves to our jobs, which rob us of the lion's share of our production and force us to work brutally long hours under extreme physical and psychic pressure in workplaces that are always understaffed in order to "cut the cost of labor". (It was calculated by Anarchist economist over one hundred years ago that to attain a middle class standard of living for all, all that was required was four or five hours of labor a day. All labor above and beyond that was, and is, pocketed by employers.)
It is a precept that slaves are forbidden to perform some of the precepts of Jewish law. We cannot so much as understand the foregoing precept profoundly or correctly. We imagine that it applies to others. We imagine that we have understood the circumstances being described. We do not realize that it is we to whom it applies. We do not realize that it relates to our circumstances. I have explained how we, in fact, are slaves in so very many ways. We are, then, in fact, exempt from the practice of many precepts. When we insist upon practicing those precepts we do so without deep understanding and in the way of slaves, that is, hurriedly, under pressure and without real joy. We are, in fact, forbidden to practice many of the precepts that we, in our present state of slavery, try to do and in so doing we make a mockery and a travesty of Judaism, which is none other than Freedom. When we learn Torah we cannot possibly understand what we have read and carry out the commandments properly. Chained, shackled, mutilated, crippled and truncated as we are; we cannot move our bodies to do the precepts properly. Poisoned as we are by state propaganda as well as toxic air, water and food; we cannot possibly see or cognate clearly.
Do you know anyone personally who has attained true and complete emancipation of the Soul, body, mind and emotions as a result of carrying out the precepts as they are performed today? No! And neither will you find such a one. Of course we are told tales about perfectly righteous people who possess this freedom. Do you know them? Do they deign to come to your home and live amongst you? No! Why? Because they are yet more phantasmagoria concocted to enslave you still further.
True Judaism is nothing but Freedom and slaves know nothing of freedom and are not capable of living as free human beings.
It follows, if we are to practice Torah as we should, that our first order of business is to ransom one another, to emancipate ourselves and one another mutually. The only real precept that we can carry out in our present reduced state of bondage is to set ourselves free, to throw off the yoke of government, to unloose the chains and shackles that keep us captive to promises of that will never come to realization, to illusions and addictions, to become free moral and moral-spiritual agents.
To build an Anarchistic society is holy work. In fact, it is the only holy work that we are fitted to perform at this juncture. It is the sine qua non of being able to be fully realized Jews. We cannot pray more perfectly than to toil for the purpose of building such a society. No self-sacrifice is greater than this.
Only when we live in a non-authoritarian society characterized by propertylessness, when there will be no more rich and poor, when there will be no more institutionalized injustice that we must submit ourselves and our children to for fear of being prosecuted by state law, when we will have more free time to learn, interact with one another freely and reflect deeply - then and only then will we be able to know what it is to be Jews and know what Judaism is. Until such time the vast majority of our religious expression is frustrated impotency at best, a cruel and pathetic parody in the middling case, at worst manipulation and suppression of the very best in us by agents of the government who reduce masses of people to spiritual servility by heaping upon them meaningless acts to perform and distorted "interpretations" which are devised to prevent us from taking truly moral direct action to rebuild society.
How many are straddled with poverty because of this pseudo-religion? How many children subsist on white bread devoid of nutrition and unhealthy, artery-clogging margarine while their parents give the expected "presents" to their Rabbis and take part in pilgrimages and other "obligatory" religious practices, which seem to multiply exponentially? Those who turn to religion lonely, confounded and disillusioned by the cruelty of society find not a programme for reconstruction of the society that has failed them, but rather, have laws and customs heaped upon them until they are crippled and break.
On the following link you will find essays on Anarchy. Most are in English. Only the essay entitled אנרכיה מובהקת is in Hebrew, having been translated by my husband, Daniel Dotan, at my request. The original English version of אנרכיה מובהקת, under the rubric "Authentic Anarchy", is to be found on the site as well.
http://www.geocities.com/dordot2001/Mystical_Anarchy.html
Unfortunately, very little about true Anarchy is familiar to Israelis and, thus, there are practically no treatments of the subject in Hebrew. For the time being; we will have to suffice with the writings in other languages, principally English, and only those who can read other languages will be able to access this school of thought and programme of action we call Anarcho-Syndicalism. It is the hope of the writer that others will be inspired to take it upon themselves to translate Anarchistic essays, lectures and books into Hebrew.
Many of the greatest Anarchists were Jewish. It is not difficult to understand why. Anarchy is an integral part of true Judaism. No true Judaism is possible without it. Those Jews who have loved and love freedom best are those Jews who not only were attracted to Anarchy, it was they who best expressed the heart, soul and intent of true Judaism – emancipation of the human being for the sake of allowing each to actualize his or her absolute optimum and interact fully with others.
It has been said that Anarchists are non-believers, that they are atheists. This writer, it should be stated categorically, is not an atheist, but a convinced Jew.
It is true that most Anarchists do not believe in an authoritarian God who compels people to actions that are not in keeping with their will. It is true that Anarchists do not accept the authority of self-proclaimed religious leaders. It is true that Anarchists do not accept religious institutions bleeding the masses of their money and impoverishing them. It is true that Anarchists do not accept compulsory education of precepts without rational analysis. It is true that Anarchists reject any and all superstitions and the inculcating people with fear. It is true that Anarchists abhor telling the poor, hungry, cold, sick, lonely and miserable that a better life awaits them in the World to Come when a better world could be made for them here.
Are they, then, anti-religionists? No! It is by virtue of the foregoing rejections that they are the very truest of those who express Judaism. Emma Goldman (1869-1940), one of the most prominent Anarchist activists and lecturers of her time and who continues to be an inspiration to all of us, once addressed a large conference of clergymen. She explained her antireligious position. Upon finishing, a Rabbi who had heard her lecture said: "In spite of all Miss Goldman has said against religion, she is the most religious person I know." Anarchists walk the walk that the pseudo-religions only talk the talk about. Anarchists live to emancipate those who are enslaved – and they take great personal risks in so doing for governments and corporations do not easily surrender their power. Anarchists are the prophets and students of prophets of modern times and they pay all the prices for freedom that prophets and students of prophets of yore paid.
Is the realization of a society based on justice, equality and oneness not the discovery and expression of the God of Israel in creation? Is it not God which propels us toward this ultimate freedom which needs be and will?
I invite those of you who truly love freedom and are intrepid enough, who love humankind enough, to bear the responsibility of building a better world, here in this world, to enter the world of the Anarchists and to join hands with us. Is this not the Israel that we envisioned during our two thousand years long Diaspora?
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
August 2006
Friday, August 11, 2006
Anarcho-Anachro-Nacro-Necro-Narcissism
I've done it! It's my tour de force. It's the crowning achievement of decades of not only theoretical rumination, but endeavoring to live according to the principles I hold most dear. I have not only defined and elucidated the precepts, but attained the level of being the living embodiment of my ideation. I have thus formulated the basis of a new movement, which I am absolutely convinced is the one and only hope for all sentient beings and to which I intend to convert the entire world – by force if need be.
I have yclept it Anarcho-Anachro-Nacro-Necro-Narcissism. As the name clearly suggests; Anarcho-Anachro-Nacro-Necro-Narcissism is believing that one is oh, so special because one lives in a stuporous, stateless state which is out of, probably irrelevant to and almost definitely inconsequential and undesirable in any given time frame.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Free-Floating Radical - I try to remain positive :0)
Tzfat (Safed), Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
I've done it! It's my tour de force. It's the crowning achievement of decades of not only theoretical rumination, but endeavoring to live according to the principles I hold most dear. I have not only defined and elucidated the precepts, but attained the level of being the living embodiment of my ideation. I have thus formulated the basis of a new movement, which I am absolutely convinced is the one and only hope for all sentient beings and to which I intend to convert the entire world – by force if need be.
I have yclept it Anarcho-Anachro-Nacro-Necro-Narcissism. As the name clearly suggests; Anarcho-Anachro-Nacro-Necro-Narcissism is believing that one is oh, so special because one lives in a stuporous, stateless state which is out of, probably irrelevant to and almost definitely inconsequential and undesirable in any given time frame.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Free-Floating Radical - I try to remain positive :0)
Tzfat (Safed), Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Friday, August 04, 2006
Gandhi, It Transpires, Was No Mahatma (Great Soul)
Many are glamoured and enthralled by the myth of the so-called "Mahatma" Gandhi.
To those still belaboring under that delusion; I refer you to the following quote:
"Take Gandhi, even; within ten months of India's independence, he acquiesced in the law making passive resistance a felony, and he abandoned his nonviolent principles to support the military occupation f Kashmir. Subsequently, we've seen the same thing happen in Goa and Pakistan."
Source: PLAYBOY Interview with Saul Alinsky, 1972; Part 8
http://www.progress.org/2003/alinsky9.htm
Parenthetically, the entire interview, entitled "Empowering People, Not Elites" can be found on: http://www.progress.org/2003/alinsky2.htm
I heartily recommend to any and all activists and would-be activists to read that interview and get to know Saul Alinsky's work.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat (Safed), Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Many are glamoured and enthralled by the myth of the so-called "Mahatma" Gandhi.
To those still belaboring under that delusion; I refer you to the following quote:
"Take Gandhi, even; within ten months of India's independence, he acquiesced in the law making passive resistance a felony, and he abandoned his nonviolent principles to support the military occupation f Kashmir. Subsequently, we've seen the same thing happen in Goa and Pakistan."
Source: PLAYBOY Interview with Saul Alinsky, 1972; Part 8
http://www.progress.org/2003/alinsky9.htm
Parenthetically, the entire interview, entitled "Empowering People, Not Elites" can be found on: http://www.progress.org/2003/alinsky2.htm
I heartily recommend to any and all activists and would-be activists to read that interview and get to know Saul Alinsky's work.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat (Safed), Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Thursday, August 03, 2006
Murray Bookchin, Visionary Social Theorist, Dies at 85
Murray Bookchin, visionary writer and activist, died at his home inBurlington, Vermont on July 30th at the age of 85. A revolutionarythinker and prolific writer who authored several AK Press titles, MurrayBookchin produced work spanning two historic eras: that of traditionalproletarian socialism and anarchism, with its working-classinsurrections and struggles against classical fascism, and the postwarperiod of growing corporate capitalism, environmental decay, statistpolitics, and the technocratic mentality. In his work he tried to makesomething coherent of these changes, looking forward to a liberatedfuture. He will be sorely missed.Please visit http://www.akpress.org/bookchinobit for a full obituary byBrian Tokar at the Institute for Social Ecology in Plainfield, Vermont.
This is the obituary:
Murray Bookchin, the visionary social theorist and activist, died during the early morning of Sunday, July 30th in his home in Burlington, Vermont. During a prolific career of writing, teaching and political activism that spanned half a century, Bookchin forged a new anti-authoritarian outlook rooted in ecology, dialectical philosophy and left libertarianism.During the 1950s and '60s, Bookchin built upon the legacies of utopian social philosophy and critical theory, challenging the primacy of Marxism on the left and linking contemporary ecological and urban crises to problems of capital and social hierarchy in general. Beginning in the mid-sixties, he pioneered a new political and philosophical synthesis-termed social ecology-that sought to reclaim local political power, by means of direct popular democracy, against the consolidation and increasing centralization of the nation state.From the 1960s to the present, the utopian dimension of Bookchin's social ecology inspired several generations of social and ecological activists, from the pioneering urban ecology movements of the sixties, to the 1970s' back-to-the-land, antinuclear, and sustainable technology movements, the beginnings of Green politics and organic agriculture in the early 1980s, and the anti-authoritarian global justice movement that came of age in 1999 in the streets of Seattle. His influence was often cited by prominent political and social activists throughout the US, Europe, South America, Turkey, Japan, and beyond.Even as numerous social movements drew on his ideas, however, Bookchin remained a relentless critic of the currents in those movements that he found deeply disturbing, including the New Left's drift toward Marxism-Leninism in the late 1960s, tendencies toward mysticism and misanthropy in the radical environmental movement, and the growing focus on individualism and personal lifestyles among 1990s anarchists. In the late 1990s, Bookchin broke with anarchism, the political tradition he had been most identified with for over 30 years and articulated a new political vision that he called communalism.Bookchin was raised in a leftist family in the Bronx during the 1920s and '30s. He enjoyed retelling the story of his expulsion from the Young Communist League at age 18 for openly criticizing Stalin, his brief flirtation with Trotskyism as a labor organizer in the foundries of New Jersey, and his introduction to anarchism by veterans of the immigrant labor movement during the 1950s. In 1974, he co-founded the Institute for Social Ecology, along with Dan Chodorkoff, then a graduate student at Vermont's Goddard College. For 30 years, the Institute for Social Ecology has brought thousands of students to Vermont for intensive educational programs focusing on the theory and praxis of social ecology. A self-educated scholar and public intellectual, Bookchin served as a full professor at Ramapo College of New Jersey despite his own lack of conventional academic credentials. He published more than 20 books and many hundreds of articles during his lifetime, many of which were translated into Italian, German, Spanish, Japanese, Turkish and other languages.During the 1960s–80s, Bookchin emphasized his fundamental theoretical break with Marxism, arguing that Marx's central focus on economics and class obscured the more profound role of social hierarchy in the shaping of human history. His anthropological studies affirmed the role of domination by age, gender and other manifestations of social power as the antecedents of modern-day economic exploitation. In The Ecology of Freedom(1982), he examined the parallel legacies of domination and freedom in human societies, from prehistoric times to the present, and he later published a four-volume work, The Third Revolution, exploring anti-authoritarian currents throughout the Western revolutionary tradition.At the same time, he criticized the lack of philosophical rigor that has often plagued the anarchist tradition, and drew theoretical sustenance from dialectical philosophy-particularly the works of Aristotle and Hegel; the Frankfurt School-of which he became increasingly critical in later years-and even the works of Marx and Lenin. During the past year, even while terminally ill in Burlington, Bookchin was working toward a re-evaluation of what he perceived as the historic failure of the 20th century left. He argued that Marxist crisis theory failed to recognize the inherent flexibility and malleability of capitalism, and that Marx never saw capitalism in its true contemporary sense. Until his death, Bookchin asserted that only the ecological problems created by modern capitalism were of sufficient magnitude to portend the system's demise.Murray Bookchin was diagnosed several months ago with a fatal heart condition. He will be remembered by his devoted family members—including his long-time companion Janet Biehl, his former wife Bea Bookchin, his son, daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter—as well as his friends, colleagues and frequent correspondents throughout the world. There will be a public memorial service in Burlington, Vermont on Sunday, August 13th. For more information, email HERE.
Brian Tokar, July 31, 2006
Murray Bookchin, visionary writer and activist, died at his home inBurlington, Vermont on July 30th at the age of 85. A revolutionarythinker and prolific writer who authored several AK Press titles, MurrayBookchin produced work spanning two historic eras: that of traditionalproletarian socialism and anarchism, with its working-classinsurrections and struggles against classical fascism, and the postwarperiod of growing corporate capitalism, environmental decay, statistpolitics, and the technocratic mentality. In his work he tried to makesomething coherent of these changes, looking forward to a liberatedfuture. He will be sorely missed.Please visit http://www.akpress.org/bookchinobit for a full obituary byBrian Tokar at the Institute for Social Ecology in Plainfield, Vermont.
This is the obituary:
Murray Bookchin, the visionary social theorist and activist, died during the early morning of Sunday, July 30th in his home in Burlington, Vermont. During a prolific career of writing, teaching and political activism that spanned half a century, Bookchin forged a new anti-authoritarian outlook rooted in ecology, dialectical philosophy and left libertarianism.During the 1950s and '60s, Bookchin built upon the legacies of utopian social philosophy and critical theory, challenging the primacy of Marxism on the left and linking contemporary ecological and urban crises to problems of capital and social hierarchy in general. Beginning in the mid-sixties, he pioneered a new political and philosophical synthesis-termed social ecology-that sought to reclaim local political power, by means of direct popular democracy, against the consolidation and increasing centralization of the nation state.From the 1960s to the present, the utopian dimension of Bookchin's social ecology inspired several generations of social and ecological activists, from the pioneering urban ecology movements of the sixties, to the 1970s' back-to-the-land, antinuclear, and sustainable technology movements, the beginnings of Green politics and organic agriculture in the early 1980s, and the anti-authoritarian global justice movement that came of age in 1999 in the streets of Seattle. His influence was often cited by prominent political and social activists throughout the US, Europe, South America, Turkey, Japan, and beyond.Even as numerous social movements drew on his ideas, however, Bookchin remained a relentless critic of the currents in those movements that he found deeply disturbing, including the New Left's drift toward Marxism-Leninism in the late 1960s, tendencies toward mysticism and misanthropy in the radical environmental movement, and the growing focus on individualism and personal lifestyles among 1990s anarchists. In the late 1990s, Bookchin broke with anarchism, the political tradition he had been most identified with for over 30 years and articulated a new political vision that he called communalism.Bookchin was raised in a leftist family in the Bronx during the 1920s and '30s. He enjoyed retelling the story of his expulsion from the Young Communist League at age 18 for openly criticizing Stalin, his brief flirtation with Trotskyism as a labor organizer in the foundries of New Jersey, and his introduction to anarchism by veterans of the immigrant labor movement during the 1950s. In 1974, he co-founded the Institute for Social Ecology, along with Dan Chodorkoff, then a graduate student at Vermont's Goddard College. For 30 years, the Institute for Social Ecology has brought thousands of students to Vermont for intensive educational programs focusing on the theory and praxis of social ecology. A self-educated scholar and public intellectual, Bookchin served as a full professor at Ramapo College of New Jersey despite his own lack of conventional academic credentials. He published more than 20 books and many hundreds of articles during his lifetime, many of which were translated into Italian, German, Spanish, Japanese, Turkish and other languages.During the 1960s–80s, Bookchin emphasized his fundamental theoretical break with Marxism, arguing that Marx's central focus on economics and class obscured the more profound role of social hierarchy in the shaping of human history. His anthropological studies affirmed the role of domination by age, gender and other manifestations of social power as the antecedents of modern-day economic exploitation. In The Ecology of Freedom(1982), he examined the parallel legacies of domination and freedom in human societies, from prehistoric times to the present, and he later published a four-volume work, The Third Revolution, exploring anti-authoritarian currents throughout the Western revolutionary tradition.At the same time, he criticized the lack of philosophical rigor that has often plagued the anarchist tradition, and drew theoretical sustenance from dialectical philosophy-particularly the works of Aristotle and Hegel; the Frankfurt School-of which he became increasingly critical in later years-and even the works of Marx and Lenin. During the past year, even while terminally ill in Burlington, Bookchin was working toward a re-evaluation of what he perceived as the historic failure of the 20th century left. He argued that Marxist crisis theory failed to recognize the inherent flexibility and malleability of capitalism, and that Marx never saw capitalism in its true contemporary sense. Until his death, Bookchin asserted that only the ecological problems created by modern capitalism were of sufficient magnitude to portend the system's demise.Murray Bookchin was diagnosed several months ago with a fatal heart condition. He will be remembered by his devoted family members—including his long-time companion Janet Biehl, his former wife Bea Bookchin, his son, daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter—as well as his friends, colleagues and frequent correspondents throughout the world. There will be a public memorial service in Burlington, Vermont on Sunday, August 13th. For more information, email HERE.
Brian Tokar, July 31, 2006
Saul Alinsky vis-a-vis Noam Chomsky - The Difference Between a Dedicated Radical and a Hypocritical Opportunist
http://www.geocities.com/dordot2001/AlinskyVisAVisChomsky.htm
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat (Safed), Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
http://www.geocities.com/dordot2001/AlinskyVisAVisChomsky.htm
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat (Safed), Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
30-Minute Video About Fluoridated Water
Please watch this video.
It is terribly important to know.
I have written about the dangers of the fluoridation of water in the past, knowing that it was the Nazis who first experimented with it.
There is a great deal of information about the fluoridation of water that I did not know in this video.
It is most instructive.
Among the points discussed is the connection between hyperactivity in children and fluoridated water.
Although the information relates to the fluoridation of water in the US, Israel too fluoridates our water supplies.
http://tinyurl.com/oky7p
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat (Safed), Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Please watch this video.
It is terribly important to know.
I have written about the dangers of the fluoridation of water in the past, knowing that it was the Nazis who first experimented with it.
There is a great deal of information about the fluoridation of water that I did not know in this video.
It is most instructive.
Among the points discussed is the connection between hyperactivity in children and fluoridated water.
Although the information relates to the fluoridation of water in the US, Israel too fluoridates our water supplies.
http://tinyurl.com/oky7p
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat (Safed), Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
A "contributor" to a Current Events board wrote to a newbie:
Quote: "Please feel free to join in here. It really is fun, if you don't take yourself too seriously."
The statement was topped off by a cutesy wink.
Those who come to message boards for cheap thrills can be trusted to slip up and betray her real intentions, though they protest deep conviction and concern about pressing issues. That facade they put becomes too, too heavy a mantle to bear at some point. They fumble and drop it. The veneer then breaks and we get a glimpse into the mind and emotions of the morally squalid and emotionally truncated.
I am not singling out the person who wrote the above for being raked over the coals. Au contraire. My purpose here is to bring the reader's attention to a phenomenon.
It has been said to me a number of times by "contributors" to CE and political issues boards that I "take myself too seriously". I fluffed the accusation off, knowing that I laugh quite heartily at myself. I took it as a ploy to get me to laugh at myself thinking they were laughing with me, when in fact they would be laughing at me. So, I ignored their "friendly" suggestion.
But then the above quote was written and I realized that the case is that they come to CE and political issues boards only for "fun" and "laughs".
It is the issues that they take lightheartedly and light-headedly, not themselves. Not one of them ever laughs at himself or herself. No, only others are fair game and the butt of jokes to them.
People with a genuinely good and mature sense of humor laugh first and foremost at themselves; they never do
I realized in a flash that these are the very same people who are those who take a position in favor of Arab terrorism. I always knew that they were assuming an obnoxious position in order to get people who are genuinely concerned and passionate about matters that concern all Human beings incensed so that they could have a good laugh at someone who lost their temper. But now I realize that the only people who can take the positions that they take are people who are among those to whom Jimi Hendrix was referring when he sang: "there are many here among us who think that life is but a joke".
The matters discussed on CE and political issues boards are not jokes. They are matters of life and death and Human welfare. Anyone who comes to such boards for fun is perverted.
Certainly, we may enjoy the mental and emotional stimulation of sharing opinions, having our opinions challenged and amending them. But this is not "fun". It's not a cheap thrill.
Certainly, there is no reason for brooding solemnity all the time on a CE board or political forum. There is most definitely room, even a need, for tasteful humor that lightens the atmosphere and helps us to cope with the very difficult. But a general atmosphere of respectful decorum is in order – both for the contributors and for the issues being dealt with.
It took me a long time to realize that so many who people CE boards and political issues fora are there for nothing other than kicks (I mean this in every sense of the word). It is so far from my mind to conceive of things that way that I could simply not understand for the longest time.
But there you have it, in so many words. While a war is raging that could engulf other nations, the contributor who wrote the quote above is having fun and not taking it seriously and that person is hardly alone. Of course, s/he can't say that. So, s/he says that s/he is not taking herself seriously. Oh, no? When did s/he ever have a good-natured belly laugh at his/her own expense or allow anyone else to?
No, it is life itself that is a joke to those who take the side of terrorists. To them it is only a fun "bang bang shoot 'em up" show.
I am indebted to the person who wrote the quote above. I needed to have it presented to me in very blunt terms. I would not have understood it for myself had it not been pushed so indecorously in my face- thank God.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat (Safed),
Monday, July 31, 2006
Logic and Rationality Are of No Avail in Disseminating Information
There are many people on the internet, and I respect them, who have, and are, working tirelessly employing logic and rationality to help people understand both sides of the conflict in the
I, for one, have long ago stopped trying to do this and I will explain why I consider the attempt futile.
I've been on the internet for some four years. During that time I've been observing how people behave, interact, group and what political positions they take on a good number of fora. I have noted the correlations between social behavior and political positions taken.
I have come to the following conclusion: The vast majority of people do not assume a given political position after having considered a number of alternative positions and a large body of data.
They form political opinions on the very same basis that they form friendships: they side with those with whom they identify. Like seeks out like. Proverbial water seeks its proverbial level.
Those who see themselves as deserving of special privilege tend to identify with some type of elite. These are few in number and I shall explain why presently.
Both those who are bullies as well as those who feel the need for strong backing identify with political power structures and tend to accept the positions of those power structures as unquestioningly correct and inviolable. They defend the power structures tooth and nail.
The vast majority of people may be grouped under those to whom
I do not find people whose brotherly feelings are grounded in the common baseness they find in one another repugnant. I see them, rather, as victims of Capitalist indoctrination which inculcates the profoundest feelings of wounded pride and violation of one's person. They are, however, truly base and understanding the provenance of their baseness in no wise negates their being so. They are many. They are the vast majority.
They tend to huddle together for mutual protection and defense in their social groups. Their relationships are based on an agreement of everyone ignoring the others' real and imagined defects. It is also agreed that each will come to the others' defense if an "intruder", someone either up or down in some way enters their territory.
When the most wounded among them assume a political position they invariably resonate with those they consider the underdog. Wracked as they are with feelings of victimization, frustration and helplessness to find a way out of their lives of what Henry David Thoreau called "quiet desperation", they take up the cause of those who do not make them feel inferior. Feeling degraded as they do; they feel comfortable taking up the cause of those they see as still more degraded than themselves.
It is not surprising, then, that the vast majority of Europeans and many Americans identify with and support the Arabs in the ME conflict. The Arabs do not make them acutely aware of their feelings of inferiority. They can take a superior, paternalistic stance vis-à-vis the Arabs. Of course, they put on a front of being concerned with the victim, but in reality they identify with the victim because they feel victimized beneath their protestations of good will and bravado.
The political stances that the vast majority of people assume, then, are neither logical nor rational. They are based on identification that comes from the gut.
There is no countering that with logic and reason.
The Jews and the Israelis make them feel their defects most acutely. They simply cannot relate to the People who hold the highest per capita number of Nobel Prizes in the world. They do not feel comfortable in the presence of the People who count Einstein as but one of their sons. They cannot relate to the People who transformed a miserable tract of desert and swamp into not only a desert, but departments of bioinformatics and other cutting-edge technologies.
Israelis are, for the most part, a rare breed. Those who emigrated here from developed countries as well as native Israelis who have skills and education that would allow them to be professionals elsewhere, yet choose to stay, are that very rare and miniscule sector of Humanity that do not assume a political stance based merely on personal feelings of weakness. Rather, they are those who have chosen to devote their lives to something bigger than themselves. They are proactive, not simply reactive. They do not huddle together with others for protection. They cooperate with others for the sake of realizing a vision and actualizing a plan for Humanity.
Few are those who are content, confident and comfortable enough with themselves to be able to praise and encourage us in this. Few are those who with outstretched hand offer to take part in this magnificent and noble enterprise.
But they do exist. And they are wonderful. They are those who elevate Humanity from the degraded social level of chimpanzees to fully Human.
People such as these are not in need of our reason and our logic. We do not have to teach them. They need only our encouragement and they deserve our thanks.
You know who you are.
Thank you.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan,
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
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