ANARCHY AND THE SPIRITUAL QUEST
Unlike the majority of Anarchists, I am not an atheist. In my youth I undertook a spiritual quest that went over a period of some twenty-five years. I know there is a God. I experienced God.
Magnificently sublime and rapturous as the experiences were; they were removed from the pain I saw all around me in this world and they were very isolating. I could not share that which I experienced with others. Worst of all, I could not alleviate people's suffering simply by virtue of the fact that I knew there is a God, that there are higher worlds than the one in which we live and that the Soul is immortal. While I communed with God widows and orphans languished. I could not stay in those rarified heights knowing there was so much suffering. I took leave to return to this reality.
Spiritual quests should not be undertaken for the sake of fleeing the unbearable in this world, as was mine. They should not be a desperate resort for a wounded Soul trying to find solace and meaning in a world that seems too cruel and absurd to live in and bear.
The spiritual quest should be undertaken only when we have achieved a very high level of material security, moral human interaction and personal fulfillment.
When we live in a world described by free and fair trade, equality among all Human beings, mutual aid respect for all sentient beings, maximum actualization of the Self and aid to others to actualize themselves in the material world we will discover that there is still something missing, something that we cannot attain from material welfare, well-being and prosperity alone.
We are spiritual beings and the need to fulfill that aspect of ourselves will come to the fore. It will arise spontaneously and naturally within us as individuals and among us as societies and it will be an expression of organic unity that we, atomized as we currently are, are simply not capable of.
The time for that has not yet come. There is much groundwork to lay.
We are in a sickly, mutilated, truncated and stunted state. We are slaves. Our perceptions are distorted. We are filled with negativity and mistrust. We are filled with every manner of fear and trepidation, as our economic masters have conditioned us to be. We are filled with shame. Our bodies are poisoned and we have been trained to run to the comfort of substances and diversions in the small bit of free time that we have. We regard one another as competitors. Our eye is trained on the negative in others.
In such a state of insalubrity and in societies as unwholesome as ours we cannot possibly interpret and understand holy Texts properly. We do not possess the clarity and the refinement to perceive the Holy. Most certainly, we do not see it in one another as we vie with one another for our sustainence.
We see the very same negativity in holy Texts that we see in those around us and in ourselves.
There are, under the present social conditions, two possible reactions when encountering holy Texts. In both cases we read them on a most perfunctory level and wholly misunderstand them, but believe that what we see is what they are saying. We then do one of two things. We either reject that which we think we see out-of-hand. Or, we accept that which we see and live a religion that is little more than our own hallucinations.
A goodly number of religious figures gathered large followings within a relatively short amount of time. It has been my experience that that which truly elevates the estate of human beings does not become popular quickly. People do not let go of their shackles nor surrender their crutches readily. Those who are shackled have been taught that it is their shackles that sustain and support them and they are, therefore, desperate to hold on to them. They attack those who would divest them of their fetters viciously, perceiving those who would emancipate them as enemies who mean to harm them. Therefore, the fact that religions have caught on quickly makes them suspect in my eyes.
There is another matter that is of yet more concern to me. Although I would say that most people who set out on spiritual quests were sensitive Souls and well-intentioned; we see that not one spiritual path has ever alleviated human misery and poverty. I think the reason for this is eminently clear. Religions do not change the physical conditions that cause people to want to flee from this world. They do not call for the elimination of classes, power structures and economic disparities. Quite the opposite. They encourage them, even making them obligatory. The adherents of religions are taught that it is sacrilege to defy or even question authority. The punishment for doing so is, in addition to the misery of this world that is taken as a given, unending indescribable misery in the next world or forfeiting one's place in the World to Come altogether. It is, then, in the interests of those in religious power to keep this world rather unbearable so that they may constantly dangle the carrot of hope in the next world before their adherents if and only if they "behave" themselves. Thus far, all religions, no matter how sublime they may or may not have been in their inception, deteriorated into mass mind and behavior control by creating conditions of misery for the vast majority.
Not one religion thus far, not a single one, has called for the elimination of power structures as a religious tenet. They cultivated a "this world-other world" illusory dichotomy. Rather than organized religions eliminating poverty and the dependence of classes upon others, they encourage it as one of their most central methods of concentrating power in the hands of some.
Today religion teaches us that we as individuals, and we alone, are responsible for all of our unhappiness and ills. No blame whatsoever is put on our economic slave masters. If we are sad, sick or evil befalls us (all to often in the form of economic hardships) it is because we have been negligent in the performance of some ceremony, recitation of formulas or other magical rite. Of course, we are expected to tithe our incomes and to give some percentage to both our religions' priests and to the poor. We are not taught to eliminate poverty in society, or even that that is desirable. Neglecting to tithe (a system devised to perpetuate poverty by keeping the poor on the brink while stuffing the pockets of the clergy) most certainly rains the wrath of heaven down on us, so we are taught.
For the present, then, the holiest work one can engage in and the only real spiritual practice available to us is the abolition of classes and poverty, with all their attendant ills so that we may be freed to become fully Human beings. This idea is expressed in a quote from the Preface to Part Two of RED EMMA SPEAKS by Alix Kates Shulman 1998. Shulman writes: "A rabbi who heard her lecture a large conference of clergymen on atheism probably came closer than the public to understanding her antireligious stand. "In spite of all Miss Goldman has said against religion, he announced, "she is the most religious person I know."" . Amen!
When we will have created just societies and attained Human stature; when we will have created a world that is habitable so that we may be grounded in this reality, in this world; we will, in wisdom, security and repose, turn to God for ultimate fulfillment, able to engage in a relationship with the Divine that is real and fitting for free Men, Women and Children. No more will we come to God as beggars bartering our Souls for our daily bread.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
MUTILATION, BINDING, SCARIFICATION
AND CAPITALIST CONDITIONING
Let's begin this discussion with the example of Female Genital Mutilation.
The practice has been carried out for untold generations. Until recently it was carried out unabated and with impunity. The very same women who had had the excruciating and crippling procedure performed on them as babies and children performed it on others. It was the norm. It was considered the "right" thing to do to "protect" girls and women from their own sexuality and from disgracing their families.
The same might be said about the practice of "ironing" young girls' emerging breasts in order to make the girls' breasts ugly so that they will not be raped that has come to the attention of the world recently.
And who has not been overcome with dread and horror when learning about the practice of binding women's feet in China – a torture that girls begged to have done to them and women enthusiastically carried out upon their daughters so that they would be "dainty" and "erotic"?
When we from the outside observe these phenomena; we are horrified.
We have been, of late, successful in sharing this horror with the victims of these practices and the victims are beginning to protest internationally. The criminalization of the practice of FGM is being called for in many countries in which the practice was considered perfectly acceptable, nay desirable, just a short while ago.
Hopefully now that the practice of "ironing" breasts has been made known to the world in the mass media, measures will be taken to protect girls from this practice as well.
The matter of scarification is a difficult one. In many cultures the practice exists among men and is intimately tied to their self-image and image in society as strong of character, of great physical endurance and capable providers. It is often considered aesthetically beautiful and men believe that it makes them more attractive to women. The women are, of course, taught to believe that a scarified man is attractive. Sometimes women are scarified too and that likewise is considered attractive. It will be quite some time before these peoples will realize that they are doing nothing but inflicting forms of wholly unnecessary mutilation on themselves, often over a period of years.
The very hardest self-harm and self-mutilation to uproot will be that which exists in Western society and which is brought about by, and serves, Capitalism.
When we look at the body of someone who has been mutilated or scarified or the body of a woman whose feet were bound or breasts were "ironed" we can see that something radical and terrible has been perpetrated upon their bodies.
That which has been done to the populace living under the system of Capitalism is invisible to the eye. It is internal. It is psychic and moral and emotional and thus far more difficult to identify and pinpoint.
Few, very, very few living in Capitalist societies are aware of the fact that they have been mentally, emotionally and psychically mutilated and truncated. They do not know that we have been robbed of our potential. They cannot begin to image and visualize what a Human being, freed of the propaganda and fetters placed upon him or her, can develop into.
They think it is normal that they cannot love, laugh or cry with their whole heart.
They think it is normal that they fear to give themselves entirely to a loved one.
They take it as a given that we cannot trust but a very few people.
They think it is normal to live in insecurity and fear behind locked and bolted doors.
They think it is normal not to know our neighbors, or to care to know them.
They think it is normal to see others as competitors, and not as those with whom we cooperate.
They think it is normal to compel children to attend schools where they are subjected to cruel limitation of physical movement, conditioning and the breaking of the spirit that will turn them into docile and unquestioning workers, and managers for that matter, who accept the present state of conditions as existing a priori and/or the alternative to other social and economic systems, all of which are considered far worse.
They think it is normal to encourage a beloved child to sell himself or herself on the "free market".
They think it is normal to come home from work emotionally exhausted with no sense of job satisfaction or feeling of having accomplished something important whatsoever and feeling the need to "unwind" with a few drinks (or other "substances"), sit in front of the TV and doze off only to begin the same routine the next day.
Is brutally robbing us of our full ability to love and give ourselves, of our potential, of our visions and dreams and playfulness when we were children, of our very humanity less barbaric than the most horrible procedures that are carried out on the body in other cultures?
When we begin to realize the extent to which we have been distorted and twisted, tormented into submission, bound, fettered, psychologically lobotomized, drugged, poisoned, conditioned, lied to and broken; when we begin to realize that our ability to imagine other and better alternatives, other and better worlds that we can create here on earth, other and better possibilities has been stripped from us; when we can look in the mirror of our Souls and see the cripples that we are we will take pity on ourselves and on all those around us and have a chance to break free.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
AND CAPITALIST CONDITIONING
Let's begin this discussion with the example of Female Genital Mutilation.
The practice has been carried out for untold generations. Until recently it was carried out unabated and with impunity. The very same women who had had the excruciating and crippling procedure performed on them as babies and children performed it on others. It was the norm. It was considered the "right" thing to do to "protect" girls and women from their own sexuality and from disgracing their families.
The same might be said about the practice of "ironing" young girls' emerging breasts in order to make the girls' breasts ugly so that they will not be raped that has come to the attention of the world recently.
And who has not been overcome with dread and horror when learning about the practice of binding women's feet in China – a torture that girls begged to have done to them and women enthusiastically carried out upon their daughters so that they would be "dainty" and "erotic"?
When we from the outside observe these phenomena; we are horrified.
We have been, of late, successful in sharing this horror with the victims of these practices and the victims are beginning to protest internationally. The criminalization of the practice of FGM is being called for in many countries in which the practice was considered perfectly acceptable, nay desirable, just a short while ago.
Hopefully now that the practice of "ironing" breasts has been made known to the world in the mass media, measures will be taken to protect girls from this practice as well.
The matter of scarification is a difficult one. In many cultures the practice exists among men and is intimately tied to their self-image and image in society as strong of character, of great physical endurance and capable providers. It is often considered aesthetically beautiful and men believe that it makes them more attractive to women. The women are, of course, taught to believe that a scarified man is attractive. Sometimes women are scarified too and that likewise is considered attractive. It will be quite some time before these peoples will realize that they are doing nothing but inflicting forms of wholly unnecessary mutilation on themselves, often over a period of years.
The very hardest self-harm and self-mutilation to uproot will be that which exists in Western society and which is brought about by, and serves, Capitalism.
When we look at the body of someone who has been mutilated or scarified or the body of a woman whose feet were bound or breasts were "ironed" we can see that something radical and terrible has been perpetrated upon their bodies.
That which has been done to the populace living under the system of Capitalism is invisible to the eye. It is internal. It is psychic and moral and emotional and thus far more difficult to identify and pinpoint.
Few, very, very few living in Capitalist societies are aware of the fact that they have been mentally, emotionally and psychically mutilated and truncated. They do not know that we have been robbed of our potential. They cannot begin to image and visualize what a Human being, freed of the propaganda and fetters placed upon him or her, can develop into.
They think it is normal that they cannot love, laugh or cry with their whole heart.
They think it is normal that they fear to give themselves entirely to a loved one.
They take it as a given that we cannot trust but a very few people.
They think it is normal to live in insecurity and fear behind locked and bolted doors.
They think it is normal not to know our neighbors, or to care to know them.
They think it is normal to see others as competitors, and not as those with whom we cooperate.
They think it is normal to compel children to attend schools where they are subjected to cruel limitation of physical movement, conditioning and the breaking of the spirit that will turn them into docile and unquestioning workers, and managers for that matter, who accept the present state of conditions as existing a priori and/or the alternative to other social and economic systems, all of which are considered far worse.
They think it is normal to encourage a beloved child to sell himself or herself on the "free market".
They think it is normal to come home from work emotionally exhausted with no sense of job satisfaction or feeling of having accomplished something important whatsoever and feeling the need to "unwind" with a few drinks (or other "substances"), sit in front of the TV and doze off only to begin the same routine the next day.
Is brutally robbing us of our full ability to love and give ourselves, of our potential, of our visions and dreams and playfulness when we were children, of our very humanity less barbaric than the most horrible procedures that are carried out on the body in other cultures?
When we begin to realize the extent to which we have been distorted and twisted, tormented into submission, bound, fettered, psychologically lobotomized, drugged, poisoned, conditioned, lied to and broken; when we begin to realize that our ability to imagine other and better alternatives, other and better worlds that we can create here on earth, other and better possibilities has been stripped from us; when we can look in the mirror of our Souls and see the cripples that we are we will take pity on ourselves and on all those around us and have a chance to break free.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Sunday, July 09, 2006
Anger and Hate as Drug Addictions
On a message board someone wrote: "Anger and hate are the most dangerous "drug addictions" in today's society."
I agree with this 100%. I would not even put the phrase drug addictions in quotation marks in the statement above. In fact, I am of the opinion, from what I have observed that one of the most effective mind-control methods being used is training people that the only possible reactions that they can have to certain stimuli (like an opinion that is truly anti-State and anti-Establishment, as opposed to state-sanctioned "dissidence") is anger and hatred.
We know that the chemicals that are released by the brain when angered and when feeling hate are not only very destructive to the organism; they are among the most addictive, as you said.
People who have been trained to react with anger and hatred to that which they do not like are addicted to their own biochemistry. Like all addictions it is ongoing and the addict creates the need for more by creating situations that will "require" him or her to get his or her "fix".
It is the worst form of addiction because unlike others there is no need to procure a substance. All the addict has to do is get himself or herself into a frenzy. So, reasons to hate and get angry are always being created in the mind of the addict.
Often, this addiction is found among people who have some sort of cause or hold to some sort of ideology. Whenever they encounter anyone who is not in keeping with their ideas they go into rages. I have noticed that this phenomenon is particularly pronounced among "Leftists". Many of them are wholly incapable of tolerating differing opinions and react with uncontrollable fits of anger. It seems to me that they were conditioned to respond so in order to self-destruct.
In the 24 years that I have been away from the US I have seen this behavior control technique honed to perfection among the populace, particularly, as I have said, among "Leftists".
In response another person wrote: "That would mean ALL of us, and there is no escaping it. However, it is possible to use the biochemistry and redirect it. It can be taught and eventually over time, like water carves through stone, persistence will win."
While I don't think there is no escaping the conditioning, i.e., I can envision societies that would not do this to us; it is certainly true that in our society we are so programmed.
We are also capable of compassion and the ability to look at one another and at ourselves and say: That is not how I want to be. I want to exist on a higher plane than that.
As my friend says: "Think a higher thought."
We are not only capable of thinking higher thoughts, we can consciously condition ourselves to do so. It takes time, patience and many, many repeated efforts, but we can. We can will ourselves to grow IF we are aware of the need for growth and IF we consider compassion a higher level of reaction and emoting than rage.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
On a message board someone wrote: "Anger and hate are the most dangerous "drug addictions" in today's society."
I agree with this 100%. I would not even put the phrase drug addictions in quotation marks in the statement above. In fact, I am of the opinion, from what I have observed that one of the most effective mind-control methods being used is training people that the only possible reactions that they can have to certain stimuli (like an opinion that is truly anti-State and anti-Establishment, as opposed to state-sanctioned "dissidence") is anger and hatred.
We know that the chemicals that are released by the brain when angered and when feeling hate are not only very destructive to the organism; they are among the most addictive, as you said.
People who have been trained to react with anger and hatred to that which they do not like are addicted to their own biochemistry. Like all addictions it is ongoing and the addict creates the need for more by creating situations that will "require" him or her to get his or her "fix".
It is the worst form of addiction because unlike others there is no need to procure a substance. All the addict has to do is get himself or herself into a frenzy. So, reasons to hate and get angry are always being created in the mind of the addict.
Often, this addiction is found among people who have some sort of cause or hold to some sort of ideology. Whenever they encounter anyone who is not in keeping with their ideas they go into rages. I have noticed that this phenomenon is particularly pronounced among "Leftists". Many of them are wholly incapable of tolerating differing opinions and react with uncontrollable fits of anger. It seems to me that they were conditioned to respond so in order to self-destruct.
In the 24 years that I have been away from the US I have seen this behavior control technique honed to perfection among the populace, particularly, as I have said, among "Leftists".
In response another person wrote: "That would mean ALL of us, and there is no escaping it. However, it is possible to use the biochemistry and redirect it. It can be taught and eventually over time, like water carves through stone, persistence will win."
While I don't think there is no escaping the conditioning, i.e., I can envision societies that would not do this to us; it is certainly true that in our society we are so programmed.
We are also capable of compassion and the ability to look at one another and at ourselves and say: That is not how I want to be. I want to exist on a higher plane than that.
As my friend says: "Think a higher thought."
We are not only capable of thinking higher thoughts, we can consciously condition ourselves to do so. It takes time, patience and many, many repeated efforts, but we can. We can will ourselves to grow IF we are aware of the need for growth and IF we consider compassion a higher level of reaction and emoting than rage.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Thursday, July 06, 2006
LOSERS
At the upcoming Mensa World Gathering, on August 8 - 13, 2006, one Deborah L. Ruf, PhD will be addressing the topic: "Why Do So Many Smart People Not Fulfill Their Promise?" I am not acquainted with Dr. Ruf and have never heard her speak on this topic, neither is it my intention to second guess what her considerations on the matter are. But the topic is of great interest to me and I should like, at the risk of raining on her parade by writing this treatment of the topic before her lecture is delivered, to address the question independently.
We are all familiar with the heartbreaking story of James Sidis, as described by the equally tragic figure of Grady Towers, in his essay "The Outsiders". We are all familiar with the phenomenon of the phenomenally intelligent being phenomenally unsuccessful by societal standards, and often, by their own standards and those of others who they care about as well. Many of us know this all too well "up close and personal".
We may have felt defective and have been accused of being somehow defective many times. Sometimes being both intellectually gifted and "sensitive" feels much more like a birth defect than a gift. This essay comes in the hopes of allaying those thoughts, feelings, and self-doubts.
Before those who unquestioningly accept Capitalist society with all its attendant ills and injustices, and to those who readily acquiesce, surrender and capitulate to it; a dizzying array of choices as to what type of cog in or appurtenance to the industrial machine are placed.
Some of those professions are noble indeed. Certainly the seamstress, the baker, those who work in factories and in shops render essential services to people. At a higher level of education and training: medical personnel, many research scientists and educators provide critical services to the public-at-large.
Some people possess talents that allow them to be gainfully employed in a way which provides profound satisfaction and an outlet to their abilities: musicians, dancers, actors come most immediately to mind.
Perhaps the luckiest of all in Capitalist society are those whose talents allow them to create original works in a manner that is recognized by society as useful and desirable: inventors, composers, artists, choreographers are among those.
However, all of those workers share the fact that in order to work they must sacrifice their values. They must remain silent in the face of injustice. They must buy cheap and sell dear. They must engage in misleading advertising. They must remain silent when they know they should speak. They must create a professional "network" and that always involves "I'll scratch your back, you scratch mine" relationships. In the worst cases the relationships are more on the order of: "You don't tell on me and I won't tell on you." Those in the most competitive and desirably fields must be ruthlessly ambitious. They must work 60,70 and even 80 hour weeks.
There are some, of course, who are unemployable due to a physical and/or mental and/or emotional deficiency or illness.
There are some who wish to serve Humankind but Capitalist society does not have a job description for the service they wish to, and are able to, render. They are unique individuals with talents that society has not evolved to the point of recognizing. They exist "before their time". They may wish to spend their lives considering the nature of love. They may wish to put more emphasis on being than on doing. They may consider attaining wisdom more important than acquiring material wealth or even knowledge. They may wish to do something that has never been done before, which will not produce a saleable commodity. These people will not find employment, or will be classical "underachievers" in Capitalist society.
Then there are those who will not accept the injustices of Capitalist society. They will not acquiesce. They will not capitulate. They will not surrender that which they know to be true and good and just. They will not remain silent when they see a coworker abused. They will not buy cheap and sell dear. They will not engage in misleading advertising. They will not demoralize others or themselves by engaging in opportunistic and mutually using and abusing relationships. There are those who, together with John Henry Mackay, declare: "Wherefore I will Not rule, and also ruled I will not be!" (Poem entitled "Anarchy"). For these there is no hope of ever being able to put what they are best at to work in Capitalist society. These people are labeled rebels. They are said to be "bad" and "troublemakers". They made outcasts. They are the losers. They are very likely to be menial workers if they are employed at all. Most of their life will be spent in frustration and depression.
Noam Chomsky writes: "Fame, fortune, and respect await those who reveal the crimes of official enemies; those who undertake the vastly more important task of raising a mirror to ourselves can expect quite different treatment, in any society. " ["Containing the Threat of Democracy", 1990]. (This, of course, brings us to the question of how and why it is that Dr. Chomsky enjoys the fame and comfortable tenured professorship that he does if indeed he is the Anarchist sympathizer that he claims to be, but I digress).
Capitalist society does not reward the morally gifted, the unique and the sensitive. No jobs have been designed for such as these in Capitalist society. Even Professors of Ethics must belong to a faculty in a college or university and we all know the games, politics, power plays and generally simian hierarchy involved in being a member of those august institutions.
Those who are morally gifted are labeled "overly sensitive" or "hypermoral", the latter being a designation that is considered pathological, a symptom of syndromes such as Geschwind's. Of all of the "losers" in society, this waste of Human potential is the most tragic. It is tragic for the individual who can never be of service to society as he or she would wish to be and it is more tragic for society, which does not receive that which the morally gifted would give were they not marginalized, penalized, povertized, demonized, silenced and at worst institutionalized.
__________________________________________________________
In response to this essay, I was asked what I mean by the phrases "overly sensitive", "morally gifted" and the term "hypermoral".
I began to treat that question some time ago in an essay that I wrote entitled "Moral Giftedness", which can be found on the following URL:
http://www.geocities.com/dordot2001/MoralGiftednessXP.htm
At this juncture I will elaborate on the subject by offering some information about three very concrete examples of people who were, in my opinion, preternaturally morally gifted.
I have chosen to quote from the writings of Louise Michel, Emma Goldman and Gustav Landauer not specifically because they were Anarchists (although I do believe that those who are morally gifted are far more likely to arrive at the correctness of Anarchism than is the general population), but rather because of the way in which these people were described by those who knew and loved them in contradistinction to the way in which their respective societies treated them. I quote from their works directly because they articulate so very well the reactions to injustice that the preternaturally morally gifted experience. They were contemporaneous and constituted a mutual admiration society.
Louise Michel was one of the leaders of the Paris Commune. "She was a member of two vigilance committees established in the eastern suburbs of Paris – one for men and the other for women…she was elected president of the Women's Vigilance Committee." (louise michel, Anarchist and revolutionary feminist, jailed and exiled for leading the 1871 popular uprising in Paris – rebel lives, edited by Nic Maclellan, Ocean Press 2004)
Louise Michel was honored with tribute in writing from Victor Hugo, her life-long friend; Bertolt Brecht and Emma Goldman. Of course, the Paris Commune as a whole would be memorialized and held up as a paradigm of what is possible when a "peoples' government" exists by many Leftists in the years to come. Among those who praised the Paris Commune as a whole were: Mikhail Bakunin, William Morris, Peter Kropotkin, Karl Marx and V.I. Lenin.
About herself Louise Michel wrote: "As far back as I can remember, the origin of my revolt against the powerful was my horror at the tortures on animals. I used to wish animals could get revenge, that the dog could bite the man who was mercilessly beating him, that the horse bleeding under the whip could throw off the man tormenting him. But mute animals always submit to their fate…
Animals always submit, and the more ferocious a man is toward animals, the more that man cringes before the people who dominate him…
My evening in the village added to the feeling of revolt that I felt time and time again. The peasants sow and harvest the grain, but they do not always have bread…
I thought that if that usurer had come into the village at that moment I would have leapt at his throat to bit it…I was indignant [that] everybody couldn't have food every day." (op. cit. sources of rebellion)
When she was exiled to New Caledonia she wrote: "The Kanaks (the indigenous people of New Caledonia who were said to be cannibals and who the other exiled French in New Caledonia felt ethnically superior to) were seeking the same liberty we had sought in the Commune…" (op. cit.). Louise Michel sought to understand their culture and undertook to learn their language. She also ministered to them in whatever way she could.
The second example I will proffer is that of another woman who, like Louise Michel, was considered saintly by those who knew her but was considered a "firebrand" and "extremely dangerous" by her society, Emma Goldman. Emma wrote prolifically and was a lecturer much in demand and so we a large corpus of her works is extant.
About Emma Goldman, who was jailed, exiled and vilified by the American establishment it was said by those who knew her and were sympathetic toward her: "Your beautiful letters have been a great comfort to me, when I have an opportunity of reading them. E.G., my spiritual mother (you have permitted me to call you in this way) you are a daughter of dreams." (Ba Jin)
[Emma Goldman was] "a role model and exemplar, as a stunning speaker, a star, as an anarchist leader of immense energy and integrity always willing to go to jail for her principles (parentheses mine)." (RED EMMA SPEAKS, Compiled and Edited by Alix Kates Shulman, Humanity Books, 1998)
"An anarchist like Goldman, an individualist concerned not only to change social structures but to live out her principles as well, was sometimes impatient with women who were unable to follow her example. She frequently exhorted people not only to organize to resist authority but to change their ways as individuals." (op. cit.)
"Goldman was always political, fighting to change the social structures that restricted women instead of simply changing her own life." (op. cit.)
She was considered "hot-tempered". (op. cit.)
"…Goldman was denouncing what she called "internal tyrants" that thwart and cripple women." (op. cit.)
She was a fierce critic of society's moral norms and the soi-disant guardians of societal norms, like Anthony Comstock. She wrote an essay on this topic entitled "Victims of Morality", which was published in her periodical Mother Earth in March 1913.
As to how the state saw her: "During her thirty years as an anarchist agitator, labor champion, free speech activist and birth control advocate, the notorious Red Emma was feared a promoter of violence, free love, and anarchy." (op. cit)
About herself Emma wrote: "Each child responds differently to his environment. Some become rebels, refusing to be dazzled by social superstitions. They are outraged by every injustice perpetrated upon them or upon others. They grow ever more sensitive to the suffering round them and the restrictions which authority places in their way. Others become rubber stamps, registering every convention and taboo imposed upon them.
I evidently belong to the first category. Since my earliest recollection of my youth in Russia I have rebelled against orthodoxy in every form. I could never bear to witness harshness whether on the part of our parents to us or in their dealings with the servants. I wept bitter tears when the young men were conscripted into the army and torn from their homes and hearths. I resented the treatment of our servants, who did the hardest work and yet had to put up with wretched sleeping quarters and the leavings of our table. I was indignant when I discovered that love between young people of Jewish and Gentile origin was considered the crime of crimes, and the birth of an illegitimate child the most depraved immorality…
On coming to America I had the same hopes as have most European immigrants and the same disillusionment, though the latter affected me more keenly and more deeply." (op. cit.)
The final figure who I will hold up as a paragon of morality is Gustav Landauer. Gustav Landauer was deeply loved and respected by those who were close to him and who understood what motivated him and why he wrote what he wrote and acted as he did for society. As for the society in which he lived: they beat him to death at the age of 48.
About Gustav Landauer it has been said: "The memory of Gustav Landauer must not fade…" (Eberhard Arnold)
"…Landauer deserves to be remembered as a saint." (Hakim Bey)
Gustav Landauer's close friend and student, Martin Buber, based a good deal of this thought and work on that of Gustav Landauer and quoted him in his work.
We turn now to the words of Gustav Landauer himself.
"…compassion and love are not necessarily the right words to describe our deepest motives. As for my animating force, it lies in the repugnance of the humanity that encircles us, a rage at the indolence of the rich who blithely build their happiness on the ruins of the joyless existence of the dehumanized multitude. My rage dissipates not one iota when I consider the extent of the squalor to which the oppressed are subjected." (Anarchism in Germany, 1985)
"…something new, grand, magnificent, is about to be realized by the united efforts of mankind…"(Social Democracy in Germany 1896)
"In unspiritual times of decline, un-culture, un-spirit and misery, men who suffer not only externally but also internally under this general condition which seeks to engulf them fully – in their life, thought, feeling and will – men who resist this engulfment must have an ideal. They have an insight into the oppressive depravity and debasement of their situation. They are unspeakably disgusted with the misery that surrounds them like a swamp. They have energy that presses forward and longs for something better, and thus arises in them, an image of a pure, salutary, joyous mode of human communality in lofty beauty and perfection…And now they no longer say: it can be so. Instead, they say: it should, and must come about." (FOR SOCIALISM)
"Sacred dissatisfaction is aroused and stimulated; something like a spirit…" (op. cit.)
"You people, one and all, who suffer under this outrage: let not only my voice reach you and the tone of my words. Hear also my silence an atonality, my choking anxiety. And see my clenched fist, my twisted features and the pale decisiveness of all my bearing. Grasp, above all, the inadequacy of this description and my inexpressible incapacity for I want people to hear me, stand by me, walk with me, people who, like me, can no longer bear it." (op. cit.)
We see, then, a number of similarities of character among these moral giants.
We see that they respond to the very same social injustices that people of ordinary moral caliber react to, but their reactions are far more "keen" and "deep", as Emma Goldman describes it. They are so keenly and deeply affected by injustice that they cannot but act to aright the wrongs.
They are not an insipid lot. Though they most certainly do love and feel the deepest compassion for Humanity, their "animating force", as Landauer calls it quite correctly, is a combination of rage, outrage and disgust at injustice.
They do not, however, allow that rage to drive them to commit acts of violence against innocent persons, as do common criminals who, like them, society calls "losers". If they do resort to violence, and they do not do so commonly, but only when the established powers give them no choice; the violence is directed against authority figures, not ordinary citizens.
Errico Malatesta, another central figure in the history of anarchy describes them thus: "Let there be no hatred, though, because love and justice cannot arise from hatred. Hatred brings about revenge, desire to be over the enemy, need to consolidate one's superiority. Hatred can only be the foundation of new governments, if one wins, but it cannot be the foundation of anarchy…For this reason true haters cannot be found among our comrades, although there are many rhetoricians of hatred. They are like the poet, who is a good and peaceful father, but he sings of hatred, because this gives him the opportunity of composing good verses…or perhaps bad ones. They talk about hatred, but their hatred is made of love.
For this reason I love them, even if they call me names." ("About My Trial: Class Struggle or Class Hatred?", 1921)
Ernesto (Che) Guevara would echo a similar sentiment when he said: "The true revolutionary is inspired by a great feeling of love."
They are guided by visions of what Human society can be, this is what leads them to be revolutionaries. They are idealist visionaries.
They all strove to make life better for all humanity, rather than to concentrate their energies on personal advancement, this despite the heavy price that was exacted from them from the establishment, which considered them criminals, not heroes.
They were often misunderstood and vilified not only by the establishment, but by the very people who they endeavored to help and whose lot they risked their own lives to ameliorate. Errico Malatesta explains this phenomenon thus: "…a man whose limbs had been bound from birth, but who had nevertheless found out how to hobble about, might attribute to the very bands that bound him his ability to move, while, on the contrary, they would diminish and paralyze the muscular energy of his limbs…Suppose a doctor brought forward a complete theory, with a thousand ably invented illustrations, to persuade the man with bound limbs that, if his limbs were freed, he could not walk, or even live. The man would defend his bands furiously and consider anyone his enemy who tried to tear them off." (op. cit.) Such is the case with most people in society. They have believed the lies that their masters have told them about their fetters being good for them, even essential, and they defend them with a vengeance. Thus, the revolutionary is often as hated and feared by the oppressed as s/he is by the establishment.
This, then, is the type of personality that I had in mind when I began to treat the subject of "hypermoral" or "moral giftedness" or "overly sensitive".
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
At the upcoming Mensa World Gathering, on August 8 - 13, 2006, one Deborah L. Ruf, PhD will be addressing the topic: "Why Do So Many Smart People Not Fulfill Their Promise?" I am not acquainted with Dr. Ruf and have never heard her speak on this topic, neither is it my intention to second guess what her considerations on the matter are. But the topic is of great interest to me and I should like, at the risk of raining on her parade by writing this treatment of the topic before her lecture is delivered, to address the question independently.
We are all familiar with the heartbreaking story of James Sidis, as described by the equally tragic figure of Grady Towers, in his essay "The Outsiders". We are all familiar with the phenomenon of the phenomenally intelligent being phenomenally unsuccessful by societal standards, and often, by their own standards and those of others who they care about as well. Many of us know this all too well "up close and personal".
We may have felt defective and have been accused of being somehow defective many times. Sometimes being both intellectually gifted and "sensitive" feels much more like a birth defect than a gift. This essay comes in the hopes of allaying those thoughts, feelings, and self-doubts.
Before those who unquestioningly accept Capitalist society with all its attendant ills and injustices, and to those who readily acquiesce, surrender and capitulate to it; a dizzying array of choices as to what type of cog in or appurtenance to the industrial machine are placed.
Some of those professions are noble indeed. Certainly the seamstress, the baker, those who work in factories and in shops render essential services to people. At a higher level of education and training: medical personnel, many research scientists and educators provide critical services to the public-at-large.
Some people possess talents that allow them to be gainfully employed in a way which provides profound satisfaction and an outlet to their abilities: musicians, dancers, actors come most immediately to mind.
Perhaps the luckiest of all in Capitalist society are those whose talents allow them to create original works in a manner that is recognized by society as useful and desirable: inventors, composers, artists, choreographers are among those.
However, all of those workers share the fact that in order to work they must sacrifice their values. They must remain silent in the face of injustice. They must buy cheap and sell dear. They must engage in misleading advertising. They must remain silent when they know they should speak. They must create a professional "network" and that always involves "I'll scratch your back, you scratch mine" relationships. In the worst cases the relationships are more on the order of: "You don't tell on me and I won't tell on you." Those in the most competitive and desirably fields must be ruthlessly ambitious. They must work 60,70 and even 80 hour weeks.
There are some, of course, who are unemployable due to a physical and/or mental and/or emotional deficiency or illness.
There are some who wish to serve Humankind but Capitalist society does not have a job description for the service they wish to, and are able to, render. They are unique individuals with talents that society has not evolved to the point of recognizing. They exist "before their time". They may wish to spend their lives considering the nature of love. They may wish to put more emphasis on being than on doing. They may consider attaining wisdom more important than acquiring material wealth or even knowledge. They may wish to do something that has never been done before, which will not produce a saleable commodity. These people will not find employment, or will be classical "underachievers" in Capitalist society.
Then there are those who will not accept the injustices of Capitalist society. They will not acquiesce. They will not capitulate. They will not surrender that which they know to be true and good and just. They will not remain silent when they see a coworker abused. They will not buy cheap and sell dear. They will not engage in misleading advertising. They will not demoralize others or themselves by engaging in opportunistic and mutually using and abusing relationships. There are those who, together with John Henry Mackay, declare: "Wherefore I will Not rule, and also ruled I will not be!" (Poem entitled "Anarchy"). For these there is no hope of ever being able to put what they are best at to work in Capitalist society. These people are labeled rebels. They are said to be "bad" and "troublemakers". They made outcasts. They are the losers. They are very likely to be menial workers if they are employed at all. Most of their life will be spent in frustration and depression.
Noam Chomsky writes: "Fame, fortune, and respect await those who reveal the crimes of official enemies; those who undertake the vastly more important task of raising a mirror to ourselves can expect quite different treatment, in any society. " ["Containing the Threat of Democracy", 1990]. (This, of course, brings us to the question of how and why it is that Dr. Chomsky enjoys the fame and comfortable tenured professorship that he does if indeed he is the Anarchist sympathizer that he claims to be, but I digress).
Capitalist society does not reward the morally gifted, the unique and the sensitive. No jobs have been designed for such as these in Capitalist society. Even Professors of Ethics must belong to a faculty in a college or university and we all know the games, politics, power plays and generally simian hierarchy involved in being a member of those august institutions.
Those who are morally gifted are labeled "overly sensitive" or "hypermoral", the latter being a designation that is considered pathological, a symptom of syndromes such as Geschwind's. Of all of the "losers" in society, this waste of Human potential is the most tragic. It is tragic for the individual who can never be of service to society as he or she would wish to be and it is more tragic for society, which does not receive that which the morally gifted would give were they not marginalized, penalized, povertized, demonized, silenced and at worst institutionalized.
__________________________________________________________
In response to this essay, I was asked what I mean by the phrases "overly sensitive", "morally gifted" and the term "hypermoral".
I began to treat that question some time ago in an essay that I wrote entitled "Moral Giftedness", which can be found on the following URL:
http://www.geocities.com/dordot2001/MoralGiftednessXP.htm
At this juncture I will elaborate on the subject by offering some information about three very concrete examples of people who were, in my opinion, preternaturally morally gifted.
I have chosen to quote from the writings of Louise Michel, Emma Goldman and Gustav Landauer not specifically because they were Anarchists (although I do believe that those who are morally gifted are far more likely to arrive at the correctness of Anarchism than is the general population), but rather because of the way in which these people were described by those who knew and loved them in contradistinction to the way in which their respective societies treated them. I quote from their works directly because they articulate so very well the reactions to injustice that the preternaturally morally gifted experience. They were contemporaneous and constituted a mutual admiration society.
Louise Michel was one of the leaders of the Paris Commune. "She was a member of two vigilance committees established in the eastern suburbs of Paris – one for men and the other for women…she was elected president of the Women's Vigilance Committee." (louise michel, Anarchist and revolutionary feminist, jailed and exiled for leading the 1871 popular uprising in Paris – rebel lives, edited by Nic Maclellan, Ocean Press 2004)
Louise Michel was honored with tribute in writing from Victor Hugo, her life-long friend; Bertolt Brecht and Emma Goldman. Of course, the Paris Commune as a whole would be memorialized and held up as a paradigm of what is possible when a "peoples' government" exists by many Leftists in the years to come. Among those who praised the Paris Commune as a whole were: Mikhail Bakunin, William Morris, Peter Kropotkin, Karl Marx and V.I. Lenin.
About herself Louise Michel wrote: "As far back as I can remember, the origin of my revolt against the powerful was my horror at the tortures on animals. I used to wish animals could get revenge, that the dog could bite the man who was mercilessly beating him, that the horse bleeding under the whip could throw off the man tormenting him. But mute animals always submit to their fate…
Animals always submit, and the more ferocious a man is toward animals, the more that man cringes before the people who dominate him…
My evening in the village added to the feeling of revolt that I felt time and time again. The peasants sow and harvest the grain, but they do not always have bread…
I thought that if that usurer had come into the village at that moment I would have leapt at his throat to bit it…I was indignant [that] everybody couldn't have food every day." (op. cit. sources of rebellion)
When she was exiled to New Caledonia she wrote: "The Kanaks (the indigenous people of New Caledonia who were said to be cannibals and who the other exiled French in New Caledonia felt ethnically superior to) were seeking the same liberty we had sought in the Commune…" (op. cit.). Louise Michel sought to understand their culture and undertook to learn their language. She also ministered to them in whatever way she could.
The second example I will proffer is that of another woman who, like Louise Michel, was considered saintly by those who knew her but was considered a "firebrand" and "extremely dangerous" by her society, Emma Goldman. Emma wrote prolifically and was a lecturer much in demand and so we a large corpus of her works is extant.
About Emma Goldman, who was jailed, exiled and vilified by the American establishment it was said by those who knew her and were sympathetic toward her: "Your beautiful letters have been a great comfort to me, when I have an opportunity of reading them. E.G., my spiritual mother (you have permitted me to call you in this way) you are a daughter of dreams." (Ba Jin)
[Emma Goldman was] "a role model and exemplar, as a stunning speaker, a star, as an anarchist leader of immense energy and integrity always willing to go to jail for her principles (parentheses mine)." (RED EMMA SPEAKS, Compiled and Edited by Alix Kates Shulman, Humanity Books, 1998)
"An anarchist like Goldman, an individualist concerned not only to change social structures but to live out her principles as well, was sometimes impatient with women who were unable to follow her example. She frequently exhorted people not only to organize to resist authority but to change their ways as individuals." (op. cit.)
"Goldman was always political, fighting to change the social structures that restricted women instead of simply changing her own life." (op. cit.)
She was considered "hot-tempered". (op. cit.)
"…Goldman was denouncing what she called "internal tyrants" that thwart and cripple women." (op. cit.)
She was a fierce critic of society's moral norms and the soi-disant guardians of societal norms, like Anthony Comstock. She wrote an essay on this topic entitled "Victims of Morality", which was published in her periodical Mother Earth in March 1913.
As to how the state saw her: "During her thirty years as an anarchist agitator, labor champion, free speech activist and birth control advocate, the notorious Red Emma was feared a promoter of violence, free love, and anarchy." (op. cit)
About herself Emma wrote: "Each child responds differently to his environment. Some become rebels, refusing to be dazzled by social superstitions. They are outraged by every injustice perpetrated upon them or upon others. They grow ever more sensitive to the suffering round them and the restrictions which authority places in their way. Others become rubber stamps, registering every convention and taboo imposed upon them.
I evidently belong to the first category. Since my earliest recollection of my youth in Russia I have rebelled against orthodoxy in every form. I could never bear to witness harshness whether on the part of our parents to us or in their dealings with the servants. I wept bitter tears when the young men were conscripted into the army and torn from their homes and hearths. I resented the treatment of our servants, who did the hardest work and yet had to put up with wretched sleeping quarters and the leavings of our table. I was indignant when I discovered that love between young people of Jewish and Gentile origin was considered the crime of crimes, and the birth of an illegitimate child the most depraved immorality…
On coming to America I had the same hopes as have most European immigrants and the same disillusionment, though the latter affected me more keenly and more deeply." (op. cit.)
The final figure who I will hold up as a paragon of morality is Gustav Landauer. Gustav Landauer was deeply loved and respected by those who were close to him and who understood what motivated him and why he wrote what he wrote and acted as he did for society. As for the society in which he lived: they beat him to death at the age of 48.
About Gustav Landauer it has been said: "The memory of Gustav Landauer must not fade…" (Eberhard Arnold)
"…Landauer deserves to be remembered as a saint." (Hakim Bey)
Gustav Landauer's close friend and student, Martin Buber, based a good deal of this thought and work on that of Gustav Landauer and quoted him in his work.
We turn now to the words of Gustav Landauer himself.
"…compassion and love are not necessarily the right words to describe our deepest motives. As for my animating force, it lies in the repugnance of the humanity that encircles us, a rage at the indolence of the rich who blithely build their happiness on the ruins of the joyless existence of the dehumanized multitude. My rage dissipates not one iota when I consider the extent of the squalor to which the oppressed are subjected." (Anarchism in Germany, 1985)
"…something new, grand, magnificent, is about to be realized by the united efforts of mankind…"(Social Democracy in Germany 1896)
"In unspiritual times of decline, un-culture, un-spirit and misery, men who suffer not only externally but also internally under this general condition which seeks to engulf them fully – in their life, thought, feeling and will – men who resist this engulfment must have an ideal. They have an insight into the oppressive depravity and debasement of their situation. They are unspeakably disgusted with the misery that surrounds them like a swamp. They have energy that presses forward and longs for something better, and thus arises in them, an image of a pure, salutary, joyous mode of human communality in lofty beauty and perfection…And now they no longer say: it can be so. Instead, they say: it should, and must come about." (FOR SOCIALISM)
"Sacred dissatisfaction is aroused and stimulated; something like a spirit…" (op. cit.)
"You people, one and all, who suffer under this outrage: let not only my voice reach you and the tone of my words. Hear also my silence an atonality, my choking anxiety. And see my clenched fist, my twisted features and the pale decisiveness of all my bearing. Grasp, above all, the inadequacy of this description and my inexpressible incapacity for I want people to hear me, stand by me, walk with me, people who, like me, can no longer bear it." (op. cit.)
We see, then, a number of similarities of character among these moral giants.
We see that they respond to the very same social injustices that people of ordinary moral caliber react to, but their reactions are far more "keen" and "deep", as Emma Goldman describes it. They are so keenly and deeply affected by injustice that they cannot but act to aright the wrongs.
They are not an insipid lot. Though they most certainly do love and feel the deepest compassion for Humanity, their "animating force", as Landauer calls it quite correctly, is a combination of rage, outrage and disgust at injustice.
They do not, however, allow that rage to drive them to commit acts of violence against innocent persons, as do common criminals who, like them, society calls "losers". If they do resort to violence, and they do not do so commonly, but only when the established powers give them no choice; the violence is directed against authority figures, not ordinary citizens.
Errico Malatesta, another central figure in the history of anarchy describes them thus: "Let there be no hatred, though, because love and justice cannot arise from hatred. Hatred brings about revenge, desire to be over the enemy, need to consolidate one's superiority. Hatred can only be the foundation of new governments, if one wins, but it cannot be the foundation of anarchy…For this reason true haters cannot be found among our comrades, although there are many rhetoricians of hatred. They are like the poet, who is a good and peaceful father, but he sings of hatred, because this gives him the opportunity of composing good verses…or perhaps bad ones. They talk about hatred, but their hatred is made of love.
For this reason I love them, even if they call me names." ("About My Trial: Class Struggle or Class Hatred?", 1921)
Ernesto (Che) Guevara would echo a similar sentiment when he said: "The true revolutionary is inspired by a great feeling of love."
They are guided by visions of what Human society can be, this is what leads them to be revolutionaries. They are idealist visionaries.
They all strove to make life better for all humanity, rather than to concentrate their energies on personal advancement, this despite the heavy price that was exacted from them from the establishment, which considered them criminals, not heroes.
They were often misunderstood and vilified not only by the establishment, but by the very people who they endeavored to help and whose lot they risked their own lives to ameliorate. Errico Malatesta explains this phenomenon thus: "…a man whose limbs had been bound from birth, but who had nevertheless found out how to hobble about, might attribute to the very bands that bound him his ability to move, while, on the contrary, they would diminish and paralyze the muscular energy of his limbs…Suppose a doctor brought forward a complete theory, with a thousand ably invented illustrations, to persuade the man with bound limbs that, if his limbs were freed, he could not walk, or even live. The man would defend his bands furiously and consider anyone his enemy who tried to tear them off." (op. cit.) Such is the case with most people in society. They have believed the lies that their masters have told them about their fetters being good for them, even essential, and they defend them with a vengeance. Thus, the revolutionary is often as hated and feared by the oppressed as s/he is by the establishment.
This, then, is the type of personality that I had in mind when I began to treat the subject of "hypermoral" or "moral giftedness" or "overly sensitive".
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Sunday, July 02, 2006
The Jews and The Palestinians – Both Were Set Up
Consider if you will the map on the following link. It is a map of the UN Partition Plan of 1947:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1947_UN_Partition_Plan
As you can see, the plan called for two mutually trisecting countries.
It would be impossible for any two countries to live within borders like that, even if they were on the best of terms. Even countries as similar as Spain and Portugal could not pull it off.
To expect the Jews and the Arabs to live in peace thus is an absolute absurdity.
The UN created the situation in order to foment war in this country in order to:
1) Keep the Jews and Arabs alike busy with war so that they would not be able to actualize their respective potentials or collaborate in order to build up the area (the Jews and the Arabs have a history of collaborating beautifully and Europe was terrified of this occurring again).
2) To keep arms production and sales going.
3) To keep the drug traffic in this area at full blast. War causes misery and poverty. Misery and poverty keep the drug business going.
For an in-depth treatment of the entire matter, see my essay "An Anarchist Explains Why Israel Is Not An Imperialist State", which can be found on the following URL:
http://www.geocities.com/dordot2001/IsraelIsNotAnImperialistState.htm
In my essay "An Anarchist Explains Why Israel Is Not An Imperialist State" I explain the role that England played in funneling more Arabs into the area before the State of Israel was declared and before they left in order to upset the demographic balance that existed. They put pressure on France to go along with this. And yes, the British armed and trained the Arabs in the area. It is most true that the British trained Arab guerillas.
During the War of Independence, when Israel was under attack by five Arab nations on all fronts that were being supported by yet more Arab nations, the US State Department refused to supply arms to Israel. It wasn't the first time the US let us down, as I discuss in my essay. Arms were bought from Czechoslovakia and from American Jewish gangsters, most prominently "Bugsy" Siegel.
After the War of Independence was won the USSR courted the first PM of the State of Israel, David Ben Gurion, to bring Israel into its sphere of influence. Ben Gurion decided to turn to the US and become its puppet instead. Knowing that the USSR wanted Israel as part of its satellite, the US accepted the request.
There is another reason, I believe, that the State of Israel was created. It seem to serve as a social experimentation field.
After the arrival of the Jews of Yemen many of their babies and children disappeared. They were told that they had died, but the graves were later proven to be empty.
I have often wondered why the Yemenite Jews were singled out for kidnapping of their children. They have a very distinctive "look" and would not be children that would "blend in" on the black adoption market with other ethnic groups. So, that can't be the reason the children and babies were abducted.
The only answer that makes sense to me is that they were one of the most isolated Jewish communities and they are among the most genetically "pure" Jews.
I cannot prove this, it is only speculation, but I think that human experimentation was carried out on some of them.
It was just around 1950 when the Yemenites arrived in Israel - a scant 5 years after WWII ended.
We know that America brought top Nazi scientists to the US and integrated them into think tanks and universities, scientists who had carried out human experimentation both physical and psychological.
I believe they continued some of the experiments on the Yemenite children, most of whom were never found and their "graves" were found to either be empty or contain animal bones.
Additionally, Israel still serves as a field school for social experimentation. We are subjected to various stressors, mostly economic and social, that are clearly not natural or matters of everyday life. Our reactions to them, I believe, are being studied.
The Israeli market also serves as a "back up" for drugs that are taken off the market by the American, Canadian and European governments for being unsafe. We are one of the countries that the drugs that may still be in stock are sold to after they can no longer be sold in the West. This is not a matter of speculation. I have seen those drugs being sold by the "health" clinics here years after they were off the American market.
Noam Chomsky writes about the social experiments that were carried out by social scientists in Viet Nam - mostly aimed at population control under wartime conditions. I believe that some of that is going on here in Israel.
I don't think that most people begin to know that far from being America's "darling"; Israel is America's, and Europe's, victim. In fact, part of the victimization is making us out to be America's ally in order to set us up for world hatred.
We find ourselves in the position of:
1) Having to be conscripted into the army and fighting an ongoing cold war with the Palestinians, which, if you have noticed, always comes just to the brink of all-out war, but never goes over.
2) Absorbing terrorist attacks from the Palestinians.
3) Being considered America's ally in the area the aggressors in this situation.
How can we possibly be an ally of the US? Some degree of parity must exist between or among allies. There is no parity between the US and Israel. When we're not America's compliant flunkies we get kicked in the teeth every time.
Jonathan Pollard is a perfect example. Although he did not divulge American state secrets, he mere passed information about the fact that Iran was building a nuclear facility to Israel, information that had America been a friend and ally it would have given us; he has been sentenced to the most severe punishment ever meted out to a "spy". Real spies, spies who have passed truly damaging information to other countries about the US never received sentences like has Pollard. The information that Pollard gave us did not harm the US in any way. It merely helped Israel to know the area was in danger of Iran becoming immanently nuclear-capable. Does that sound like the behavior of a country that is a friend and ally?
There is one solution to the problems in this area: The recognition on both Israel's and Palestine's part that we have been set up and cooperation between us to get our real enemies out of here: The US, EU and the countries that support them.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Consider if you will the map on the following link. It is a map of the UN Partition Plan of 1947:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1947_UN_Partition_Plan
As you can see, the plan called for two mutually trisecting countries.
It would be impossible for any two countries to live within borders like that, even if they were on the best of terms. Even countries as similar as Spain and Portugal could not pull it off.
To expect the Jews and the Arabs to live in peace thus is an absolute absurdity.
The UN created the situation in order to foment war in this country in order to:
1) Keep the Jews and Arabs alike busy with war so that they would not be able to actualize their respective potentials or collaborate in order to build up the area (the Jews and the Arabs have a history of collaborating beautifully and Europe was terrified of this occurring again).
2) To keep arms production and sales going.
3) To keep the drug traffic in this area at full blast. War causes misery and poverty. Misery and poverty keep the drug business going.
For an in-depth treatment of the entire matter, see my essay "An Anarchist Explains Why Israel Is Not An Imperialist State", which can be found on the following URL:
http://www.geocities.com/dordot2001/IsraelIsNotAnImperialistState.htm
In my essay "An Anarchist Explains Why Israel Is Not An Imperialist State" I explain the role that England played in funneling more Arabs into the area before the State of Israel was declared and before they left in order to upset the demographic balance that existed. They put pressure on France to go along with this. And yes, the British armed and trained the Arabs in the area. It is most true that the British trained Arab guerillas.
During the War of Independence, when Israel was under attack by five Arab nations on all fronts that were being supported by yet more Arab nations, the US State Department refused to supply arms to Israel. It wasn't the first time the US let us down, as I discuss in my essay. Arms were bought from Czechoslovakia and from American Jewish gangsters, most prominently "Bugsy" Siegel.
After the War of Independence was won the USSR courted the first PM of the State of Israel, David Ben Gurion, to bring Israel into its sphere of influence. Ben Gurion decided to turn to the US and become its puppet instead. Knowing that the USSR wanted Israel as part of its satellite, the US accepted the request.
There is another reason, I believe, that the State of Israel was created. It seem to serve as a social experimentation field.
After the arrival of the Jews of Yemen many of their babies and children disappeared. They were told that they had died, but the graves were later proven to be empty.
I have often wondered why the Yemenite Jews were singled out for kidnapping of their children. They have a very distinctive "look" and would not be children that would "blend in" on the black adoption market with other ethnic groups. So, that can't be the reason the children and babies were abducted.
The only answer that makes sense to me is that they were one of the most isolated Jewish communities and they are among the most genetically "pure" Jews.
I cannot prove this, it is only speculation, but I think that human experimentation was carried out on some of them.
It was just around 1950 when the Yemenites arrived in Israel - a scant 5 years after WWII ended.
We know that America brought top Nazi scientists to the US and integrated them into think tanks and universities, scientists who had carried out human experimentation both physical and psychological.
I believe they continued some of the experiments on the Yemenite children, most of whom were never found and their "graves" were found to either be empty or contain animal bones.
Additionally, Israel still serves as a field school for social experimentation. We are subjected to various stressors, mostly economic and social, that are clearly not natural or matters of everyday life. Our reactions to them, I believe, are being studied.
The Israeli market also serves as a "back up" for drugs that are taken off the market by the American, Canadian and European governments for being unsafe. We are one of the countries that the drugs that may still be in stock are sold to after they can no longer be sold in the West. This is not a matter of speculation. I have seen those drugs being sold by the "health" clinics here years after they were off the American market.
Noam Chomsky writes about the social experiments that were carried out by social scientists in Viet Nam - mostly aimed at population control under wartime conditions. I believe that some of that is going on here in Israel.
I don't think that most people begin to know that far from being America's "darling"; Israel is America's, and Europe's, victim. In fact, part of the victimization is making us out to be America's ally in order to set us up for world hatred.
We find ourselves in the position of:
1) Having to be conscripted into the army and fighting an ongoing cold war with the Palestinians, which, if you have noticed, always comes just to the brink of all-out war, but never goes over.
2) Absorbing terrorist attacks from the Palestinians.
3) Being considered America's ally in the area the aggressors in this situation.
How can we possibly be an ally of the US? Some degree of parity must exist between or among allies. There is no parity between the US and Israel. When we're not America's compliant flunkies we get kicked in the teeth every time.
Jonathan Pollard is a perfect example. Although he did not divulge American state secrets, he mere passed information about the fact that Iran was building a nuclear facility to Israel, information that had America been a friend and ally it would have given us; he has been sentenced to the most severe punishment ever meted out to a "spy". Real spies, spies who have passed truly damaging information to other countries about the US never received sentences like has Pollard. The information that Pollard gave us did not harm the US in any way. It merely helped Israel to know the area was in danger of Iran becoming immanently nuclear-capable. Does that sound like the behavior of a country that is a friend and ally?
There is one solution to the problems in this area: The recognition on both Israel's and Palestine's part that we have been set up and cooperation between us to get our real enemies out of here: The US, EU and the countries that support them.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Socialist and Anarchist Women
It occurred to me that of all of the intellectual endeavors undertaken by Humankind, the Leftist, particularly the Socialist and Anarchist, movements can boast the largest representation of female geniuses.
It would seem as though Socialism and Anarchism provide unique outlet for particularly feminine genius.
The outstanding women figures in Leftist movements that come most immediately to mind are:
Lucy Parsons
Louise Michel
Emma Goldman
Helen Keller
Marie Louise Berneri
Voltairine DeCleyre
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn
Dora Marsden
Federica Montseny
Margaret Sanger
Rosa Luxembourg
Elizabeth Jane Cochran (aka Nellie Bly)
Rose Pesotta
Angela Davis
I am hard-pressed to think of any other intellectual-activist field so graced.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
It occurred to me that of all of the intellectual endeavors undertaken by Humankind, the Leftist, particularly the Socialist and Anarchist, movements can boast the largest representation of female geniuses.
It would seem as though Socialism and Anarchism provide unique outlet for particularly feminine genius.
The outstanding women figures in Leftist movements that come most immediately to mind are:
Lucy Parsons
Louise Michel
Emma Goldman
Helen Keller
Marie Louise Berneri
Voltairine DeCleyre
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn
Dora Marsden
Federica Montseny
Margaret Sanger
Rosa Luxembourg
Elizabeth Jane Cochran (aka Nellie Bly)
Rose Pesotta
Angela Davis
I am hard-pressed to think of any other intellectual-activist field so graced.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
My Reply to a Post Entitled: "Why Anti-Zionism = Anti-Semitism = Racism"
Both the original post and my response can be found on the following URL:
http://tinyurl.com/g4mtn
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Both the original post and my response can be found on the following URL:
http://tinyurl.com/g4mtn
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Saturday, June 10, 2006
ANARCHY ARCHIVES
A FREE Online
When you click on the name of the Anarchists who appear on the site (don't overlook the "Lesser But Bright Lights Link"! Many of them are in no wise lesser light, IMO.) you'll see a link that says "Collected Works" on their page.
That link will take you to entire books, articles, essays, etc. Most are in English, but some are in other languages as well.
http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/index.html
Bon Appetit!
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan,
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Sunday, May 28, 2006
An Eye for an Eye, A Tooth for a Tooth
One of the most common Gentile misunderstandings of Torah: "The Bible says: "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth".
That is one of the horrendous distortions in the translations.
In the one and only correct Bible, the Hebrew Torah, that sentence comes directly after a discussion of the laws of slavery. What it means is that if a slave master harms his slave and puts out his eye he must not only set him free, but pay him the difference of what he would be worth on the market with and without an eye.
The same goes for a tooth. Even so much as knocking out a tooth of a slave was reason enough to have to set him or her free plus paying the difference in compensation.
The Talmud goes further still. In the Talmud we learn that it is forbidden to sleep in a better bed than one's slave or to eat better food than one's slave.
Those laws are intended to lead people in the direction of doing away with slavery all together by instilling in people the understanding that slaves are no less human than their masters and deserving of no less physical conditions. And it worked. Jews were one of the first Peoples to do away with slavery.
Now if only we can get wage slave owners to do the same...
The Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek originally only because the Greek authorities threatened a massacre if the Rabbis did not do the translation.
There is a reason why the Rabbis said that that was the darkest day in all history.
The Gentiles were neither spiritually nor morally prepared to be able to understand what the Bible was about - and their languages reflect that. This is true to this very day. I have never met a Gentile, no matter how evolved, who really could grasp Torah. I can only shake my head in despair when they quote it, thinking they have understood. All of their "interpretations" begin with basic misunderstanding and just get worse from there.
Let's not even get into the total misunderstanding of what the coming of the Messiah means. I could write an encyclopedia about that one.
Why can't the White man find a religion of his own instead of arrogating the religions of others than he is not at all spiritually tuned to and has no hope of ever understanding properly???
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
One of the most common Gentile misunderstandings of Torah: "The Bible says: "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth".
That is one of the horrendous distortions in the translations.
In the one and only correct Bible, the Hebrew Torah, that sentence comes directly after a discussion of the laws of slavery. What it means is that if a slave master harms his slave and puts out his eye he must not only set him free, but pay him the difference of what he would be worth on the market with and without an eye.
The same goes for a tooth. Even so much as knocking out a tooth of a slave was reason enough to have to set him or her free plus paying the difference in compensation.
The Talmud goes further still. In the Talmud we learn that it is forbidden to sleep in a better bed than one's slave or to eat better food than one's slave.
Those laws are intended to lead people in the direction of doing away with slavery all together by instilling in people the understanding that slaves are no less human than their masters and deserving of no less physical conditions. And it worked. Jews were one of the first Peoples to do away with slavery.
Now if only we can get wage slave owners to do the same...
The Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek originally only because the Greek authorities threatened a massacre if the Rabbis did not do the translation.
There is a reason why the Rabbis said that that was the darkest day in all history.
The Gentiles were neither spiritually nor morally prepared to be able to understand what the Bible was about - and their languages reflect that. This is true to this very day. I have never met a Gentile, no matter how evolved, who really could grasp Torah. I can only shake my head in despair when they quote it, thinking they have understood. All of their "interpretations" begin with basic misunderstanding and just get worse from there.
Let's not even get into the total misunderstanding of what the coming of the Messiah means. I could write an encyclopedia about that one.
Why can't the White man find a religion of his own instead of arrogating the religions of others than he is not at all spiritually tuned to and has no hope of ever understanding properly???
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Monday, May 22, 2006
Book Review: PROPAGANDA by Edward Bernays
(See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bernays)
No matter what political position you take, or do not take, PROPAGANDA is a must-read.
Edward Bernays (1891-1995), the world's pre-eminent and most influential propagandist, was a nephew of Sigmund Freud, to whom he refers in his book PROPAGANDA a couple of times. Bernays considered the dissemination of propaganda, that is the shaping and manipulating of public opinion, not only respectable, but absolutely necessary in modern society. He considered it a science, most certainly based on psychology, and appeals to the authority of the eminent uncle in order to convince business people and especially politicians that the "engineering of consent" can, and must, be carried out coldly and systematically – and all this for the benefit of society.
In addition to his uncle Sigmund Freud, Bernays was influenced by and worked with Walter Lippmann who coined the blood chilling phrase "the manufacture of consent". He was also influenced by the research of Ivan Pavlov (!).
Bernays' clientele was most impressive and achievements were formidable. It is not for naught that he was called the "father of public relations". Counted among his clients were President Calvin Coolidge, Proctor & Gamble, CBS, the American Tobacco Company, John D. Rockefeller and General Electric. His propaganda campaign for the United Fruit Company is said to have led to the CIA's overthrow of the government of Guatemala.
The candor with which Bernays speaks about propaganda is remarkable. Actually, it is his most brash, and one assumes he thought most effective, propagandistic technique. He is so very sure of the absolute sway that propaganda has over the public imagination that he has no qualms whatsoever about informing society of what he is doing. He is quite certain that knowing that they are being propagandized will in no wise protect the public against it. Quite the contrary, in informing the public about the power and persuasiveness of "scientific" propaganda being administered by expert hands it is his intention to have the public surrender to it as inevitable, omnipresent and irresistible. Evidently, he succeeded.
Bernays informs us that the modern "science" of propaganda, used to control and "regiment" public thinking, as he puts it, is a direct outgrowth of the propaganda that was used in order to demonize the Germans in the eyes of the US public during WWI. In fact, he apprises us of the fact that the very self-same people who engaged in wartime propaganda are now the propagandists "regimenting public opinion" in peacetime. He and Lippmann were among those people. During WWI they worked together on the U.S. Committee on Public Information (CPI), those who "sold" the idea of the war to the U.S. public by inventing the phrase "make the world safe for democracy".
Bernays refers to crackerjack propagandists as "invisible governors". Propagandists, while employed by big business people and politicians, are not their servants and not acting at their behest. It is the propagandists who are the invisible pullers of the politicians' and business people's strings. The propagandists, Bernays informs us in no uncertain terms and wholly devoid of inhibition, control every level of society from large numbers of former proletarians who were recently (as of 1928) allowed to go upscale socio-economically and attain parity with the lower rung of the petit bourgeoisie in order to stave off revolution all the way up to the level of big business and politicians. He goes on to apprise us of the fact that "propaganda is here to stay". That is not so much a statement of fact as a command to become resigned to the fact, like it or not.
In 1928 there were still enough Americans who were socially aware and Left-oriented that propagandists had a bad name. Bernays attempts in his book PROPAGANDA to give propagandists a better name, to make them appear more society-friendly, but he lets the public know that their acceptance of propaganda or not will not be the determining factor in whether or not it is influential and certainly not whether or not it continues to exist and exert tremendous influence.
In his book PROPAGANDA Bernays devotes a chapter to a brief overview of how propaganda can be made to affect and can, in turn, be put into effect by:
Business
Political Leadership
Women
Education
Social Service
Arts and Science
Those that are "scientifically" and "well" propagandized become, in turn, agents for the dissemination of propaganda.
The edition of PROPAGANDA presently available is published by Ig Publishing (See: www.igpub.com) is riddled with typographical errors, the most amusing of which is: "Czechoslovakia officially became a free state on Monday, October 28, 1918, instead of Sunday, October 17, 1918 [sic] because Professor Masaryk realized that the people of the world would receive more information and would be more receptive to the announcement of the republic's freedom on a Monday morning than on a Sunday, because the press would have more space to devote to it on Monday morning."
The most entertaining aspect of reading Edward Bernay's PROPAGANDA, of course, is finding as many propagandistic techniques in it as one can.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
(See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bernays)
No matter what political position you take, or do not take, PROPAGANDA is a must-read.
Edward Bernays (1891-1995), the world's pre-eminent and most influential propagandist, was a nephew of Sigmund Freud, to whom he refers in his book PROPAGANDA a couple of times. Bernays considered the dissemination of propaganda, that is the shaping and manipulating of public opinion, not only respectable, but absolutely necessary in modern society. He considered it a science, most certainly based on psychology, and appeals to the authority of the eminent uncle in order to convince business people and especially politicians that the "engineering of consent" can, and must, be carried out coldly and systematically – and all this for the benefit of society.
In addition to his uncle Sigmund Freud, Bernays was influenced by and worked with Walter Lippmann who coined the blood chilling phrase "the manufacture of consent". He was also influenced by the research of Ivan Pavlov (!).
Bernays' clientele was most impressive and achievements were formidable. It is not for naught that he was called the "father of public relations". Counted among his clients were President Calvin Coolidge, Proctor & Gamble, CBS, the American Tobacco Company, John D. Rockefeller and General Electric. His propaganda campaign for the United Fruit Company is said to have led to the CIA's overthrow of the government of Guatemala.
The candor with which Bernays speaks about propaganda is remarkable. Actually, it is his most brash, and one assumes he thought most effective, propagandistic technique. He is so very sure of the absolute sway that propaganda has over the public imagination that he has no qualms whatsoever about informing society of what he is doing. He is quite certain that knowing that they are being propagandized will in no wise protect the public against it. Quite the contrary, in informing the public about the power and persuasiveness of "scientific" propaganda being administered by expert hands it is his intention to have the public surrender to it as inevitable, omnipresent and irresistible. Evidently, he succeeded.
Bernays informs us that the modern "science" of propaganda, used to control and "regiment" public thinking, as he puts it, is a direct outgrowth of the propaganda that was used in order to demonize the Germans in the eyes of the US public during WWI. In fact, he apprises us of the fact that the very self-same people who engaged in wartime propaganda are now the propagandists "regimenting public opinion" in peacetime. He and Lippmann were among those people. During WWI they worked together on the U.S. Committee on Public Information (CPI), those who "sold" the idea of the war to the U.S. public by inventing the phrase "make the world safe for democracy".
Bernays refers to crackerjack propagandists as "invisible governors". Propagandists, while employed by big business people and politicians, are not their servants and not acting at their behest. It is the propagandists who are the invisible pullers of the politicians' and business people's strings. The propagandists, Bernays informs us in no uncertain terms and wholly devoid of inhibition, control every level of society from large numbers of former proletarians who were recently (as of 1928) allowed to go upscale socio-economically and attain parity with the lower rung of the petit bourgeoisie in order to stave off revolution all the way up to the level of big business and politicians. He goes on to apprise us of the fact that "propaganda is here to stay". That is not so much a statement of fact as a command to become resigned to the fact, like it or not.
In 1928 there were still enough Americans who were socially aware and Left-oriented that propagandists had a bad name. Bernays attempts in his book PROPAGANDA to give propagandists a better name, to make them appear more society-friendly, but he lets the public know that their acceptance of propaganda or not will not be the determining factor in whether or not it is influential and certainly not whether or not it continues to exist and exert tremendous influence.
In his book PROPAGANDA Bernays devotes a chapter to a brief overview of how propaganda can be made to affect and can, in turn, be put into effect by:
Business
Political Leadership
Women
Education
Social Service
Arts and Science
Those that are "scientifically" and "well" propagandized become, in turn, agents for the dissemination of propaganda.
The edition of PROPAGANDA presently available is published by Ig Publishing (See: www.igpub.com) is riddled with typographical errors, the most amusing of which is: "Czechoslovakia officially became a free state on Monday, October 28, 1918, instead of Sunday, October 17, 1918 [sic] because Professor Masaryk realized that the people of the world would receive more information and would be more receptive to the announcement of the republic's freedom on a Monday morning than on a Sunday, because the press would have more space to devote to it on Monday morning."
The most entertaining aspect of reading Edward Bernay's PROPAGANDA, of course, is finding as many propagandistic techniques in it as one can.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Friday, May 19, 2006
ENOUGH WITH THE ON-LINE HIQ INTERNATIONAL WHINE AND CHEESE PARTY ALREADY!
The net is full of whine and cheesy posts and I'm getting nauseous from it already.
Many of you post a lot of "Isn't fascism getting ridiculous?" posts. Obviously you're disturbed by what's going down around you - so you brandish your keyboard and post a link. When you really go ballistic, you get sarcastic or sardonic. The ubiquitous injustice hurts you - but not quite enough.
What are you going to DO about where your country is going besides being a total limp dick and posting outrage after outrage on the net? How about a bit of uprising? (Nice pun, Doreen)
How about organizing demonstrations of the HIQ community? How's about organizing to brainstorm about what can be DONE to ameliorate the conditions for Joe Citizen?
The internet was invented:
1) the better to disseminate State-sanctioned modes of thinking, values, fnords and clichés
2) to provide the masses with the illusion that they are doing something when they post
3) to monitor what people are thinking when they go for the bait described in point (2)
By doing nothing and merely posting you are playing right into their hands. You are providing them with the information they want from YOU and effecting NOTHING.
The mega-message that you're sending is: I don't like what I see, but I'm a wuss who can't do anything about it but write. Governments LOVE emasculated intellectuals.
By calling Bush "Shrub" in message after message on the net you do nothing to diminish his power. You diminish yours. You do nothing but create the illusion of having diminished him in your mind. In fact, all you have done is sound peurile, and worse, impotent.
Observe Bakunin. Observe Louise Michel. Observe Emma Goldman (it is said that she never went to a speaking engagement without bringing a book so that when she was hauled off to jail she had something to read). Observe Margaret Sanger. Observe Gustav Landauer. They were intellectuals, surely of stature not less than yours. They wrote, to be sure, and if they were alive today they would, no doubt, avail themselves of the internet. But they principally took ACTION. They were people of action first and foremost. They put not only their brains at the disposal of the masses but also put their asses on the line for the sake of others. They didn't bellyache. When they wrote it was to enlighten the masses and galvanize them into a formidable force, not in order to alleviate their conscience and not in order to express themselves in such a way as to keep themselves safe. They acted. They took personal risks. They were, in a word, REAL intellectuals.
Now excuse me. I have to go back to working on the program for revision of Israel's electoral system that I've been batting my head against a wall for months working out with other intellectuals in a number of countries who are, like me, dedicating their lives to the real bettering of conditions of the citizens of their respective countries.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
The net is full of whine and cheesy posts and I'm getting nauseous from it already.
Many of you post a lot of "Isn't fascism getting ridiculous?" posts. Obviously you're disturbed by what's going down around you - so you brandish your keyboard and post a link. When you really go ballistic, you get sarcastic or sardonic. The ubiquitous injustice hurts you - but not quite enough.
What are you going to DO about where your country is going besides being a total limp dick and posting outrage after outrage on the net? How about a bit of uprising? (Nice pun, Doreen)
How about organizing demonstrations of the HIQ community? How's about organizing to brainstorm about what can be DONE to ameliorate the conditions for Joe Citizen?
The internet was invented:
1) the better to disseminate State-sanctioned modes of thinking, values, fnords and clichés
2) to provide the masses with the illusion that they are doing something when they post
3) to monitor what people are thinking when they go for the bait described in point (2)
By doing nothing and merely posting you are playing right into their hands. You are providing them with the information they want from YOU and effecting NOTHING.
The mega-message that you're sending is: I don't like what I see, but I'm a wuss who can't do anything about it but write. Governments LOVE emasculated intellectuals.
By calling Bush "Shrub" in message after message on the net you do nothing to diminish his power. You diminish yours. You do nothing but create the illusion of having diminished him in your mind. In fact, all you have done is sound peurile, and worse, impotent.
Observe Bakunin. Observe Louise Michel. Observe Emma Goldman (it is said that she never went to a speaking engagement without bringing a book so that when she was hauled off to jail she had something to read). Observe Margaret Sanger. Observe Gustav Landauer. They were intellectuals, surely of stature not less than yours. They wrote, to be sure, and if they were alive today they would, no doubt, avail themselves of the internet. But they principally took ACTION. They were people of action first and foremost. They put not only their brains at the disposal of the masses but also put their asses on the line for the sake of others. They didn't bellyache. When they wrote it was to enlighten the masses and galvanize them into a formidable force, not in order to alleviate their conscience and not in order to express themselves in such a way as to keep themselves safe. They acted. They took personal risks. They were, in a word, REAL intellectuals.
Now excuse me. I have to go back to working on the program for revision of Israel's electoral system that I've been batting my head against a wall for months working out with other intellectuals in a number of countries who are, like me, dedicating their lives to the real bettering of conditions of the citizens of their respective countries.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Sunday, April 23, 2006
Are Women Today Free?
Someone on another (open) board asked:
"I know what you’re all thinking. “Of course women are free how could you even question it?” or somewhere along the lines of that. Certainly women are now freer since the feminist movement in the 60’s-70’s era. They can now take on jobs while taking care of the kids. More women are now entering male dominated employment. Women can express their opinions and beliefs without getting punished for it—unlike some third world countries where it is condemned. I know very well there are lot more things to add (I know someone will indeed list more things than I have done here) but I also want to state the other side of the argument. As I was reading the newspaper the other day I noticed a lot of things that will contradict that women aren’t all that free after all. There is a constant pressure that women always have to look good, act like your stereotypical woman. You all know what that is. Increasingly, now, more aging women are considering the wonders of Botox. They are also spending a huge amount of money on plastic surgery, breast implants, ‘tummy tucks” etc. I know men do the same, but not in the same quantity. In Australia, women have been getting confused messages from the government and medical officials about HRT (hormone replacement therapy), the fight for paid maternity leave, health care and fertility. The government is blaming them because apparently women should have known better before putting pills in their mouth-- that a trusting doctor prescribed for them Not just in Australia but also in other Western countries, women are being harshly blamed for following their ambitions and heading for a full-time career. Then when they hit their 30’s they find out that it’s harder for conception. But I guess it’s their own fault huh? So the question: “Are women really free or do they still have some things to overcome?”
Quote:
To be successful, a woman has to be much better at her job than a man." -Golda Meir
Quote:
The emotional, sexual, and psychological stereotyping of females begins when the doctor says: 'It's a girl. -Shirley Chisholm"
I responded:
The freedoms are there. Her freedom depends upon how each individual woman designs her life. Priority one for me was always learning. Keeping that priority ever in mind, I designed my life to allow the maximum amount of learning. I married a man who dedicated his talents to developing mine. I had only two children. I never worked more than part-time. I do not spend money on luxury vacations, fancy housing, furnishings, clothes, hair-dos, make-up and certainly not surgery or frivolities. I do not allow Wall Street to determine what the essentials in my life are. My extra money goes into books, disks and other learning materials. I do not waste my time exercising or doing other meaningless activities. I come to the boards only after I'm too tired to do productive work. I am extremely free and I live just as I wish to. If I bought into the beauty and materialistic culture I would be a slave. My advice to any woman, or man, who wants to be maximally free is: 1) Prioritorize and keep your sights on your main priorities. 2) Simplify your life to the maximum.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Someone on another (open) board asked:
"I know what you’re all thinking. “Of course women are free how could you even question it?” or somewhere along the lines of that. Certainly women are now freer since the feminist movement in the 60’s-70’s era. They can now take on jobs while taking care of the kids. More women are now entering male dominated employment. Women can express their opinions and beliefs without getting punished for it—unlike some third world countries where it is condemned. I know very well there are lot more things to add (I know someone will indeed list more things than I have done here) but I also want to state the other side of the argument. As I was reading the newspaper the other day I noticed a lot of things that will contradict that women aren’t all that free after all. There is a constant pressure that women always have to look good, act like your stereotypical woman. You all know what that is. Increasingly, now, more aging women are considering the wonders of Botox. They are also spending a huge amount of money on plastic surgery, breast implants, ‘tummy tucks” etc. I know men do the same, but not in the same quantity. In Australia, women have been getting confused messages from the government and medical officials about HRT (hormone replacement therapy), the fight for paid maternity leave, health care and fertility. The government is blaming them because apparently women should have known better before putting pills in their mouth-- that a trusting doctor prescribed for them Not just in Australia but also in other Western countries, women are being harshly blamed for following their ambitions and heading for a full-time career. Then when they hit their 30’s they find out that it’s harder for conception. But I guess it’s their own fault huh? So the question: “Are women really free or do they still have some things to overcome?”
Quote:
To be successful, a woman has to be much better at her job than a man." -Golda Meir
Quote:
The emotional, sexual, and psychological stereotyping of females begins when the doctor says: 'It's a girl. -Shirley Chisholm"
I responded:
The freedoms are there. Her freedom depends upon how each individual woman designs her life. Priority one for me was always learning. Keeping that priority ever in mind, I designed my life to allow the maximum amount of learning. I married a man who dedicated his talents to developing mine. I had only two children. I never worked more than part-time. I do not spend money on luxury vacations, fancy housing, furnishings, clothes, hair-dos, make-up and certainly not surgery or frivolities. I do not allow Wall Street to determine what the essentials in my life are. My extra money goes into books, disks and other learning materials. I do not waste my time exercising or doing other meaningless activities. I come to the boards only after I'm too tired to do productive work. I am extremely free and I live just as I wish to. If I bought into the beauty and materialistic culture I would be a slave. My advice to any woman, or man, who wants to be maximally free is: 1) Prioritorize and keep your sights on your main priorities. 2) Simplify your life to the maximum.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
"It Must Suck to be You, Doreen."
Someone on an open board wrote: "It must suck to be you, Doreen. You're always bored."
I take the accusations that are leveled at me seriously unless there are good reasons not to. I thought about why though it doesn't suck to be me, it is true that I am bored a good deal of the time.
I'm bored a good deal of the time, outside the rarified realm of Laputa Manque, because the world that people in the average IQ range have created for themselves looks like the kiddy section of an amusement park to me.
In the course of doing research for a proposal for electoral reform in Israel that I am working on, I reconsidered Kenneth Arrow's paradox.
Kenneth Arrow's paradox, or impossibility theorem, is defined as a *non-trivial game*. He was searching for a *social welfare function* that will allow the will of the electorate to be maximally expressed in the make-up of the government. He relied on game theory, of course, to try to come up with such a function.
Game theory, per se, would bore me if it was in no wise applicable to social welfare. It would be no more interesting than playing poker, which I haven't played since I was a kid, except one time when the other D2 and I started dating and he said I don't play games because I can't. I proved him wrong and put playing card games behind me, probably forever. But game theory has always been intimately tied to fair distribution when absolutely fair distribution seems impossible, and so I find it interesting.
Game theory doesn't bore me - precisely because it is applied toward social welfare. Mathematicians who do game theory get their Nobel Prizes in Economics.
When I look at myself and the world I see around me honestly, I come to the sad conclusion that precious few provisions have been made to provide Human beings with entertainments that are at once enjoyable and which effect positive changes, or attempt to. Most entertainments are frivolities and fritter time away. They leave neither society nor the entertained edified or bettered in any way. Usually the inverse is true.
In a world in which there are so few challenges presented in everyday life to play games that are also searchings for solutions to Human problems I'll remain bored a good deal of the time in ordinary society.
It is their world that sucks. Not me.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Someone on an open board wrote: "It must suck to be you, Doreen. You're always bored."
I take the accusations that are leveled at me seriously unless there are good reasons not to. I thought about why though it doesn't suck to be me, it is true that I am bored a good deal of the time.
I'm bored a good deal of the time, outside the rarified realm of Laputa Manque, because the world that people in the average IQ range have created for themselves looks like the kiddy section of an amusement park to me.
In the course of doing research for a proposal for electoral reform in Israel that I am working on, I reconsidered Kenneth Arrow's paradox.
Kenneth Arrow's paradox, or impossibility theorem, is defined as a *non-trivial game*. He was searching for a *social welfare function* that will allow the will of the electorate to be maximally expressed in the make-up of the government. He relied on game theory, of course, to try to come up with such a function.
Game theory, per se, would bore me if it was in no wise applicable to social welfare. It would be no more interesting than playing poker, which I haven't played since I was a kid, except one time when the other D2 and I started dating and he said I don't play games because I can't. I proved him wrong and put playing card games behind me, probably forever. But game theory has always been intimately tied to fair distribution when absolutely fair distribution seems impossible, and so I find it interesting.
Game theory doesn't bore me - precisely because it is applied toward social welfare. Mathematicians who do game theory get their Nobel Prizes in Economics.
When I look at myself and the world I see around me honestly, I come to the sad conclusion that precious few provisions have been made to provide Human beings with entertainments that are at once enjoyable and which effect positive changes, or attempt to. Most entertainments are frivolities and fritter time away. They leave neither society nor the entertained edified or bettered in any way. Usually the inverse is true.
In a world in which there are so few challenges presented in everyday life to play games that are also searchings for solutions to Human problems I'll remain bored a good deal of the time in ordinary society.
It is their world that sucks. Not me.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
Discomforting Thought of the Day
Who would want to have sex with someone with silicone implants?
I mean, who in their right mind would want to play with a couple of inflatable bags?
Probably someone who wasn't sure of the person's sexual skills and was afraid of getting into an accident.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Who would want to have sex with someone with silicone implants?
I mean, who in their right mind would want to play with a couple of inflatable bags?
Probably someone who wasn't sure of the person's sexual skills and was afraid of getting into an accident.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
"Brilliant!" "Awesome!" "Amazing!" "Genius!"
That was how the man in the video on the URL below was described in four separate posts on the thread where the URL was posted.
http://tinyurl.com/jn8e4
I am not saying that he is not talented. I am certainly not saying that being a juggler and entertaining people is not a worthy profession. I think that those who make people happy contribute a great deal to society.
But is this genius? Should this be what inspires people's awe? Can this man's ability in his field be compared to that of Hypatia, Mozart, van Gogh, Dostoevsky, Pierre and Marie Curie and Gustav Landauer in theirs?
Why is it that people of ordinary intelligence become downright rapturous upon seeing a demonstration like the one in the video, while intellectual brilliance leaves them coldly indifferent at best, belligerent at worst?
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
That was how the man in the video on the URL below was described in four separate posts on the thread where the URL was posted.
http://tinyurl.com/jn8e4
I am not saying that he is not talented. I am certainly not saying that being a juggler and entertaining people is not a worthy profession. I think that those who make people happy contribute a great deal to society.
But is this genius? Should this be what inspires people's awe? Can this man's ability in his field be compared to that of Hypatia, Mozart, van Gogh, Dostoevsky, Pierre and Marie Curie and Gustav Landauer in theirs?
Why is it that people of ordinary intelligence become downright rapturous upon seeing a demonstration like the one in the video, while intellectual brilliance leaves them coldly indifferent at best, belligerent at worst?
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Sunday, April 09, 2006
The Doppelganger Effect
Whizzing, whirring and beeping happily down the street on a mid-day brightly lit by the moons, D2 suddenly heard whizzing, whirring and beeping approaching, growing ever louder.
She looked to one of her right sides and saw herself, then R1, superimposed. Smiling she asked him: "Aren't you either too old or too young to be up at an hour like this?", feeling oddly as though she had asked that question before. He responded: "How did you know I was up? I might have seen myself walking down the street once, but if I did I didn't stop to say hello", and she heard his whiz, whir and beeps merge into one indistinct and ever-fading yyyyaaaawwwwwww.... as he passed.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Whizzing, whirring and beeping happily down the street on a mid-day brightly lit by the moons, D2 suddenly heard whizzing, whirring and beeping approaching, growing ever louder.
She looked to one of her right sides and saw herself, then R1, superimposed. Smiling she asked him: "Aren't you either too old or too young to be up at an hour like this?", feeling oddly as though she had asked that question before. He responded: "How did you know I was up? I might have seen myself walking down the street once, but if I did I didn't stop to say hello", and she heard his whiz, whir and beeps merge into one indistinct and ever-fading yyyyaaaawwwwwww.... as he passed.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Friday, April 07, 2006
Wednesday, April 05, 2006
Now There's Hope - Bibliophilia Recovery Program
OK, let's dispense with the 40 questions for self-diagnosis. You know who you are – and so does everybody else. Think your family hasn't noticed that you spend four hours on the toilet seat – every time you go? Or the cleaning lady hasn't seen the stacks of books under your bed? Get real.
We're here to offer you help – serious help for an otherwise intractable illness that is progressive and ultimately fatal.
The Bibliophilia Recovery is a simple program based loosely upon, but in no way associated with, 12 Step programs.
The Bibliophilia Recovery Program is a 12! Step program.
That's right. You read correctly. It's a 12 Factorial Step Program and you must do all the steps, in order, or it won't work. Half-baked measures will avail you nothing. Just surrender your will and judgment and do exactly what we tell you to. Shut up and let us love you until you can love yourself.
The Step One is admitting that you're totally insane. From there you can proceed reasonably toward taking responsibility for yourself. The Step Two is writing down exact nature of your ideation. Step Three is sending a formally notarized copy of what you have written while doing Step Two to all of the people you have harmed. Step Four is following up Step Three with cutesy e-mail: "Oops, I didn't mean it. I'm really sorry." cards. If those you have harmed do not respond with an acceptance of your apology, continue to send them the e-card repeatedly each day. Take each step slowly and go on to the next only when you feel you have mastered the one you've been working on.
Feeling a bit intimidated? Doubtful? Yeah, we know it's a rigorous program. But, hey, you've got a serious problem and it's doing exercises right now out in the parking lot even as you read this.
If you undertake to follow this program faithfully, we promise you the freedom from addiction that has heretofore eluded you. You will be the person you have always wanted to be. Hundreds of thousands of people in hundreds of thousands of countries have recovered successfully using this simple program. Believe us. It can help even a hopeless wretch like you. Hey, it helped us and we were really skid row. You'll be able to get through a day, then a week, then a month, then a year, eventually the rest of your life without reading another book. That's a guarantee.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
OK, let's dispense with the 40 questions for self-diagnosis. You know who you are – and so does everybody else. Think your family hasn't noticed that you spend four hours on the toilet seat – every time you go? Or the cleaning lady hasn't seen the stacks of books under your bed? Get real.
We're here to offer you help – serious help for an otherwise intractable illness that is progressive and ultimately fatal.
The Bibliophilia Recovery is a simple program based loosely upon, but in no way associated with, 12 Step programs.
The Bibliophilia Recovery Program is a 12! Step program.
That's right. You read correctly. It's a 12 Factorial Step Program and you must do all the steps, in order, or it won't work. Half-baked measures will avail you nothing. Just surrender your will and judgment and do exactly what we tell you to. Shut up and let us love you until you can love yourself.
The Step One is admitting that you're totally insane. From there you can proceed reasonably toward taking responsibility for yourself. The Step Two is writing down exact nature of your ideation. Step Three is sending a formally notarized copy of what you have written while doing Step Two to all of the people you have harmed. Step Four is following up Step Three with cutesy e-mail: "Oops, I didn't mean it. I'm really sorry." cards. If those you have harmed do not respond with an acceptance of your apology, continue to send them the e-card repeatedly each day. Take each step slowly and go on to the next only when you feel you have mastered the one you've been working on.
Feeling a bit intimidated? Doubtful? Yeah, we know it's a rigorous program. But, hey, you've got a serious problem and it's doing exercises right now out in the parking lot even as you read this.
If you undertake to follow this program faithfully, we promise you the freedom from addiction that has heretofore eluded you. You will be the person you have always wanted to be. Hundreds of thousands of people in hundreds of thousands of countries have recovered successfully using this simple program. Believe us. It can help even a hopeless wretch like you. Hey, it helped us and we were really skid row. You'll be able to get through a day, then a week, then a month, then a year, eventually the rest of your life without reading another book. That's a guarantee.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Monday, April 03, 2006
QUEEN DOREEN OF THE LAPUTANS MANQUE
I neglected to mention that I'm the Queen of the Laputans Manque - of course, as Queen of the Laputans Manque I neglect to do just about everything.
I so wanted to be Queen Doreen of Southern Ireland. It seemed quite fitting, until I realized that I can't so much as afford a flat in a decent neighborhood in Dublin and a Queen, after all, is expected to live in a decent flat in most countries.
I realized that even the Irish on their drunkest and foggiest days would expect me to make some reasoned decisions and adhere to a predictable code of behavior - an expectation I could not live up to, especially when I go into one of my blue funks.
Crestfallen, I had to admit that I wasn't right for the job.
Then, as randomness would have it, I met Richard May on line. He introduced himself as the Founder of the Laputans Manque. It sounded absolutely ideal!
I could be a schlemeil and not feel mylife was being squandered. In fact, I could reign as Schlemeil Supreme. It was so Me.
I entreated and pleaded and generally nudged him to let me be the Queen of the Laputans Manque.
I explained to him that I am eminently suited for the job being as for all my ruminations, I can't so much as remember what it was I go to the grocery store for.
He asked me to promise that I wouldn't impose anarchy on Laputa. That would be entirely too orderly.
I swore solemnly.
And so, I was coronated Queen Doreen of the Laputans Manque, and nary a more fitting Queen they could hope to find.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
I neglected to mention that I'm the Queen of the Laputans Manque - of course, as Queen of the Laputans Manque I neglect to do just about everything.
I so wanted to be Queen Doreen of Southern Ireland. It seemed quite fitting, until I realized that I can't so much as afford a flat in a decent neighborhood in Dublin and a Queen, after all, is expected to live in a decent flat in most countries.
I realized that even the Irish on their drunkest and foggiest days would expect me to make some reasoned decisions and adhere to a predictable code of behavior - an expectation I could not live up to, especially when I go into one of my blue funks.
Crestfallen, I had to admit that I wasn't right for the job.
Then, as randomness would have it, I met Richard May on line. He introduced himself as the Founder of the Laputans Manque. It sounded absolutely ideal!
I could be a schlemeil and not feel mylife was being squandered. In fact, I could reign as Schlemeil Supreme. It was so Me.
I entreated and pleaded and generally nudged him to let me be the Queen of the Laputans Manque.
I explained to him that I am eminently suited for the job being as for all my ruminations, I can't so much as remember what it was I go to the grocery store for.
He asked me to promise that I wouldn't impose anarchy on Laputa. That would be entirely too orderly.
I swore solemnly.
And so, I was coronated Queen Doreen of the Laputans Manque, and nary a more fitting Queen they could hope to find.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Continuation of No, I Won't Vote! (see entry directly below)
The record low voter turnout at the polls yesterday, 57%, which broke the record set in the last elections, when 63% of eligible voters cast their ballot has been interpreted by some commentators that the voters don't care what the future of Israel is.
The public was adjured to vote by organizations whose stated purpose is to uphold democracy. They were told in repeated broadcasts: "Get out and vote. It is more than a right. It is a duty. Don't give up your rights to someone else."
Oh, please! The reason why so few Israeli voters didn't bother is because after having been betrayed by Ariel Sharon we learned that the "democratic process" is an utter farce and it doesn't matter how we cast our votes.
More important, vastly more important, is the fact that they do not understand that our inaction does not bespeak indifference or an abrogation of our power.
We are whittling away at the ersatz democratic state and we intend to supplant it with a truly democratic, that is, anarchic, state.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
March 29, 2006
The record low voter turnout at the polls yesterday, 57%, which broke the record set in the last elections, when 63% of eligible voters cast their ballot has been interpreted by some commentators that the voters don't care what the future of Israel is.
The public was adjured to vote by organizations whose stated purpose is to uphold democracy. They were told in repeated broadcasts: "Get out and vote. It is more than a right. It is a duty. Don't give up your rights to someone else."
Oh, please! The reason why so few Israeli voters didn't bother is because after having been betrayed by Ariel Sharon we learned that the "democratic process" is an utter farce and it doesn't matter how we cast our votes.
More important, vastly more important, is the fact that they do not understand that our inaction does not bespeak indifference or an abrogation of our power.
We are whittling away at the ersatz democratic state and we intend to supplant it with a truly democratic, that is, anarchic, state.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
March 29, 2006
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
No, I Will Not Vote
My husband just got back from the polls.
He won't tell me who he voted for because he doesn't want to influence my vote in any way.
Fat chance of that happening.
I don't intend to vote anyway.
I'm not taking part in this charade anymore.
I didn't vote for him, but I certainly believed that Arik Sharon meant what he said and had this country's best interests at heart.
I would never have believed that he, of all PMs, would be the one to run Jews out of the homes utilizing the army, the police, the riot squad and UN soldiers, throw them out into the streets and scatter them helpless throughout the country so that they could not regroup.
Those who voted Sharon in did so because they feared that a Labor PM might do such things. No one believed it would be Sharon.
He destroyed our faith in any politician.
He crossed the line into making Israel a fascist state that turns the armed forces on its own citizens for political purposes.
There are still some families from Shomron who do not have homes. There are still some children who are not in school.
Young adolescents, I mean boys and girls as young as thirteen, were put into adult prisons for demonstrating. Their parents were not allowed to bring them school supplies. A judge ruled that: "being in jail is not a luxury".
The wife of the lawyer who was giving counsel to the Jews in Shomron was arrested and taken to prison, though she did nothing. She was nursing at the time. They hauled the baby off with her.
If Sharon, the supposedly most staunch defender of Israel did all that, who would not? The next stage of evacuation of Jews is already in the works. Minister of Defense, the former Chief of Staff, Sha'ul Mofaz has said he supports the plan.
Dan thinks that it's important that I vote.
For what? A grotesque? A farce - that is anything but funny?
It is clear that whoever is dictating Israeli policy is outside Israel and will continue to do so no matter who the PM is and no matter what the breakdown of the seats in Knesset will be.
No. I, for one, will not play their game. I will not take an action that will signal to them that I'm still buying into the lie that this is even a quasi- or ersatz democratic state.
By not voting I cast my vote. It is a vote for anarchy.
Evidently, I'm not the only one picketing the bogus election:
http://tinyurl.com/fqa8p
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
My husband just got back from the polls.
He won't tell me who he voted for because he doesn't want to influence my vote in any way.
Fat chance of that happening.
I don't intend to vote anyway.
I'm not taking part in this charade anymore.
I didn't vote for him, but I certainly believed that Arik Sharon meant what he said and had this country's best interests at heart.
I would never have believed that he, of all PMs, would be the one to run Jews out of the homes utilizing the army, the police, the riot squad and UN soldiers, throw them out into the streets and scatter them helpless throughout the country so that they could not regroup.
Those who voted Sharon in did so because they feared that a Labor PM might do such things. No one believed it would be Sharon.
He destroyed our faith in any politician.
He crossed the line into making Israel a fascist state that turns the armed forces on its own citizens for political purposes.
There are still some families from Shomron who do not have homes. There are still some children who are not in school.
Young adolescents, I mean boys and girls as young as thirteen, were put into adult prisons for demonstrating. Their parents were not allowed to bring them school supplies. A judge ruled that: "being in jail is not a luxury".
The wife of the lawyer who was giving counsel to the Jews in Shomron was arrested and taken to prison, though she did nothing. She was nursing at the time. They hauled the baby off with her.
If Sharon, the supposedly most staunch defender of Israel did all that, who would not? The next stage of evacuation of Jews is already in the works. Minister of Defense, the former Chief of Staff, Sha'ul Mofaz has said he supports the plan.
Dan thinks that it's important that I vote.
For what? A grotesque? A farce - that is anything but funny?
It is clear that whoever is dictating Israeli policy is outside Israel and will continue to do so no matter who the PM is and no matter what the breakdown of the seats in Knesset will be.
No. I, for one, will not play their game. I will not take an action that will signal to them that I'm still buying into the lie that this is even a quasi- or ersatz democratic state.
By not voting I cast my vote. It is a vote for anarchy.
Evidently, I'm not the only one picketing the bogus election:
http://tinyurl.com/fqa8p
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Sunday, March 26, 2006
DEPLETED URANIUM - A HIDDEN LOOMING WORLDWIDE CALAMITY - by Stephen Lendman
http://tinyurl.com/q65fg
My response to this is:
We should be absolutely incensed about this!
This is arrogance, dominance and disdain in their very worst manifestation.
Why do the world's unwashed masses have to put up with this???
There should be unwashed mass demonstrations - all over the world.
We are as entitled to enriched uranium as the rich are!
On second thought, the world's unwashed masses have a part in their being treated with contempt.
Their complacency is an open invitation to being treated shabbily.
The unwashed masses must learn to be more critical if they wish to get their fair share of exposure to enriched uranium as well!
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
http://tinyurl.com/q65fg
My response to this is:
We should be absolutely incensed about this!
This is arrogance, dominance and disdain in their very worst manifestation.
Why do the world's unwashed masses have to put up with this???
There should be unwashed mass demonstrations - all over the world.
We are as entitled to enriched uranium as the rich are!
On second thought, the world's unwashed masses have a part in their being treated with contempt.
Their complacency is an open invitation to being treated shabbily.
The unwashed masses must learn to be more critical if they wish to get their fair share of exposure to enriched uranium as well!
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
PESACH CLEANING
If Purim is my very favorite holiday, then Pesach is my very least favorite. I hate it.
Why should I clean? Why should anyone? Is there any work more Sisyphean than dusting? Dust is cosmic. Dust is the stuff of the formation of galaxies. Dust is more sublime than we can fathom. From dust we are and to dust we shall return. Anyone who thinks that they can rid their miniscule homes of dust doesn't have the first notion of the greatness and vastness of creation.
Dust, if you ponder the subject with the depth it deserves, is as Pesachdik as it gets. What is the desert, after all, if not a huge dust heap? Isn't that what we are supposed to be celebrating - our liberation from Egypt into 40 years of wandering aimlessly in the desert? Dust is very near and dear to me. Ever since that incarnation during which I wandered through the desert for forty years, I simply cannot but be surrounded by it. It was amidst the dust that I received the Torah. I am deeply sentimental about it.
Besides, I find the accumulation of dust on my shelves very convenient. F'rinstance, when someone phones (as is wont to happen once a month or so on the average), I can jot the person's name and number down right there on a handy, nearby shelf. No need to say: "Just a minute. I'll find a piece of paper and a pen" and then make the poor schmo wait 1/4 hour 'til I find them buried under the dust.
Dust makes me feel good. I never miss an opportunity to ROFL.
I always thought that Pigpen was the true star of the cartoon and found that nauseatingly sweet and insipid Charlie Brownnose nothing but annoying.
I also dearly want a cat, but because I have guinea pigs I have to wait until they die. In the meantime, the dust balls that are forming in my house are my ersatz cats. They look just like those pricey Rag Doll cats. How would you feel if someone swept your cat away and dumped him?
The mites are my companions and in the depths of depressive despair it is to them that I turn for comfort and solace. They advise me wisely and well.
To our Xian brethren I say: Console yourself that all you have to worry about is going into hock to the tune of your yearly income for Xmas. At least your dusty world is not shaken and uprooted.
In our next episode: Doreen laments having to eat matzah and horseradish.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
If Purim is my very favorite holiday, then Pesach is my very least favorite. I hate it.
Why should I clean? Why should anyone? Is there any work more Sisyphean than dusting? Dust is cosmic. Dust is the stuff of the formation of galaxies. Dust is more sublime than we can fathom. From dust we are and to dust we shall return. Anyone who thinks that they can rid their miniscule homes of dust doesn't have the first notion of the greatness and vastness of creation.
Dust, if you ponder the subject with the depth it deserves, is as Pesachdik as it gets. What is the desert, after all, if not a huge dust heap? Isn't that what we are supposed to be celebrating - our liberation from Egypt into 40 years of wandering aimlessly in the desert? Dust is very near and dear to me. Ever since that incarnation during which I wandered through the desert for forty years, I simply cannot but be surrounded by it. It was amidst the dust that I received the Torah. I am deeply sentimental about it.
Besides, I find the accumulation of dust on my shelves very convenient. F'rinstance, when someone phones (as is wont to happen once a month or so on the average), I can jot the person's name and number down right there on a handy, nearby shelf. No need to say: "Just a minute. I'll find a piece of paper and a pen" and then make the poor schmo wait 1/4 hour 'til I find them buried under the dust.
Dust makes me feel good. I never miss an opportunity to ROFL.
I always thought that Pigpen was the true star of the cartoon and found that nauseatingly sweet and insipid Charlie Brownnose nothing but annoying.
I also dearly want a cat, but because I have guinea pigs I have to wait until they die. In the meantime, the dust balls that are forming in my house are my ersatz cats. They look just like those pricey Rag Doll cats. How would you feel if someone swept your cat away and dumped him?
The mites are my companions and in the depths of depressive despair it is to them that I turn for comfort and solace. They advise me wisely and well.
To our Xian brethren I say: Console yourself that all you have to worry about is going into hock to the tune of your yearly income for Xmas. At least your dusty world is not shaken and uprooted.
In our next episode: Doreen laments having to eat matzah and horseradish.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Don't Misunderestimate Him
I serendipitously came across the following blog:
http://tinyurl.com/n6y33
I present it not merely for your entertainment. It's really not at all funny.
I have suspected for some time that a program has been implemented in the US to divest people of the ability to think incisively and discern by systematically dulling their linguistic tools.
I don't believe for a single moment that Bush's malapropisms are the expressions of mere semi-literacy. He does not speak impromptu. He is, after all, the President of the United States. His speeches are painstakingly crafted by professional writers whose job it is to imbed subliminal messages.
I think that Bush speaks as he does in order to set the tone for unclear and imprecise speech so that the thought of the American populace, and by extension entire English-speaking world, will become increasingly unclear. Our powers of discernment are being whittled away systematically.
I don't know who this semi-literate, soi-disant editor Peggy is, but I suspect that her blog is not simply a compendium of egregious and laughable errors. I'm quite sure that many young people are not laughing along with us.
I think that "Peggy", and many more like her, are employed to disseminate fuzzy language and encourage fuzzy thinking.
Imagine if we were youngsters today. Would we be able to speak, read and write English as we do? I think not.
Soon we will be gone and with us the ability to discern between and among fine points and think analytically will go. There will be no one to correct the young people's spelling, grammar and syntax. There will be no one to lead them out of the haze. There will be no one to provide young people with the exacting mathematical and linguistic tools they need to clarify nebulous ideas to themselves and then articulate them to others - and someone is very interested in bringing about that state of affairs.
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
I serendipitously came across the following blog:
http://tinyurl.com/n6y33
I present it not merely for your entertainment. It's really not at all funny.
I have suspected for some time that a program has been implemented in the US to divest people of the ability to think incisively and discern by systematically dulling their linguistic tools.
I don't believe for a single moment that Bush's malapropisms are the expressions of mere semi-literacy. He does not speak impromptu. He is, after all, the President of the United States. His speeches are painstakingly crafted by professional writers whose job it is to imbed subliminal messages.
I think that Bush speaks as he does in order to set the tone for unclear and imprecise speech so that the thought of the American populace, and by extension entire English-speaking world, will become increasingly unclear. Our powers of discernment are being whittled away systematically.
I don't know who this semi-literate, soi-disant editor Peggy is, but I suspect that her blog is not simply a compendium of egregious and laughable errors. I'm quite sure that many young people are not laughing along with us.
I think that "Peggy", and many more like her, are employed to disseminate fuzzy language and encourage fuzzy thinking.
Imagine if we were youngsters today. Would we be able to speak, read and write English as we do? I think not.
Soon we will be gone and with us the ability to discern between and among fine points and think analytically will go. There will be no one to correct the young people's spelling, grammar and syntax. There will be no one to lead them out of the haze. There will be no one to provide young people with the exacting mathematical and linguistic tools they need to clarify nebulous ideas to themselves and then articulate them to others - and someone is very interested in bringing about that state of affairs.
I recently came across the following: http://www.devilducky.com/media/23894/
I think it lends substantial endorsement to the observations and concerns I expressed above.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, IsraelDoreenDotan@gmail.com
Thursday, March 16, 2006
The Reasons Why People Do Not Accept Alphanumerics
Message 2391 on the Yahoo Group Acephalic Swine & Stupid Parrots
The system of Hebrew alphanumerics treats these matters and answers these questions incomparably more satisfactorily than classical math could ever hope to.
There are a number of problems that stand in the way of people accepting it generally.
1) People think that the laws of classical math exist a priori. Why anyone would assume this has been a wonder to me since the first time I was ordered to accept an arithmetical law as true just because an old harridan in orthopedic shoes, elastic stockings and a severe bun said so.
2) Hebrew alphanumerics requires the study of Hebrew, which is the math and the math is the language. They are inextricably bound. They are, in fact, one and the same and should never be entertained separately, lest one is reduced to what is called 'mochin katnut' in Aramaic (restricted consciousness, or the consciousness most of us think of as normal and all there is).
3)The math doesn't artificially do away with "mess" and provide an illusory this-and-not-that reality. It produces a reality that is a *conjunction*, not a disjunction. That is: this *and* that - concomitantly. It allow for a vastly more complex and elastic universe.
4) There is an emotional component to not accepting alphanumerics. People are reluctant to take responsibility for the reality they are living in and to accept that it is being generated out of our minds hearts and *moral level*.
4) The teachings have been made a travesty of by the "Lurianic" school of Kabbalah, which deals in superstition and mind bending. Lurianic Kabbalah is big business with all the accoutrement. I am not from the Lurianic school and have spent many years as a pariah because I came out against it strongly. My work is an extension of that of Rabbi Avraham Abulafia, whose work was hidden away for 800 by the Church and Orthodoxy alike and for exactly the same reasons - his work sets the mind free. Yet, his work was not without taint and he was most certainly subject to human errors and failings. Rabbi Abulafia did not elucidate an absolute revolution of Hebrew alphanumerics and neither did I. All I did was see a few steps further than he did because I climbed up to that giant's shoulder.
It is the work of Humanity to unfold it gradually. No one Human being, no one People, no one generation can conceive it all. It is what we are. It is the substrate of all actual and potential being.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Message 2391 on the Yahoo Group Acephalic Swine & Stupid Parrots
The system of Hebrew alphanumerics treats these matters and answers these questions incomparably more satisfactorily than classical math could ever hope to.
There are a number of problems that stand in the way of people accepting it generally.
1) People think that the laws of classical math exist a priori. Why anyone would assume this has been a wonder to me since the first time I was ordered to accept an arithmetical law as true just because an old harridan in orthopedic shoes, elastic stockings and a severe bun said so.
2) Hebrew alphanumerics requires the study of Hebrew, which is the math and the math is the language. They are inextricably bound. They are, in fact, one and the same and should never be entertained separately, lest one is reduced to what is called 'mochin katnut' in Aramaic (restricted consciousness, or the consciousness most of us think of as normal and all there is).
3)The math doesn't artificially do away with "mess" and provide an illusory this-and-not-that reality. It produces a reality that is a *conjunction*, not a disjunction. That is: this *and* that - concomitantly. It allow for a vastly more complex and elastic universe.
4) There is an emotional component to not accepting alphanumerics. People are reluctant to take responsibility for the reality they are living in and to accept that it is being generated out of our minds hearts and *moral level*.
4) The teachings have been made a travesty of by the "Lurianic" school of Kabbalah, which deals in superstition and mind bending. Lurianic Kabbalah is big business with all the accoutrement. I am not from the Lurianic school and have spent many years as a pariah because I came out against it strongly. My work is an extension of that of Rabbi Avraham Abulafia, whose work was hidden away for 800 by the Church and Orthodoxy alike and for exactly the same reasons - his work sets the mind free. Yet, his work was not without taint and he was most certainly subject to human errors and failings. Rabbi Abulafia did not elucidate an absolute revolution of Hebrew alphanumerics and neither did I. All I did was see a few steps further than he did because I climbed up to that giant's shoulder.
It is the work of Humanity to unfold it gradually. No one Human being, no one People, no one generation can conceive it all. It is what we are. It is the substrate of all actual and potential being.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
This Time I Say: YES!
I do not take a simplistic, unilateral, across the board position on the death sentence that allows me an illusory peace of having a mind made up and always knowing just what should be or should not be done.
I think that each individual case has to be considered based on the very specific circumstances.
There are cases in which I believe the death sentence is dead wrong. See my article "Some Thoughts on Revision of the Death Penalty in Light of the Case of Stanley (Tookie) Williams" on the following URL:
http://www.geocities.com/dordot2001/TOOKIEWILLIAMS.htm
There are cases in which I feel it is absolutely right and I do not feel the slightest hesitation or compunction. Cases in which adults rape, torture and kill children are just such cases.
I would, if I was legally enjoined to, carry out the death sentence myself in those cases.
This is one of those cases: http://tinyurl.com/zrb5r
He himself says he wanted to die just before he raped and murdered that 11-year-old girl.
Let's support him in getting out of his misery, her and his families', and society's.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
I do not take a simplistic, unilateral, across the board position on the death sentence that allows me an illusory peace of having a mind made up and always knowing just what should be or should not be done.
I think that each individual case has to be considered based on the very specific circumstances.
There are cases in which I believe the death sentence is dead wrong. See my article "Some Thoughts on Revision of the Death Penalty in Light of the Case of Stanley (Tookie) Williams" on the following URL:
http://www.geocities.com/dordot2001/TOOKIEWILLIAMS.htm
There are cases in which I feel it is absolutely right and I do not feel the slightest hesitation or compunction. Cases in which adults rape, torture and kill children are just such cases.
I would, if I was legally enjoined to, carry out the death sentence myself in those cases.
This is one of those cases: http://tinyurl.com/zrb5r
He himself says he wanted to die just before he raped and murdered that 11-year-old girl.
Let's support him in getting out of his misery, her and his families', and society's.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
When The Irresistible Force Meets the Unmovable Object
Robertson Finds Radical Muslims 'Satanic'
http://tinyurl.com/nu3q6
The confluence we are sharing is a spectacular one - filled with danger and supersaturated with opportunity.
The Christian world is reaping the whirlwind of the winds it sowed in the Crusades. Its own megalomaniacal aspirations of spiritual world conquest are coming back to haunt it and challenge it for a final showdown. They do not recognize their own image being reflected back to them. They imagine that, having laid down the weapons of the Middle Ages and desisted from armed evangelism, they have been forgiven and their actions have been forgotten. They do not know that the perturbations and disruptions they caused in the universe when they swung their maces and engaged their catapults are still reverberating and are returning to them.
The discovery of the Coelacanth changed the way we think about "extinction" forever. Scientists, wholly baffled, ask: "How could Coelacanths disappear for over 80 million years and then turn up alive and well in the twentieth century?" They use the terms as though they have some vague idea of what they mean.
The Okapi and other animals, most recently a "rat squirrel", thought to be long extinct have been discovered alive.
The genetic mutation that causes some of the siblings that belong to a family in Turkey to behave in a quasi-apelike/humanoid manner has caused scientists to ask if they are witnessing a case of human devolution. They note, however, that the family are characterized by singular love, warmth and acceptance - far in advance of that evinced by most human families. Scientists are entertaining the possibility that this is a case of devolution based upon what appears to be findings of devolution in other species.
The universe is showing us that our conception of time is wholly inadequate. We are amazed by the above-mentioned discoveries because we cling to a hopelessly inadequate conception of time. Time is certainly not a vector; that illusion is an artifact our consciousness. The common understanding of reincarnation is based on this illusion.
Space-time is the creation of our emotions, most particularly our inability or unwillingness to encounter objects, persons, situations, etc. We create space-time in order to distance ourselves, to put someone or something off.
The Irresistible Force that compels us to learn, encounter and accept is coming up against the Unmovable Object of our unwillingness to be divested of our ways of conceiving and cognizing. Our collective consciousness, and thus our universe, is imploding. But, never mind. The next universe we create will be bigger and better, as was the last universe we created, as is this one...
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Robertson Finds Radical Muslims 'Satanic'
http://tinyurl.com/nu3q6
The confluence we are sharing is a spectacular one - filled with danger and supersaturated with opportunity.
The Christian world is reaping the whirlwind of the winds it sowed in the Crusades. Its own megalomaniacal aspirations of spiritual world conquest are coming back to haunt it and challenge it for a final showdown. They do not recognize their own image being reflected back to them. They imagine that, having laid down the weapons of the Middle Ages and desisted from armed evangelism, they have been forgiven and their actions have been forgotten. They do not know that the perturbations and disruptions they caused in the universe when they swung their maces and engaged their catapults are still reverberating and are returning to them.
The discovery of the Coelacanth changed the way we think about "extinction" forever. Scientists, wholly baffled, ask: "How could Coelacanths disappear for over 80 million years and then turn up alive and well in the twentieth century?" They use the terms as though they have some vague idea of what they mean.
The Okapi and other animals, most recently a "rat squirrel", thought to be long extinct have been discovered alive.
The genetic mutation that causes some of the siblings that belong to a family in Turkey to behave in a quasi-apelike/humanoid manner has caused scientists to ask if they are witnessing a case of human devolution. They note, however, that the family are characterized by singular love, warmth and acceptance - far in advance of that evinced by most human families. Scientists are entertaining the possibility that this is a case of devolution based upon what appears to be findings of devolution in other species.
The universe is showing us that our conception of time is wholly inadequate. We are amazed by the above-mentioned discoveries because we cling to a hopelessly inadequate conception of time. Time is certainly not a vector; that illusion is an artifact our consciousness. The common understanding of reincarnation is based on this illusion.
Space-time is the creation of our emotions, most particularly our inability or unwillingness to encounter objects, persons, situations, etc. We create space-time in order to distance ourselves, to put someone or something off.
The Irresistible Force that compels us to learn, encounter and accept is coming up against the Unmovable Object of our unwillingness to be divested of our ways of conceiving and cognizing. Our collective consciousness, and thus our universe, is imploding. But, never mind. The next universe we create will be bigger and better, as was the last universe we created, as is this one...
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Someone asked: "Do you believe in Soulmates?"
Someone else answered: "I believe that some people have shared a past together and when they find each other in our current incarnation, they know and can share a deeper relationship than most of us. But I also think that searching for one's soulmate can lead to misery if you're not careful. Always trying to find that one special bond that may not be available in our current lifetime. "
I responded:
There is one problem with the belief in reincarnation. It presupposes that time is a vector. There is no reason to assume that this is the case. It appears to us that this is so because of the way that our thought is structured.
I believe that there are soulmates. I believe that they are together eternally, but I also understand that space-time is a creation of our emotions. When we do not wish to be in immediate contact with a person, situation, object, etc., we create space-time to create a distance.
When we want with all of our being to be with our Soulmate we are there - spontaneously and instantaneously.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Someone else answered: "I believe that some people have shared a past together and when they find each other in our current incarnation, they know and can share a deeper relationship than most of us. But I also think that searching for one's soulmate can lead to misery if you're not careful. Always trying to find that one special bond that may not be available in our current lifetime. "
I responded:
There is one problem with the belief in reincarnation. It presupposes that time is a vector. There is no reason to assume that this is the case. It appears to us that this is so because of the way that our thought is structured.
I believe that there are soulmates. I believe that they are together eternally, but I also understand that space-time is a creation of our emotions. When we do not wish to be in immediate contact with a person, situation, object, etc., we create space-time to create a distance.
When we want with all of our being to be with our Soulmate we are there - spontaneously and instantaneously.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Sunday, March 12, 2006
Obscene Contraband
Returning from a sensual vacation in Miami, after having dropped into their favorite sex shop, Mary and Joseph Jones were just crossing the state line into their home state of Abalamala when Joe Jones saw the blue strobe light of a police car in his rear-view mirror. "Oh. Oh. Mary, I think they're on to us."
Sho' nuff, they heard the feigned polite, authoritarian voice of a policeman coming through a bullhorn. "Pull your car over to the side of the road, please."
Joe Jones pulled over, rolled his window down and said: "Good evening, officers. What's the problem? I don't believe I was driving over the speed limit."
"No, sir, you weren't. We have been tipped off that you and your wife are attempting to enter the holy land of the state of Abalamala with obscene contraband."
Joe Jones gasped as if horrified and said: "Us? Mary and Joseph Jones? Obscene contraband? Why, we have been members in good standing of the White and Decent Evangelical Church for two decades. We'll be attending the AEGA World Conference once again this year. Us? Wherever did you get the idea that we would bring contraband into the holy land of the state of Abalamala?"
"We've received information, and we must investigate. Now, please cooperate and tell us where the contraband is."
"There is none. We don't know what you're talking about."
"Please get out of the car." Mary and Joe Jones got out of their car and the two policemen proceeded to check every inch of their car. "There's nothing in the trunk."
"There isn't anything in the glove compartment or under the hood either."
"Check under the seats and under the carpeting. Check under the dashboard. It must be here somewhere. Think, Murphy, where the hell would somebody stash a butt plug and a vibrating egg?"
"Dunno, sir. Sir?"
"Yeah, Murphy. What is it?"
"What came first? The vibrating chicken or the vibrating egg?"
The senior officer looked levelly at the more junior officer. He was clearly not amused. The two officers found nothing. Not just a bit frustrated and embarrassed the policemen told Mary and Joe that they could go, got back in their car and drove away. "My cop's nose tells me they've got it somewhere, Murphy, but if we can't get our hands on it we can't bust 'em."
Mary and Joe got back in their car looked at one another and smiled. As they drove away the faintest buzzing could be heard...
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Returning from a sensual vacation in Miami, after having dropped into their favorite sex shop, Mary and Joseph Jones were just crossing the state line into their home state of Abalamala when Joe Jones saw the blue strobe light of a police car in his rear-view mirror. "Oh. Oh. Mary, I think they're on to us."
Sho' nuff, they heard the feigned polite, authoritarian voice of a policeman coming through a bullhorn. "Pull your car over to the side of the road, please."
Joe Jones pulled over, rolled his window down and said: "Good evening, officers. What's the problem? I don't believe I was driving over the speed limit."
"No, sir, you weren't. We have been tipped off that you and your wife are attempting to enter the holy land of the state of Abalamala with obscene contraband."
Joe Jones gasped as if horrified and said: "Us? Mary and Joseph Jones? Obscene contraband? Why, we have been members in good standing of the White and Decent Evangelical Church for two decades. We'll be attending the AEGA World Conference once again this year. Us? Wherever did you get the idea that we would bring contraband into the holy land of the state of Abalamala?"
"We've received information, and we must investigate. Now, please cooperate and tell us where the contraband is."
"There is none. We don't know what you're talking about."
"Please get out of the car." Mary and Joe Jones got out of their car and the two policemen proceeded to check every inch of their car. "There's nothing in the trunk."
"There isn't anything in the glove compartment or under the hood either."
"Check under the seats and under the carpeting. Check under the dashboard. It must be here somewhere. Think, Murphy, where the hell would somebody stash a butt plug and a vibrating egg?"
"Dunno, sir. Sir?"
"Yeah, Murphy. What is it?"
"What came first? The vibrating chicken or the vibrating egg?"
The senior officer looked levelly at the more junior officer. He was clearly not amused. The two officers found nothing. Not just a bit frustrated and embarrassed the policemen told Mary and Joe that they could go, got back in their car and drove away. "My cop's nose tells me they've got it somewhere, Murphy, but if we can't get our hands on it we can't bust 'em."
Mary and Joe got back in their car looked at one another and smiled. As they drove away the faintest buzzing could be heard...
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
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