In the recent German film Generation War, which profiles five fictional young German men and women and their experiences during the war, an extremely nice and rather naive young German woman becomes a nurse and works in a German army field hospital. She is a Florence Nightingale who really cares about people and wants to help them as much as she can, particularly by showing that lovingkindness that is so popular with certain kinds of Christians. (These kinds of Christians often like Jews when they show this trait, which is an aspect of Judaism though it does have a few others, some of which Christians often find much less attractive; then they say Jews make the best Christians and become philosemites). The only trouble with this young woman is she is a bit of a Nazi. Not the hate-filled kind though. In fact, its not clear what her ideology is; all we know is that she believes her government is right. It has to be, its the government. Protestants occasionally do become dissidents but they mostly have a tendency to believe that the laws of the government not only are just, they define what justice is. The righteous person is the person who obeys the laws whatever they are. The Protestant-inspired state does much to present itself as representing divine authority and sanctioned by it, most conspicuously to criminal defendants and opponents in civil trials who are greeted in the courtroom by a big sign that says In God We Trust. Translated: The court represents God, and you had better trust its authority. That is also why you swear fealty on the Bible. Eichmann said he did not hate the Jews but admired them, and I believe him; he was simply indifferent to their fate and had to be because he was obeying a higher authority. In Judaism, since the mishap with Abraham, it has been understand that the faithfulness to the higher authority cannot involve murdering your children or several million citizens who have suddenly been declared foreigners and traitors in part because they answer to a rather different conception of the higher authority. But if justice is the law and the law is that of the government, and its authority is legitimate and absolute simply because it has been instituted (and will be enforced), then you have the Eichmann problem, which probably stems from Luther. The nice German nurse in this film is a little Eichmann. When she finds out her Ukrainian colleague is a Jew, she reports her to the head nurse. When the Gestapo enter the hall, she approaches are colleague, who is in fact her friend, greets her warmly but with an expression of concern, and hypocritically, aware of the futility of this gesture, advises her to leave, and then says in a heartful manner, Im sorry. In the end these nice people are kind to you only because they want you to be kind to them. People who are loving want to be loved, and it is as a good a motivation as any but if you really love your friend you will be willing to do something for her and not cling to your enjoyment of her companionship. My mother loved me and wanted to have me with her. That was a sign of her love but the far greater sign was that when she realized she couldnt give me what I needed, she gave me up and sent me to live with my other parent. An act of courage of sacrifice motivated by a love that partly is driven by a desire for enjoyment of the others presence but that goes beyond it and so does not require it. That is why some lovers will die for their beloved. This young woman is to me like many Americans, perhaps most. Her Christian desire to express lovingkindness, which ultimately is just an expression her desire to have friends, and of course having selfish motives for noble needs is not ignoble but normal, is extraordinary, but most Christian men and women, or most goyim in an essentially Christian society are nice people. The gentiles are gentlemen when they can be. The poor ones struggle so hard to make ends meet it is more difficult and you cannot blame them, but still they are usually nice to you unless they are having some problem. Americans are among the friendliest people in the world. Coming back from France I could see this clearly. It is true what Americans dislike about the French, that they are as a rule not friendly to strangers. I have written about this: they are polite and civil and respectful, not friendly, because they think familiarity with a stranger is infantilizing and an insult. And this is built into their language, which classes people into the two categories of friends and family vs. citizens. One is friendly and familiar to friends and family, and one is polite and reserved with strangers. In any case, Americans are very friendly and nice. The police are nice; they still beat you. A psychiatrist who incarcerated me after declaring that I am not a normal American and trying to find out if I had a foreign passport that would exonerate me made demonstrative gestures of welcoming me into his familial community of people who think and feel the way he does or thinks they should. He made an effusive show of friendliness. I did not know how to respond and realized I was incapable of reciprocating with the American warmth and hospitality and enthusiastic naivete he demanded. Soon, in the name of this same friendliness, I would be subjected to violence by hospital staff. All my life I have been excluded and treated with hostility by members of groups or organizations of various kinds all of whom seemed to enforce an idea of friendliness that excluded any kind of dissent. America has often seemed to me a land of people who exude and demand lovingkindness or its semblance but who will very rapidly turn hostile and treat me like a criminal. When I first returned to New York, I stayed in a youth hostel and I met a young gay American who claimed to be a writer and who was full of enthusiasm, which may be the American virtue. Once, though, I asked him what he thought of Bradley Manning. He transformed his amicality into rageful indignation. I think he should be shown no pity, he said, after murdering all those people. I knew there was no point in addressing the confusion behind his error, and for me the significant thing was to see how rapidly Americans with their welcoming embrace of everyone whom they can persuade is like them after all will turn hostile and even aggressive when they remind themself that we are at war. And American for at least 73 years has been continually, constitutionally, and definitionally a nation at war. Americans like this young man will, I am convinced, hurt me if I am not careful. American goyim are very much like the German goy represented by the nurse in this film. American liberals dont like such comparisons; much of their intolerance is directed at criticism of America. This is a great country. We have liberty. All the oppression and injustice was left behind in the Old World. Americans have been saying that since 1608 and it is a lie. Above all, they say, America is not like that. Of course American is not like Nazi Germany. But there are disturbing commonalities. One is simply the way Americans, Jews included, have such naive faith in their government. Exactly like that nurse, even if they have more favorable historical and political science information to legitimate their attitude, American liberals believe their government and society are fundamentally and essentially just. Of course such claims really do only make sense in the context of war or a de facto civil war against dissidents, such as with anti-Communism in the 40s and 50s. But I think patriots almost never believe their country is great because of what they know about, though they always say that. They desperately need to believe these things and this is because they want to feel justified and happy and they want to believe that the Big Daddy or Big Brother is good so that they can have faith in him and believe that God is in his heaven or the President in is Oval Office and all is right with the world. That is one of the fundamental lies. Just as life begins on the far side of despair, as Sartre has Orestes say in his resistance play The Flies, the possibility of understanding any kind of truth begins with recognition of lies: It is a lie that death is not real. It is a lie that evil is not real. It is a lie that the good always triumphs in the end. (It is true that it might). It is a lie that the authorities are necessary essentially just. (Sometimes they are, we should want them to be and perhaps have faith that they can be but never that they are). It is a lie that you can solve any problem you have or overcome any obstacle. (The lie of New Age spirituality). As Pascal said, you must wager. In a risk society you may win or lose. Wagering does not mean being certain you will win; it only means believing there is a chance good enough to warrant trying. The person of faith and courage who takes risks is different from the person of despair who can do nothing as well as the person of false certitude who needs to do nothing.
Posted on: Sat, 22 Mar 2014 16:53:41 +0000
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