Live and learn. Is that not what we say, trying to keep our hands and minds occupied and refreshed? However, this new business of making up new terms that essentially pigeonhole people, well, not happy. This whole 'woke' business for instance. People wake up all the time, sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly but now this term induces jest and enmity at the same time. The same, I predict, will happen to the new term- red pill. It all ties in with a theme of the sword and the pen, as old as time. Just as valid and just as questionable.
Red pill refers to (becoming enlightened to) the truth about reality, especially a truth that is difficult to accept or exposes disillusions.
Online, red pill is especially used among anti-feminist and white supremacist groups to refer to "waking up" to the truth that women and liberal politics are oppressing men and white people.
And there you have it, the creation of new terminology that immediately takes a side on the political fence, usually not a beneficial one either. Quite frankly, I believe the entire nation right now is in one form of red pilling or another. One is against women. Another is against Jews. Another, and another, and another, will be applied to more anti positions, ramping up the dial on hatred and its growth here and around the world. Here we go again and again and again and I wonder about this and the state of mind of humanity. Not optimistic.
So, is the pen mightier than the sword, the pen that creates these new additions to the lexicon of modern day speech? Do these expeditions of the pen into this area help or hinder, damp down the flames or pour oil on it? Yesterday, a poet, a member of the poets' opposition to the military coup in Myanmar, said, "The people with weapons are afraid of pen wielding hands."
But is that true? Is that the case anymore. There are so many words spewed out these days, (including mine), that we lose the effect and importance of words. We, instead, take to the streets, to the guns, to the new sword of the day, and havoc ensues while separation of society into heavily slanted groupings grows tenfold. Every damned day!! And all the words of the day seem not to be able to put our modern day Humpty Dumpty back again. In fact, the words simply re-shatter the pieces into even more fragmented form.
The words repeated, taken from medieval times and before, the words of hate, the words of antagonism, raised not only the spectre of anti-Semitism, but raised its physical presence. The physical part of this equation then ramped up the word temperatures so 'inspired', written by the hatemongers, by the Jew haters, by those jumping on the bandwagon to indulge their darkest nasty wishes. An evil synergy.
Most frightening to me, not surprised though, is the manifestation of too many supposed intellectual Jews among the ranks of Jew haters. From Bernie Sanders to Dov Zakheim, these people have seemingly never found anything that is positive re Israel, other than in their imaginations, or explain it away with a taint or two, and never, but never, take off after the terrorist, after the horrific attacks, by members of that tribe of supposed 'Palestinian's. Never. Incidentally I wonder, how is it that classmates of mine can end on such opposite poles when we all learned together. Puzzling. "Is a puzzlement" as the King would say. This puzzle has been with us, the court Jew, for all eternity. Even allowing for the optimist side, that these people are there to aid their fellow Jews, the taste, the odor, the sight, all grow bitter, jagged, and reeking, for it ultimately never works. There we are again, fleeing for our lives - right down the streets of the world, down the streets of LA, of NYC, of Miami, of Pittsburgh, and the list is never ending.
All are entitled to opinions, but we are not entitled to shove people into categories such as 'woke' or "red pill' if that encourages the cracks in our firmament to grow, to the point of no return. The ridiculous continued attempts to challenge the election results. The diminished, but still there, rants of Trump, as the vision of orange jumpsuits grows ever clearer in his mind. The partisan wreck in DC which stalls this nation, much to its detriment. The cynical use now of anti Semitism as a political tool, mouthing words but attaching no swords to those words.
"A catastrophe for Jewish Americans but also for pro-Palestinian politics.".
"I have not heard of ordinary people in public places being afraid. That's the situation in Europe. Talk to Jews in Belgium, in France, in Germany, in the U.K., and they will tell you that they modulate, they hide their Judaism."
"It would be a disaster if this were to happen here, and not just for Jews."
Really, as the Jews die, and the rest of the world cries crocodile tears, too little and way too late? As the world loses all the future contributions of Jewish minds to the world, as they have done for centuries? Am I to feel sorry for them and for this situation they have wrought and brought upon themselves and others? From the grave, where I molder?
"The anti-Semitic worldview is always Judeocentric----obsessed with Jewish behavior as the supreme factor in domestic and international political life. The left has lately been awfully Judeocentric....they have indulged an anti-Israel movement that keeps descending into the crudest forms of anti-Semitism.....what to do about the burgeoning anti-Semitism ... As for Jews, they should take the events of the last few days less as an outrage than as an omen."
I believe these quotes say it all, along with my commentary, though they are pretty clear in meaning and warning. Which was written or spoken by a Jewish analyst and which by a non-Jew? You guess and while you are guessing, figure out where you stand on this issue; not a vague esoteric one, but rather one of life and death, of healing or harming, of tainted word attached to sharpened, bloodhungry sword? The time to choose is upon us.
A little tidbit to add to this: I, and many others, are downright afraid. We have called our children and grandchildren who have not felt this hatred so open and so vitriolic before. We call upon them, plead with them, to tuck their tzitzit (prayer garment) into their pants. Wear a baseball hat over the kippah. Tuck the telling jewelry inside the shirt, or better yet, leave it in the house. Do not speak Hebrew or Yiddish in the streets. And they refuse. And you know what, so do we. Enough already! Enough!
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