What I find so curious is the failure to factor in Christian anti-semitism which the Nazi’s capitalized on. A great example is Poland which were segregating, dehumanising and murdering them. Such beliefs which demonized Jews are very real in 2023 Poland. This I think is a huge omission.
And this is something very insightful in Arendt - which is the idea that Modern Antisemitism has very little relation to "religious Jew-hate". Antisemites are not basing their beliefs of religious beliefs, and when we see them cite things that seem religious (e.g. Blood Libel) it's downstream of their Antisemitism rather than the cause of it.
@@septology Modern antisemitism is just a secularization of the kind of religious antisemitism that was very prevalent in Europe for hundreds of years. This is why the trajectory towards something mimicking racism (itself a secular ideology) was imo somewhat predictable for Jews in Europe. The Nazis copied earlier European treatment of Jews (see Pope Paul IV's Cum nimis absurdum) however replacing the presuppositional context of the Christian ideology with the 19th century racist one ie Jews were not evil because they killed Christ -- and therefore could be brought into the larger Christian world by repenting, but now were biologically linked with what was only earlier assumptions of guilt and evil. Once the truth about people were linked by the rigid hierarchies of race and racism only then could the Jews of Europe be thought of as a problem which only total annihilation could solve. Without the earlier presupposition of Jews being guilty and sinful the metamorphosis to the secular form which racism replaced wouldn't have happened, or at least it would have looked very different.
You can not address these chapters if you don't establish what Jewish is, why must totalitarians of western Europe destroy it? In another sense why can't the inculcatation of social forms of anti Semitism suffice for the purposes of total political power? A plank of antisemitism suggests a difference from a faction that rejects the explicit politicization of antisemitism. I.e. a distinctly Jewish threat. Of course the real threat to total power is not merely the social attitudes - it seems obvious that the Jewish members of society could ever without ceasing to be Jewish be relied upon, tolerate, or contribute politically to a totalitarian political order - why? Christians and maybe other subctures are politically innocuous? Or in other words, and mostly in tact socially, historically they proved willing agents in the construction of 2 out of 5 of the world's "most" totalitarian empires with little threat to their identity- internally problematic as that is.
Judeausm is a middle eastern religion, largely associated with communism in my opinion. But the nation state is important if you want to have roots in a place with customs and culture. She makes it too complicated. Arendt hated the nation state.
Even if it was Mongolian or martian, it still has all the ugly characteristics of organized religion. Duty. Obedience. Less Rights For Women and Children. And Totally Top Down. Big deal if it's that complicated.
What I find so curious is the failure to factor in Christian anti-semitism which the Nazi’s capitalized on. A great example is Poland which were segregating, dehumanising and murdering them. Such beliefs which demonized Jews are very real in 2023 Poland. This I think is a huge omission.
It's was a war my friend
And this is something very insightful in Arendt - which is the idea that Modern Antisemitism has very little relation to "religious Jew-hate". Antisemites are not basing their beliefs of religious beliefs, and when we see them cite things that seem religious (e.g. Blood Libel) it's downstream of their Antisemitism rather than the cause of it.
@@septology Modern antisemitism is just a secularization of the kind of religious antisemitism that was very prevalent in Europe for hundreds of years. This is why the trajectory towards something mimicking racism (itself a secular ideology) was imo somewhat predictable for Jews in Europe. The Nazis copied earlier European treatment of Jews (see Pope Paul IV's Cum nimis absurdum) however replacing the presuppositional context of the Christian ideology with the 19th century racist one ie Jews were not evil because they killed Christ -- and therefore could be brought into the larger Christian world by repenting, but now were biologically linked with what was only earlier assumptions of guilt and evil. Once the truth about people were linked by the rigid hierarchies of race and racism only then could the Jews of Europe be thought of as a problem which only total annihilation could solve. Without the earlier presupposition of Jews being guilty and sinful the metamorphosis to the secular form which racism replaced wouldn't have happened, or at least it would have looked very different.
HA was not talking about religious anti-jewishness, but social and economic and political antisemitism.
You can not address these chapters if you don't establish what Jewish is, why must totalitarians of western Europe destroy it? In another sense why can't the inculcatation of social forms of anti Semitism suffice for the purposes of total political power? A plank of antisemitism suggests a difference from a faction that rejects the explicit politicization of antisemitism. I.e. a distinctly Jewish threat. Of course the real threat to total power is not merely the social attitudes - it seems obvious that the Jewish members of society could ever without ceasing to be Jewish be relied upon, tolerate, or contribute politically to a totalitarian political order - why? Christians and maybe other subctures are politically innocuous? Or in other words, and mostly in tact socially, historically they proved willing agents in the construction of 2 out of 5 of the world's "most" totalitarian empires with little threat to their identity- internally problematic as that is.
Judeausm is a middle eastern religion, largely associated with communism in my opinion. But the nation state is important if you want to have roots in a place with customs and culture. She makes it too complicated. Arendt hated the nation state.
Even if it was Mongolian or martian, it still has all the ugly characteristics of organized religion. Duty. Obedience. Less Rights For Women and Children. And Totally Top Down.
Big deal if it's that complicated.
People in Israel should be listening and understanding this, more than non-jewish people.