Can we infer something from this scatological question?
 
Stoneking
 
 
 
----- Original Message -----
From: Sarab Nihal Singh <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, October 19, 1999 12:27 AM
Subject: know thy kulture 101
 
 
> WHAT THE FUCK IS THE MITZVA ?
>
>
> >From: "Jonathan P. Gill" <[log in to unmask]>
> >Reply-To: Ezra Pound discussion list of the University of Maine
> >  <[log in to unmask]>
> >To: [log in to unmask]
> >Subject: Re: Anti-Semitism: getting started understanding it
> >Date: Mon, 18 Oct 1999 09:37:00 -0400
> >
> >Fellow Poundians:
> >
> >I fear from Tim Romano's letter that some of us may be getting our
> >knowledge of Judaism from Pound--a very bad idea.
> >
> >As regards interest and gentiles, the Hebrew Scriptures have hundreds of
> >laws, articulated in a variety of confusing ways (hence the secondary,
> >tertiary legal literature). For every rule that talks about charging
> >interest only to gentiles, there's one that says Jews are obligated to
> >treat gentiles better than fellow Jews.
> >
> >As for alleged Jewish shame about coition, this seems to be some sort of
> >retroactive Pauline or Augustine influence.  Far from being considered a
> >bad thing, sex is part of man's side of the covenant--every observant Jew
> >knows that heterosexual intercourse in considered a mitzvah--especially
on
> >the Sabbath!
> >
> >I'm not blind to the restrictions in Jewish law on other kinds of sex
> >(homosexuality, onanism, etc.)--but I suspect that, as usual, Pound was
> >alot closer to the Jews on this issue that he was willing to admit.
> >
> >By the way, I'd like to hear from Leon Surette more often on this list.
> >For now, I wonder how he compares his own view of Pound's "conversion" to
> >anti-semitism (apologies for the paraphrase) to that of Wendy Flory, who
> >dates it to 1935 and gives Ethiopia as the reason.
> >
> >Jonathan Gill
> >Columbia University
> >
> >
> >
> >On Mon, 18 Oct 1999, Tim Romano wrote:
> >
> > > Tim,
> > > I won't suggest any literature that addresses your basic
incomprehension
> >of
> > > the related hatreds. But hatred (racial, tribal, etc) does not seem
> > > unnatural to me -- it seems more the anthropological rule than the
> > > exception.  The Jews considered themselves the Chosen Race. African
> >tribes
> > > massacre each other. Many Koreans despise whites. The Japanese
consider
> > > themselves superior. Many whites consider blacks to be inferior. The
> >ancient
> > > Saxons thought the dark-skinned Britons were an inferior race. Not a
> >modern
> > > phenomenon by any means.  Genocide is nothing new. These feelings are
> > > perhaps instinctual.
> > >
> > > But I have not encountered anything that I would regard as racial or
> >tribal
> > > hatred in Pound's writings, though I've yet to read the Agresti
letters
> >and
> > > am not very far into Pound's wartime radio broadcasts, and maybe there
> >is
> > > evidence of this kind of hatred to be found in the things I haven't
read
> > > yet. In one of his wartime broadcasts, Pound actually speaks out
against
> >the
> > > physical stereotyping of the Japanese in Zukor's animated cartoons.
> > >
> > > In what I have read of his, Pound's "anti-Semiticism" is
> > > culturally/economically based.  Deuteronomy permits the Jews when
> > > moneylending to charge interest to Gentiles only. Pound had great
> >antipathy
> > > for Jewish monotheism and the shame in which it shrouds the human act
of
> > > coition. There are things one might reasonably hate about Jewish
culture
> > > which have nothing to do with racial or tribal hatred, or hatred of
any
> > > individual human being who happens to have been raised as a Jew, just
as
> >one
> > > might despise the practice of female infanticide or female genital
> > > mutilation or the chopping off of the hands of petty thieves or the
use
> >of
> > > the flagellum.  Some cultures are more humane than others, if not more
> > > human.
> > >
> > > Tim Romano
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > ----- Original Message -----
> > > From: Tim Bray <[log in to unmask]>
> > > To: <[log in to unmask]>
> > > Sent: Monday, 18 Oct 1999 12:27 AM
> > > Subject: Anti-Semitism: getting started understanding it
> > >
> > >
> > > > As a well-read non-humanist in his 40s who has spent time in the
third
> > > > world and seen tribal hate at work, the problem I have with all the
> > > holocaust
> > > > literature is that it fails to address my basic incomprehension as
to
> >how
> > > this
> > > > could have happened.  I.e. how intelligent well-educated people (eg
> >EP,
> > > nuts
> > > > maybe, smart probably, well-educated definitely) can have thought
such
> > > > silly things and done such evil things?  The tribal hate I've seen
> >could
> > > not
> > > > survive in the absence of real immediate grievance (they killed my
> > > brother)
> > > > and the presence of a decent education (history and ethics are
> > > complicated).
> > > >
> > > > So, on the assumption that people who agonize over EP know something
> >about
> > > > this subject, what would be a good recommendation for literature to
> > > address
> > > > this basic incomprehension? -T.
> > > >
> > > >
> > >
>
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