Leo's Blog: Infinite Insights — Page 29
The following is one of my favorite political quotes. It comes from the classic Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War, known as the Melian Dialogue. It is a dialogue that took place between the Athenians and the people of Melos — a small island state that the Athenians were about to conquer.
The Athenians told the Melian people this:
"For ourselves, we shall not trouble you with specious pretenses — either of how we have a right to our empire because we overthrew the Persians, or are now attacking you because of wrong that you have done us — and make a long speech which would not be believed; and in return we hope that you, instead of thinking to influence us by saying that you did not join the Lakedaemonians, although their colonists, or that you have done us no wrong, will aim at what is feasible, holding in view the real sentiments of us both; since you know as well as we do that right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must."
I thought about this quote in the context of researching and contemplating the issue of Israel and Palestine. I love the Athenian's honesty and truthfulness. No bullshit. No fantasy. No propaganda. No self-righteous rationalizations. No demonization of their enemy. No social constructions. No gaslighting. The Athenians may have been bloodthristy conquerors but at least they were honest about it.
What a stark contrast to the bullshit spun by Israel. See, if Israel were honest it would say something like the Athenians: "We will ethnically cleanse you Arabs because we are strong and you are weak, and that is the way of the world. You have no choice in the matter. We will build our homes on the graves of your children." But Israelis are too dishonest to say that. They have to invent stories and fantasies about how they are the good guys, how they are the victims, how God promised them the land, how they deserve it, how the land was empty, how the land was theirs, how evil the Palestinians are, "terrorism", etc. It's all bullshit. Just excuses to take land by force. That's all the Israel-Palestine conflict is. It is a devilish scheme to steal land by divide-and-conquering its occupants. This is crystal clear from the historical record.
But here's where it gets really interesting. The founding fathers of Israel were more honest than today's propagandized Zionists. They understood exactly what the Athenians understood: That might makes right.
Here is one of their honest quotes:
"Let us not hurl blame at the murderers. Why should we complain of their hatred for us? Eight years they've sat in the refugee camps of Gaza and seen with their own eyes how we have made our homeland of the soil of the villages where they and their fore-bearers once dwelt. Not from the Arabs of Gaza must we demand the blood of [the dead] but from ourselves.
A generation of settlement are we, and without the steel helmet and the maw of the cannon we shall not plant a tree, nor build a house. Our children shall not have lives to live if we do not dig shelters; and without the barbed wire fence and the machine gun, we shall not pave a path nor drill for water."
-- Moshe Dayan, Israeli Chief of the IDF, 1956
The founders of Israel understood full well that Israel is a bald-faced racist ethnic cleansing project. But today's Zionists lie to themselves about it because they could not live with themselves if they acknowledged the truth. The difference between today's Zionists and the original Zionists is that the originals knew they were genocidal, whereas today's are too self-propagandized with liberal fantasies. If you're going to do a genocide, as least don't lie about it. But of course you cannot do a genocide these days without lying about it. In the times of the ancient Greeks you could do a genocide honestly, with integrity. How far we've come!
This is the power of what Zizek calls Ideology. When you are under the influence of ideology you don't know it. A Zionist is completely unaware of his own ideology. Ideology runs the mind like a virus, but it is experienced as you, as your essence. That's the deceptive power of viruses. A virus doesn't feel foreign, it feels like it's a part of you — because it has woven itself into you at a molecular level.
I want you to see that the cost of the Israeli project was not just the lives of countless Palestinians, but the selling of the Israeli soul to the devil. A precondition for the existence of Israel was a bargain that the Israelis had to sign with the Devil. The Devil would give them Israel, but at the cost of having their entire population brainwashed with fantasy and self-propaganda, disconnected from truth. The Zionists chose Israel over truth. Or, in other words, they chose survival over God. Which is to say, they sold their soul to the Devil for land. So here we are.
God damn! This is such a powerful lesson. Stop playing games and learn the lesson.
There is much debate about whether it's genocide or not genocide. But I don't see anyone making the obvious distinction that you can have two kinds of genocide: direct and indirect, explicit and implicit. While everyone is busy arguing over explicit genocide, they miss the obvious possibility of implicit genocide. It's obvious that as the whole world develops, explicit genocide becomes politically and morally untenable, instead transmogrifying into indirect genocide. Genocide is protean, it can take many forms, it is intelligent, it is sneaky, it is self-deceptive — because God is at work. When God does a genocide, he's artful about it. One acquainted with God can see this a mile away, while everyone else is duped. Don't ask, Is it genocide? Ask, what is the most sneakiest, most intelligent, most artful way to do a genocide? Now you're on the right track!
Biased? Taking sides? No. This is objectivity. This is the work of seeing through self-deception. Objectivity does not favor your preferences nor your identity. I have no preference for Palestinians over Jews. I have a preference for deconstructing illusions. People are happy with the notion of deconstructing illusions in the abstract, but when the method eventually reaches their favorite illusions, their identity — the stuff they were sure couldn't be questioned — they scream bloody murder.
Such is the business of illusion-busting.
Don't you see? The whole illusion here is that it's difficult for Jews to seem themselves as evil, precisely because much evil was done to them in the past. After all, how could a Jew be evil? That's outrageous! That's racist! But one doesn't preclude the other. That's the illusion! You can both have evil done to you and be evil yourself. That's mostly how evil spreads. The Devil doesn't just dish out evil, he also suffers it. The illusion is that evil is a one-way street.
Important Note: Not all Jews or Israelis are guilty of this. There are plenty who recognize and fight the evils of the Israeli government — although a politically feeble minority. Nothing I said here is inherently about race. My point is not that Jews are somehow uniquely bad, but the opposite: there is nothing special about Jews. The dynamics of devilry and evil are not unique to any race or group. These are existential dynamics of Mind. All that Israeli's need to do to stop being evil is stop settlements, stop taking land, stop doing divide-and-conquer, stop lying. So this is nothing essentialist about Jews. This is purely a matter of how Israelis choose to behave. Taking land is your choice. It comes with consequences. If the consequences are ugly, stop doing it. That is all. Nothing personal. Nothing racist.
Shalom, if you dare.
Emmerson Mnangagwa is known as "The Crocodile" for his political cunning. He replaced Robert Mugabe, the notorious and ruthless dictator of Zimbabwe. His political faction is known as "Lacoste". His troops known as the "crocodile gang".
First, regardless of what I say here, please go vote.
Now, on to the prediction...
The race is razor tight, so any prediction is foolish, but I am sensing a Trump victory.
Why?
Because I just see way too much false equivocating, excuse-making, complacency, Stage Orange mania, and contempt for the mainstream. By and large people are not taking the danger of a second Trump administration seriously. They rationalize it as not so bad, not worse than the first Trump term, etc. People are acting like spoiled juveniles, and they are proud of themselves for it. This does not bode well. This is a clear marker of collective immaturity and dysfunction.
The American public is behaving like a child playing with a live hand-grenade. That's the mood I'm seeing. It doesn't feel right. The whole mood is wrong. People have lost their minds with internet brain-rot political ideology. This election should not even be close. That it is so close is an indictment of America.
Three groups here need to be especially called out:
1) The corporate class, billionaires, capitalist elites, Tech Bros:
The corporate billionaire class is cynically aligning with power and fascism, as the industrialists aligned with the Nazi party in Nazi Germany, because they think it will help them get favors for their business interests. This is pure capitalist corruption. Pure megalomaniac neoliberal delusion, greed, and cynicism. These people have sold out democracy for a bump in their stock portfolio. These people have deluded themselves into believing that Trump is good for the economy. These people don't even recognize the problem of toxic Stage Orange. To them, peak toxic Orange is the ideal government.
2) Alternative, non-mainstream media:
I see much of alternative media downplaying the dangers of Trump because they are blinded by their contempt for mainstream media, having built their identities and careers around it. The starkest example of this is the YT channel Breaking Points. Mainstream bad, alternative good. That is the effective sum total of their childish logic. Yet these alt media channels now have huge audiences. Their audiences are politically ignorant and easily misled. Channels like Joe Rogan and Breaking Points have spent years priming their large audiences against anything mainstream, the end result of which is not voting for Harris. These people are anti-mainstream, anti-vax, anti-bureaucracy, anti-elite. But in practice these people will just end up serving power with their bumbling naivety. These people have no idea how damaging Trump can be. These people think that Trump is a solution to the dumpster fire that is Washington corruption, without seeing that he is the gasoline.
3) Pro-Palestinian, anti-war, anti-Ukraine leftists:
These people are so obsessed with Palestinian genocide and hatred of the neoliberal establishment that they just cannot bring themselves to vote for a corporate Dem. It's all the same to them. Harris is just a continuation of Biden's complicity in genocide and endless war. These people will vote 3rd party or not at all. They will reduce politics to these two issues in this election cycle. These leftists do not properly evaluate the damage that a second Trump administration would do to all of their leftist Green ideals, as Trump guts the entire Federal bureaucracy, all social programs, and further corrupts the Supreme Court with far right ideologues and Christian stooges. But their error gets even worse. They do not recognize that Trump will be much worse on the Palestinian issue than Biden. If you think Trump gives any fucks at all about Arab lives, you are delusional. Which is why Netanyahu clearly favors Trump. By voting 3rd party you are actually helping Netanyahu to wipe Palestine off the map. But these leftists are too wrapped up in hating on Biden to see this. These leftists are so moral that they are okay with electing a fascist because they are too moral, too pure to vote for a mainstream Dem. A mainstream Dem is just too corrupt for them, but Trump is somehow tolerable. And lastly, these leftists are wrong about Trump being anti-war. Trump is a shameless lying unhinged fascist! Fascists are not anti-war. They are characterologically pro war, pro violence, pro force, pro authoritarian, pro domination, pro abuse, pro revenge. If you think Trump will save you from war, you misunderstand the basic psychology of fascists, authoritarians, sociopaths, and devils. You are gonna believe the Devil when he tells you he's anti-war? Get the fuck outta here! Perhaps Trump's greatest con is this image of him as peaceful. Wake up! There are no peaceful fascists!
Therefore, Trump is likely to win. If he wins, it will not be due to MAGA fanatics, but because of the deep miscalculations of these three groups, who have downplayed and rationalized away his corruption and danger. They rationalized it to themselves and to their followers in a shameless dereliction of leadership and dismal political strategy.
A second Trump term would be absolutely disastrous. It will be by far the most corrupt form of government that America has ever had, by an order of magnitude. The corruption will be horrific and unimaginable. Expect war, violence, abuse of power at unprecedented scale, loss of many freedoms, Federal ban on abortion, white supremacy, Christian theocracy, criminals in the White House, fraud, corporate exploitation, gutting of all good regulations, a generation-long destruction of the Supreme Court, erosion of the legal system, concentration camps for migrants, abuse of all types of minorities, gross incompetence and mismanagement, poisoning of the food and water supply, pardoning of elite criminals, stock market collapse, crypto market collapse, and perhaps the end of democracy and elections. I'm not saying this will happen with 100% certainty, but it's reasonably probable — which is a completely irresponsible thing to gamble with.
There is no equivalence. This matter is crystal clear. Trump is a monster, a devil, a criminal, and a disaster. Trump, and everyone in his administration, is POISON. They are poison minds, poison human beings. Poisoned by ego, ideology, greed, lies, ignorance, self-deception, and lust for power. If they are elected they will inject their poison into the bloodstream of not just America but the world.
Electing Donald Trump to fix the world's problems is exactly like electing a fox to guard your hen house.
With that said, Kamala Harris is a mediocre and hollow presidential candidate. But, at least she's not a ravenous poison fox.
Now, please go vote.
Croc is an essential part of an Actualized breakfast.
It's a croc-eat-croc world.
;)
