"Some Jews have used the Holocaust as a way of preserving a unique identity, which they see threatened by intermarriage and assimilation. Zionists have used the Holocaust, since the 1967 war, to justify further Israeli expansion into Palestianian land, and to build support for a beleaguered Israel (more beleaguered, as David Ben-Gurion had predicted, once it occupied the West Bank and Gaza). And non-Jewish politicians have used the Holocaust to build political support among the numerically small but influential Jewish voters—note the solemn pronouncements of Presidents wearing yarmulkas to underline their anguished sympathy.
I would never have become a historian if I thought that it would become my professional duty to go into the past and never emerge, to study long-gone events and remember them only for their uniqueness, not connecting them to events going on in my time. If the Holocaust was to have any meaning, I thought, we must transfer our anger to the brutalities of our time. We must atone for our allowing the Jewish Holocaust to happen by refusing to allow similar atrocities to take place now—yes, to use the Day of Atonement not to pray for the dead but to act for the living, to rescue those about to die."
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Howard Zinn passed away this week. To my chagrin I had never read him until today. Never too late!
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This is sad news. I should have read yesterday's paper -
ReplyDeletehttp://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/jan/28/howard-zinn-dies
The man has gone, the work remains.
I think his great book "A People's History of the United States" is required reading in many history classes these days.
ReplyDeleteHoward Zinn's fairy tale
ReplyDeletehttp://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/howard-zinns-fairy-tale-3751
<span>Fine, as long as it is not presented as history. A political tract maybe, (AKA, propaganda) but NOT history.</span>
ReplyDeleteKiss my ass vza you hegemony hag
ReplyDeleteAwww, nothing gets you from the barricades like an aspersion cast on one of your icons. I think he is a great propagandist, v. Just not an historian.
ReplyDeleteBtw, have I told you lately how very impressed I am with your erudite responses? Kiss my ass! Hegemony hag! Oh my!
ReplyDeleteIn contrast, Howard Zinn is an evangelist of little imagination for whom history is one long chain of stark moral dualities. His fatalistic vision can only keep the left just where it is: on the margins of American political life.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/?article=385
Don't let anything disturb your foxed up dreams, vza.
ReplyDeleteDo you wear one of those little flag pins that say "I'm more American than you"?
Did not say anything about Zinn's "Americanness", now did I? Zinn was as American as apple pie. He was just one of many on the Left who sees only the bad in American history. Correcting a bias with another bias just does not impress me. I suppose we "people" who do not gush over Zinn's bleak history and acccept it as whole cloth are just not...welll, real people! Dissent is noble isn't it, until we dissent from the Leftist party line?
ReplyDeleteDon't let anything disturb your party line dreams, sir.
What party is that, vza?
ReplyDeleteWhy is it that you and fleming smear anyone who attacks capitalism as anti-American? If you are unable to identify your country without reference to a particular economic system then you are truly brainwashed. Zinn's book is called "A People's History ..." etc. There's a clue there. If the economic system is exploitative then the people have a right to complain, protest, resist. The propagandists who appear to have successfully intervened in your mental process will howl that such behaviour is unpatriotic. You don't have to believe them.
"A patriot must always be ready to defend his country from his government." (Edward Abbey) ... and the people who control the 'government'. (Jemmy Hope)
Please tell me where I stated ANY of what you just claimed? I have complained, protested, and resisted efforts of my government I considered unjust and encourage anyone else to do the same when necessary! You know nothing about my life or history.
ReplyDeleteMy original comment was a critique of the book, NOT Howard Zinn's belief in protest! You, sir, automatically assumed that because I do not simply accept the book as the truth, I must be: 1) living in a foxed up dream world and 2) questioning Zinn's Americanness"!
Do not attribute smearing to me. You are the one who consistently attacks with snide remarks if I do not follow, YES, your party line. You do not deviate one iota from a Leftist viewpoint that I have seen. So let's not talk about brainwashing.
I repeat, Howard Zinn's book, in my opinion, is seriously flawed as a history book. He was a great propagandist for his point of view, and from all reports a good man, but I do not accept his one sided views of American history. I did not challenge his right to hold those views, nor did I question whether or not he was a good American.
Leftist party? I didn't know there was A leftist party. I don't belong to any political party, never did. To quote "You know nothing about my life or history."
ReplyDeleteI'll tell you the "line" I follow -
When it's rich against poor, I'm with the poor.
When it's exploiter against exploited, I'm with the exploited.
When it's torturer against tortured, I'm with the tortured.
When it's mad bomber aginst bombed, I'm with the bombed.
Now you know SOMETHING about what I'm for, my party line.
By the way, I'm poor, I've been exploited most of my life and I've been bombed. So far I've evaded the torturers.
I don't doubt you are a paragon of walking humanity, just allow that perhaps...just perhaps..there are others walking around who are decent people who think differently from you on a number of issues.
ReplyDelete<span>" So far I've evaded the torturers"</span>
<span>Now, that is a surprise!</span><span>.</span>
Not really, your government is only interested in extaordinarily rendering British citizens who are Muslims.
ReplyDelete