Walter Salles' new film on the disappearances of regime critics in 1970s Brazil is a powerful reminder that the ghouls who defend the slaughter in Gaza are biding their time
The truth is again found in the words of ex-Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion:
“If I were an Arab leader, I would never sign an agreement with Israel. It is normal; we have taken their country. It is true God promised it to us, but how could that interest them? Our God is not theirs. There has been Anti-Semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault? They see but one thing: we have come and we have stolen their country. Why would they accept that?" -
That quote is from page 99 of The Jewish Paradox by Nahum Goldmann who was one of the founders of Zionism, was president of the World Zionist Organisation for 12 years, and had a personal relationship with Gurion.
This is true, but another way of thinking about violence and cruelty is in what Kahlil Gibran says, to paraphrase, that no-one can fall below the worst that is within you or rise above the best that is within you.
Just saw your comment, and thinking about it. I think the idea is not to make, say, wrong-doers 'the other'.
Maybe it's a combination of the situation we're in, and the timing of that. For instance, I heard someone who took part in the torture and murder of another cult member, describe his feelings after his prison sentence and deprogramming were in the past. Whereas his father who was the cult leader, was 'non-deprogrammable'.
I think Jonathan is referring to himself here, and what could happen to him and independent journalists like him in this western so called 'free' society. See the case of Ali Abunimah more recently, arrested in Switzerland recently. Thank god for solicitors
What is probably the most disturbing "feature" of the Zionist Genocide against the Palestinians is that the majority of Jews around the world continue to loudly support "Israel". Money continues to flow from Synagogues, the UJA, B'nai B'rith etc, all without question or attention. How is it that our Western governments who are ALL signatories to the Geneva Convention, UN, ICJ, ICC etc, say nothing, and do nothing in the very obvious face of complicity in a clear and present genocide by Israel against the Palestinians. It is astounding that Jews are not called out. After 9-11 it was demanded of Muslims that they denounce the attacks, when the vast majority of them gave no economic, political, or social support to the "perpetrators". How is it that we are allowing those that walk among us to support the wiping out of a people as though it were normal and expected? What have we become? Why are we, our governments and media allowing this? How can we continue to call ourselves civilized humans if this is allowed to continue unquestioned?
Far as I can understand, it's one of two things: bottomless virtue-signalling (ie sucking up to Israel) on account of "The Holocaust" (which I'm not denying; only that it has claimed unique status via the upper case 'H' as the one and only genocide of the last Century) and at the macro level, it's all about those who control the global banking system (the "Banksters"). Israel is a global protection racket.
"The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men."
Plato
Thanks again Jonathan for your tireless efforts and courage to expose and articulate so well the evil that is unfolding in today's so-called "free world".
You are right - but think it through: The monsters are not only among us, on average humans have such weak character that they are herd animals willing to follow the most evil herd-leaders - in other words, humans are (on average) "potential monsters" (keeping in mind the "banality of evil"). Of course, there are some of stronger character - who then either become the evil herd leaders (or try to but are only capable of being applauders/multipliers, evil has it's standards, too) - or don't and then have an uphill battle against the ever more perfect evil. If you are in the latter category, you can either resist and protest till they come for you - or lie low and hope you are not noticed - and wait for the arrival of a Jesus, Gandhi, MLK, Castro, Che who micht be able to lead a revolt - but even that invariably fails as these exceptional leaders are terminated and their movement collapses - to be absorbed into the herd again - and again.
Brilliant encapsulation of the harsh racist police state and oppressive regime we live in. Compare the coverage given to the Ukraine ear with the huge emphasis to the necessary cost given to arm the Ukrainians against the occupying aggressor Putin, and the sanctioning of the Russian State, and the succour given to th mass exodus of Ukrainians to the EU and UK, all whites, and the dismissal of the genocide and even suppression of a sincere film showing the plight of Gaza's children as supporting terrorism. This is evidence of a deranged and psychopathic governments and certain elements of society that inverts logic and turns international law upside down to support a settler colonial state asa bastion of imperialism. It must be resisted by those enlightened members of our society who uphold truth, justice and human rights.
Spot on, Jonathan. Those people are indeed all around us. Always have been:
“Monsters exist, but they are too few in number to be truly dangerous. More dangerous are the common men, the functionaries ready to believe and to act without asking questions.”
'Mocking the families of children shredded by US-supplied bombs;'
Fueled by emotions, once you genuinely believe that some people are subhuman and a grave threat, you can justify all types of brutality against them. At that point, we forego any sense of rationality and humanity ourselves.
People should avoid believing, let alone claiming, that they are not capable of committing an atrocity, even if relentlessly pushed. Contrary to what is claimed or felt by many of us, deep down there’s a potential monster in each of us that, under the just-right circumstances, can be unleashed — and maybe even more so when convinced that ‘God is on our side’.
Israel's government and IDF have deliberately used starvation, among other horrors, against Palestinian non-combatants that include countless children as a part of its ongoing campaign. There have been photos published by legacy news-media of foreign aid trucks with urgently needed food okay-ed by Israeli security yet still made to park idly for days. It’s not hard for a conscience to do when one considers another an innately lower lifeform.
It's sadly and shamefully true that while some peoples have been brutally victimized throughout history a disproportionately large number of times, the victims of one place and time can and sometimes do become the victimizers of another place and time.
Human beings can actually be seen and treated as though they are disposable and, by extension, their suffering and death are somehow less worthy of external concern, sometimes even by otherwise democratic and relatively civilized nations.
In other words, the worth of such life will be measured by its overabundance and/or the protracted conditions under which it suffers; and those people can eventually receive meagre column inches on the back page of the First World’s daily news. It’s an immoral consideration of ‘quality of life’. And it’s even easier for a conscience to do when one considers another an innately lower lifeform.
With each news report of the daily death toll from unrelenting bombardment, I feel a slightly greater desensitization and resignation. I’ve noticed this disturbing effect with basically all major protracted conflicts internationally since I began regularly consuming news products in 1987.
To your first paragraph: My sisters, my husband and my adult daughter had no problem with my being excluded from public places and even family events, for refusing the jab. I have therefore no faith whatsoever that they'd not just as easily have let me be rounded up for the concentration camp.
Thank you for sharing this Jonathan. People have to come together against this genocide. As a Brazilian in my 60s I have borne witness to an authoritarian military government committing atrocities against civilians as cited in Salles's film. Years of targeted assassinations left unpunished is preparing the stage for a military regime comeback. It is a tough everyday struggle to fight this.
As Brazil’s (previous) president, Jair Bolsonaro had recklessly allowed the rainforest to be razed by both meat farmers and wildfires. Incredibly, in the midst of yet another unprecedented wildfire during the summer of 2019, the evangelical-Christian president declared that his presidency — and, I presume, all of the formidable environmental damage he inflicts while in power — is somehow divine: “It is difficult to be president of Brazil because it is a president that has less authority. I am fulfilling a mission from God.”
[Strangely enough though not surprising, early on Nov.6 Donald Trump stated: “Many people have told me that God spared my life for a reason. And that reason was to save our country and to restore America to greatness.”]
There’s a belief held by much of conservative 'Christianity' that to defend the natural environment from the planet’s greatest polluters, notably the fossil fuel industry, is to go against God’s will and is therefore inherently evil.
The Cesspit ... a tank full of evil smelling, poisonous, shit and piss ... is now the geopolitical forum for international horrors and Satanic gloating. Genocide; War; Propaganda; Censorship; Population Control; Globalist Fascism; Nightmare upon Nightmare. Why or How did "Humanity" adopt these anti-human, monstrous expressions rather than the Peaceful Spiritual Vibrations of Jesus, Buddha and Bahulla? And now ... where can we hear the Blessed Peacemakers? In your Soul ... Brothers and Sisters ... In Your Soul.
Sadly, some of the best humanitarians I’ve met or heard about were/are atheists or agnostics who, quite ironically, would make better examples of many of Christ’s teachings than too many institutional Christians. Conversely, some of the worst human(e) beings I’ve met or heard about are the most devout believers/preachers of fundamental Biblical theology.
Too many adherents of institutional Christianity — those ‘Christians’ most resistant to Christ’s fundamental teachings of non-violence, compassion and non-wealth — tend to insist upon creating their creator’s nature in their own fallible and often angry, vengeful image. Perhaps most notably, they'll proclaim at publicized protests that ‘God hates’ such-and-such group of people.
It's plausible that many followers of such ‘Christianity’ find inconvenient, if not plainly annoying, trying to reconcile the conspicuous inconsistency in the fundamental nature of the New Testament’s Jesus with the wrathful, vengeful and even jealous nature of the Old Testament’s Creator. ....
As for Jesus, he was/is largely meant to show to people that there really was/is hope for the many — especially for young people living in today’s physical, mental and spiritual turmoil — seeing hopelessness in a fire-and-brimstone angry-God-condemnation creator requiring literal pain-filled penance/payment for sinful human behavior.
He fundamentally was about non-violence, genuine compassion, love and non-wealth. His teachings and practices epitomize so much of the primary component of socialism — do not hoard gratuitous wealth in the midst of poverty. He clearly would not tolerate the accumulation of tens of billions of dollars by individual people — especially while so many others go hungry and homeless.
I’m talking about the biblical Jesus, through his teachings and practices — not human-concocted pragmatism, politics or conservative/liberal goals. The same Jesus who would not roll his eyes and sigh: ‘Oh well, I’m against everything the politician stands for, but what can you do when you dislike even more what his political competition stands for?’
The truth is again found in the words of ex-Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion:
“If I were an Arab leader, I would never sign an agreement with Israel. It is normal; we have taken their country. It is true God promised it to us, but how could that interest them? Our God is not theirs. There has been Anti-Semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault? They see but one thing: we have come and we have stolen their country. Why would they accept that?" -
That quote is from page 99 of The Jewish Paradox by Nahum Goldmann who was one of the founders of Zionism, was president of the World Zionist Organisation for 12 years, and had a personal relationship with Gurion.
http://408.us.archive.org/32/items/goldmann-nahum-j.auth.-the-jewish-paradox-1978-2/Goldmann%2C
This is true, but another way of thinking about violence and cruelty is in what Kahlil Gibran says, to paraphrase, that no-one can fall below the worst that is within you or rise above the best that is within you.
Maybe, but how is this helpful? If we all have potential to be monsters or saints, then why aren't we those things?
Just saw your comment, and thinking about it. I think the idea is not to make, say, wrong-doers 'the other'.
Maybe it's a combination of the situation we're in, and the timing of that. For instance, I heard someone who took part in the torture and murder of another cult member, describe his feelings after his prison sentence and deprogramming were in the past. Whereas his father who was the cult leader, was 'non-deprogrammable'.
We're all vulnerable in different ways
I think Jonathan is referring to himself here, and what could happen to him and independent journalists like him in this western so called 'free' society. See the case of Ali Abunimah more recently, arrested in Switzerland recently. Thank god for solicitors
What is probably the most disturbing "feature" of the Zionist Genocide against the Palestinians is that the majority of Jews around the world continue to loudly support "Israel". Money continues to flow from Synagogues, the UJA, B'nai B'rith etc, all without question or attention. How is it that our Western governments who are ALL signatories to the Geneva Convention, UN, ICJ, ICC etc, say nothing, and do nothing in the very obvious face of complicity in a clear and present genocide by Israel against the Palestinians. It is astounding that Jews are not called out. After 9-11 it was demanded of Muslims that they denounce the attacks, when the vast majority of them gave no economic, political, or social support to the "perpetrators". How is it that we are allowing those that walk among us to support the wiping out of a people as though it were normal and expected? What have we become? Why are we, our governments and media allowing this? How can we continue to call ourselves civilized humans if this is allowed to continue unquestioned?
Far as I can understand, it's one of two things: bottomless virtue-signalling (ie sucking up to Israel) on account of "The Holocaust" (which I'm not denying; only that it has claimed unique status via the upper case 'H' as the one and only genocide of the last Century) and at the macro level, it's all about those who control the global banking system (the "Banksters"). Israel is a global protection racket.
"The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men."
Plato
Thanks again Jonathan for your tireless efforts and courage to expose and articulate so well the evil that is unfolding in today's so-called "free world".
You are right - but think it through: The monsters are not only among us, on average humans have such weak character that they are herd animals willing to follow the most evil herd-leaders - in other words, humans are (on average) "potential monsters" (keeping in mind the "banality of evil"). Of course, there are some of stronger character - who then either become the evil herd leaders (or try to but are only capable of being applauders/multipliers, evil has it's standards, too) - or don't and then have an uphill battle against the ever more perfect evil. If you are in the latter category, you can either resist and protest till they come for you - or lie low and hope you are not noticed - and wait for the arrival of a Jesus, Gandhi, MLK, Castro, Che who micht be able to lead a revolt - but even that invariably fails as these exceptional leaders are terminated and their movement collapses - to be absorbed into the herd again - and again.
Thank goodness for alternative media. I will never understand how so many remain believers of the MSM when the lies are so easy to see. But they do.
Brilliant encapsulation of the harsh racist police state and oppressive regime we live in. Compare the coverage given to the Ukraine ear with the huge emphasis to the necessary cost given to arm the Ukrainians against the occupying aggressor Putin, and the sanctioning of the Russian State, and the succour given to th mass exodus of Ukrainians to the EU and UK, all whites, and the dismissal of the genocide and even suppression of a sincere film showing the plight of Gaza's children as supporting terrorism. This is evidence of a deranged and psychopathic governments and certain elements of society that inverts logic and turns international law upside down to support a settler colonial state asa bastion of imperialism. It must be resisted by those enlightened members of our society who uphold truth, justice and human rights.
Spot on, Jonathan. Those people are indeed all around us. Always have been:
“Monsters exist, but they are too few in number to be truly dangerous. More dangerous are the common men, the functionaries ready to believe and to act without asking questions.”
― Primo Levi
Which was so aptly, and terrifyingly demonstrated via the Covid hoax.
'Mocking the families of children shredded by US-supplied bombs;'
Fueled by emotions, once you genuinely believe that some people are subhuman and a grave threat, you can justify all types of brutality against them. At that point, we forego any sense of rationality and humanity ourselves.
People should avoid believing, let alone claiming, that they are not capable of committing an atrocity, even if relentlessly pushed. Contrary to what is claimed or felt by many of us, deep down there’s a potential monster in each of us that, under the just-right circumstances, can be unleashed — and maybe even more so when convinced that ‘God is on our side’.
Israel's government and IDF have deliberately used starvation, among other horrors, against Palestinian non-combatants that include countless children as a part of its ongoing campaign. There have been photos published by legacy news-media of foreign aid trucks with urgently needed food okay-ed by Israeli security yet still made to park idly for days. It’s not hard for a conscience to do when one considers another an innately lower lifeform.
It's sadly and shamefully true that while some peoples have been brutally victimized throughout history a disproportionately large number of times, the victims of one place and time can and sometimes do become the victimizers of another place and time.
Human beings can actually be seen and treated as though they are disposable and, by extension, their suffering and death are somehow less worthy of external concern, sometimes even by otherwise democratic and relatively civilized nations.
In other words, the worth of such life will be measured by its overabundance and/or the protracted conditions under which it suffers; and those people can eventually receive meagre column inches on the back page of the First World’s daily news. It’s an immoral consideration of ‘quality of life’. And it’s even easier for a conscience to do when one considers another an innately lower lifeform.
With each news report of the daily death toll from unrelenting bombardment, I feel a slightly greater desensitization and resignation. I’ve noticed this disturbing effect with basically all major protracted conflicts internationally since I began regularly consuming news products in 1987.
To your first paragraph: My sisters, my husband and my adult daughter had no problem with my being excluded from public places and even family events, for refusing the jab. I have therefore no faith whatsoever that they'd not just as easily have let me be rounded up for the concentration camp.
This is very powerful, and very scary.
Thank you for sharing this Jonathan. People have to come together against this genocide. As a Brazilian in my 60s I have borne witness to an authoritarian military government committing atrocities against civilians as cited in Salles's film. Years of targeted assassinations left unpunished is preparing the stage for a military regime comeback. It is a tough everyday struggle to fight this.
As Brazil’s (previous) president, Jair Bolsonaro had recklessly allowed the rainforest to be razed by both meat farmers and wildfires. Incredibly, in the midst of yet another unprecedented wildfire during the summer of 2019, the evangelical-Christian president declared that his presidency — and, I presume, all of the formidable environmental damage he inflicts while in power — is somehow divine: “It is difficult to be president of Brazil because it is a president that has less authority. I am fulfilling a mission from God.”
[Strangely enough though not surprising, early on Nov.6 Donald Trump stated: “Many people have told me that God spared my life for a reason. And that reason was to save our country and to restore America to greatness.”]
There’s a belief held by much of conservative 'Christianity' that to defend the natural environment from the planet’s greatest polluters, notably the fossil fuel industry, is to go against God’s will and is therefore inherently evil.
Somehow these folks never fail to hurt and kill many regularly. It's thoroughly disgusting.
The Cesspit ... a tank full of evil smelling, poisonous, shit and piss ... is now the geopolitical forum for international horrors and Satanic gloating. Genocide; War; Propaganda; Censorship; Population Control; Globalist Fascism; Nightmare upon Nightmare. Why or How did "Humanity" adopt these anti-human, monstrous expressions rather than the Peaceful Spiritual Vibrations of Jesus, Buddha and Bahulla? And now ... where can we hear the Blessed Peacemakers? In your Soul ... Brothers and Sisters ... In Your Soul.
Sadly, some of the best humanitarians I’ve met or heard about were/are atheists or agnostics who, quite ironically, would make better examples of many of Christ’s teachings than too many institutional Christians. Conversely, some of the worst human(e) beings I’ve met or heard about are the most devout believers/preachers of fundamental Biblical theology.
Too many adherents of institutional Christianity — those ‘Christians’ most resistant to Christ’s fundamental teachings of non-violence, compassion and non-wealth — tend to insist upon creating their creator’s nature in their own fallible and often angry, vengeful image. Perhaps most notably, they'll proclaim at publicized protests that ‘God hates’ such-and-such group of people.
It's plausible that many followers of such ‘Christianity’ find inconvenient, if not plainly annoying, trying to reconcile the conspicuous inconsistency in the fundamental nature of the New Testament’s Jesus with the wrathful, vengeful and even jealous nature of the Old Testament’s Creator. ....
As for Jesus, he was/is largely meant to show to people that there really was/is hope for the many — especially for young people living in today’s physical, mental and spiritual turmoil — seeing hopelessness in a fire-and-brimstone angry-God-condemnation creator requiring literal pain-filled penance/payment for sinful human behavior.
He fundamentally was about non-violence, genuine compassion, love and non-wealth. His teachings and practices epitomize so much of the primary component of socialism — do not hoard gratuitous wealth in the midst of poverty. He clearly would not tolerate the accumulation of tens of billions of dollars by individual people — especially while so many others go hungry and homeless.
I’m talking about the biblical Jesus, through his teachings and practices — not human-concocted pragmatism, politics or conservative/liberal goals. The same Jesus who would not roll his eyes and sigh: ‘Oh well, I’m against everything the politician stands for, but what can you do when you dislike even more what his political competition stands for?’
I recently did an article comparing Israel with Nazi Germany. The similarities are a lot closer than many people might imagine https://shadowlightblog.substack.com/p/gaza-genocide-a-lesson-wilfully-ignored?r=2hhhto
Thank you Barry! The similarities are huge for those who want to see.
Very true :)
well written, and deeply saddening