Yesterday afternoon, after wrapping up our vacation with a couple of pleasant hours in the Elliot Bay Book Company, Sheryl, Madeleine and I started back to our hotel to pick up our bags and head home to LA. We were with our friend and my Pajamas colleague Gerard. He proposed we take a cab; he would drop us by the hotel before continuing to his home.
We found one quickly. It was driven by an African guy. We had to instruct him about the location of our hotel; it was new. In the course of this I asked him where he was from. Kenya, he said. But then quickly added he was Somali. Many Somalians live in Kenya.
Ah, Somalia. Immediately the three adults in the car perked up. We acknowledged we knew there was big trouble in that country, the attack from Ethiopia on the ICU, etc. To our surprise, our driver immediately launched into a vitriolic attack on Al Qaeda. They were evil violent men, hijacking Islam across the globe. He had details of their infiltration of Somalia from a phone call he had made the previous night, how they were using Saudi money, etc. Thousands of people were being murdered by these Wahhabis for no reason. He was obviously following the situation closely. Al Qaeda was a danger to all mankind, he said.
It was a refreshing to hear this view from a Moslem taxi driver in Seattle. He was obviously pleased that we recognized the travails of his people too. So he continued with his explication of what was behind this terrible situation – how the Moslem religion could have been taken over by these violent forces. Someone was behind the rise of this Saudi Wahhabism . The answer, he said, was Israel. It was all an Israeli plot. They were behind the Wahhabis.
Suddenly our hearts sank. How could a man who seemed so reasonable, so knowledgeable, say something so obviously crazy?
Just then we were at our hotel. Sheryl and I left the cab, stunned. I phoned Gerard from the airport. What had the man said on the way to his place? Gerard – wisely – had let him continue. There was no point in fighting with a man like that. Better to learn how his mind worked. Gerard simply inquired why the Israelis would want to back Al Qaeda when Al Qaeda was sworn to destroy Israel. The man replied by talking about his childhood, his Islamic education. He had learned about the Jews from the Koran. That was the truth, of course.
Taxi driving in Seattle. So it goes.
Now … what does this imply about people in this country? Say, the ones who believe that Bush presented a plastic fake turkey at that dinner in Bagdad.
Of course every thing bad is the Jew’s fault, including the bad things happened to the Jews. The Jews must be the most sadistic, masochistic people on earth.
I’m sorry, Roger.
I’m lucky enough to have a father-in-law that is Jewish. He is a dear, dear man!
How tragically sad. I can’t add anything else.
Galloping along the road to understanding, then *WHAM* unhorsed by the low-hanging tree branch.
More likely he learned it from Immam clerics, accepting their collective gospel, underpinned by their collective authority, to be the equivalent of knowledge.
John Locke had something to say about that, in his pedantic, convoluted way, when he answered his critics who disputed his claim that there are no innate principles. Though his exact point was made in reference to that specific issue, the main gist analogizes beautifilly with the plight of the ignorant taxi driver. Here is the excerpt from his “An Essay Concerning Human Understanding”, Chapter iv, number 23, to quote:
I’m not sure if Ayn Rand ever studied Locke, but this sentiment could have been the bedrock of her philosophy.
Getting back to that taxi driver, it is unfathomable how one could believe that a book written in the first millenium actually calls out Israel as the motive behind Al Qaeda.
I would have loved to ask him that question to get his response.
Yup. I have had a few broadly similar conversations over the years in various places around the world. It is like a visit to another planet.
Fact is, the mendacity now being promulgated by Jimmy Carter reflects a decidedly more willful and obdurate quality than is reflected in this cabbie.
Carter vs cabbie, Carter is almost infinitely worse. The cabbie doesn’t ply his hate as Christianity.
What about Ward Churchill? Is the cabbie any loopier than him?
When the cabdriver blamed it all on the Jews what he was doing had nothing to do with thought. He was simply regurgitating what he had taken in with mother’s milk. That’s why his belief can’t be argued out of him, only beaten out of him. But that’s a reality too primitive for our elites to face. First there’ll have to be a catastrophe here or in Israel. Only then, after immense unnecesarry suffering, will our elites, who should be serious now, get serious.
It’s a little late to say so, but, had the victors realized just how nazified elements of Arabian Islam had become, the mideast should’ve been de-nazified just as thoroughly as was central Europe, after the Berlin regime fell.
Why is this man in the USA? Perhaps we have Americans refusing to drive cabs in Seattle, but a Somali? from 10,000 miles away? Thanks be to our good ol’ Dept of State for letting this p.o.s. and thousands like him legally enter the country. Good grief.
Everyone should take a look at the documentary Obsession. (The documentary was also the subject of an hour long spot on Fox News.)
Buddy L. calls it “nazified”. These people are taught from their earliest days that the personification of evil is found in the Jews. This instruction comes from clerics and runs all the way through to cartoons.
What amazes me is the way most Muslims seem to not question or reality test any of this. It is axiomatic. Godzilla, the intellectual curiosity of Locke appears to be missing from the masses.
This thread started with Joe Liberman. That leads to my next question. Why, in general, do American Jews vote for Democrats who pursue policies that jeopardize Israel? (My Jewish friends for the most part hate Bush, like John Kerry and Jimmy Carter. Those two have or would sell out the Jews in a heartbeat to push their appeasment strategies.)
I would have thought that American Jews would be the most conservative voting block in the country. It sometimes seems that Israel gets more support from Christians in the US that Jews in the US.
“I would have thought that American Jews would be the most conservative voting block in the country. It sometimes seems that Israel gets more support from Christians in the US that Jews in the US.”
Barrett, I’m not Jewish, but I’ve worked for and with Jews practically all my life. In my observation, most Jews do strongly support Israel, privately, through donations and personal support. I am constantly surprised at how deeply many Jews will dig for Israel, and how strong the personal ties are. No, I think most Jews strongly support Israel.
What Jews don’t support is conservatives, despite the fact that we also support Israel. I think that this is principally due to the fact that until the Reagan Revolution, most flavors of conservativism were more or less anti-Semitic. I’m sorry to have to say it, but it’s true. William F. Buckley’s National Review was the first mainstream conservative publication to explicitly eschew anti-Semitism; but to this day, some ‘conservative’ spokesmen – I’m looking at you, Pat Buchanan – still flirt with anti-Semitism.
Most Jews also distrust fervent Christians, again because in the not-so-distant past, fervent Christianity often was anti-Semitic. For example, I am a practicing Catholic who’s in his mid-50s, and I can remember many expressions of overt anti-Semitism from my childhood and youth, both from clergy and laypeople – assertions of the sort that recently landed Mel Gibson in hot water. And it wouldn’t surprise me to learn that the same was true in many Protestant communities as well. Jews heard what was being said as well as I did, and they remember. Wouldn’t you?
Jews have long memories; they haven’t survived so many millenia as a people by giving their trust easily. Long, bitter experience has taught them to trust themselves first, and everyone else warily. It’s an attitude that’s entirely understandable, given how the world has treated the Jews over the last 3,000 years or so.
Speaking for myself, I have personal and professional reasons to be thankful to Chicago’s Jewish community. I will never forget their generosity to my family when we were in need.
“It’s a little late to say so, but, had the victors realized just how nazified elements of Arabian Islam had become, the mideast should’ve been de-nazified just as thoroughly as was central Europe, after the Berlin regime fell.”
Well, I suppose that if the Middle East had been under US control and not British and French, that might have come to pass.
As we see German Nazi influence among the Baathists in Iraq, Egypt and Palestine during the 30s became ingrained to the detriment of post war policy.
Then again post war British and French policy was not to constrain Amin al-Husseini, aide and abettor to Hitler.
Brown Line,
I am younger and did not have the same experience. My parents and I have always had close friendships and business relationships with Jewish people. In that respect, this has always been “normal”.
I too have current close personal and professional relationships with people who happen to be Jewish. I could call on one friend, in particular, who would help me any way he could if I needed it.
While I understand that the American Jewish community supports Israel financially, many vote in ways that are inconsistent with that support. I hope that conservatives in the vein of William F. Buckley are representative of the future.
Why is this man in the USA?
That is the question. And the answer is that we don’t want to know anything about the intensity and the craziness of his beliefs. We are too afraid to look.
Can we add a question to the entry/citizenship tests that asks whether or not the person taking the test thinks that Israel (1) brought down the WTC, (2) is lying about the Holocaust, or (3) is running the government of the United States?
And then if they answer “yes” to any of those, they can be summarily denied entry into the United States on the grounds of being too dumb to breath, plus which they’ll make lousy Americans.
Minority voting-patterns make it pretty clear that the default image of the GOP is still Rockefeller/Mayflower/WASP/exclusionary, and not rolled-up sleeves small businessman and small-state Constitutionalist individualists, as we all want it to be.
I wonder how minorities can be so blind to their own interests, and then I realize that I’ve never joined the party either (tho I support it in vote & contribution), and for the same reason–not wanting to be a part of the phrase “joined the Party”.
The two parties seem cognitively different. “Republican” is a choice, a position, an attitude, but “Democrat” is an emotion–it means you’re ‘for’ justice and ‘against’ oppression.
The fact that any hard-boiled policy analysis of the two parties will 180-degree belie the identification, is almost meaningless against the emotion.
Well, as Terrye has observed, is he any goofier than a home-grown Ward Churchill? That is a tough one to answer. Possibly not. But the question before us is this – should we invite people in to live in our country if they hold these sorts of beliefs?
The only reason we don’t have a George Galloway in this country is because we don’t have a critical mass of voters who share the values of Roger’s taxi driver.
Brown Line,
That is an *excellent* description of the influences and mindset of most American Jews. I doubt if many of my fellow Jews could sum it up so succinctly.
One small correcton – Pat Buchanan does not “flirt” with antisemitism, he has been in bed having perverted sex with it for decades. On the other hand, his stature in the Republican party is fortunately vastly less than it used to be.
This, however, is a somewhat recent development. I’m a typical American Jew, to the liberal manner born, but my politics were beginning to drift rightward as long ago as the early ’90s. However, at that time two of the most prominent figures in the Republican party were Jim fuck-the-Jews Baker and Pat gas-the-Jews Buchanan so I kept voting Democratic a little longer (maybe too long). As you say, Jews have been around for millenia and have long memories so it’s taking a long time to let go of the traditional liberalism. Jimmy Carter is certainly helping the process along, though (I had some first-hand experience of this just a couuple days ago at a family reunion I attended over the holidays).
An additional comment – I want to second Brown Line’s citation of Bill Buckley in reducing right-wing antisemitism in America. Buckley recognized that after the Holocaust traditional right-wing antisemitism would be poisonous to the conservative cause and has worked tirelessly to eradicate it. While there are still Buchanans lurking on the fringes, Buckly has been remarkably successful in this effort, for which both conservatives and Jews should be thankful.
Why is this man in the USA?
I think it’s wonderful. Having men like this in the United States is what makes this a great country. It gives us new viewpoints we could never have even imagined if he weren’t hhysically here. Truth is once again stranger than fiction. Heaven and Earth once again contains more than our philosophy. Why was Roger shocked? Because deep down, after all that has been said and done these last years, after all that Roger himself has written on “How they Hate Us”, he doesn’t really believe in his heart in such insanity. Having a man like this right in Seattle has enlightened both Roger and all the rest of us. A bargain at twice the price. We need more, not fewer, men like this in our country. If every other taxi driver in LA and Manhattan held such beliefs, the establishment view of the Muslim conflict would change for the saner overnight.
Do we really want to live in a country where everyone possesses the exact same beliefs in lock-step, like one vast Cambridge, MA? Everyman a Chomsky? Nauseating. And it works the other way too: this man’s being here will give him and his children and his contacts back home new viewpoints which they obviously would never have learned in isolation.
WichitaBoy:
A bargain at twice the price. We need more, not fewer, men like this in our country. If every other taxi driver in LA and Manhattan held such beliefs, the establishment view of the Muslim conflict would change for the saner overnight.
Or perhaps the establishment view would just become more spineless and accommodating, as it has in Britain. Like I said above, there is a reason why we don’t have George Galloways in the US Congress – an insufficiency of Roger’s taxi drivers. Better we learn about him here at Roger’s place than having the same conversation every time one of us gets a cab. By then it would be too late.
WB, right that we win the moral victory, by the tolerance demonstrated, and the pathology exposed. But “moral victory” is so termed because it’s not the same as the other kind of victory, that of the thing breathing down your neck.
Buddy,
I’m not after the high moral ground alone. Far from it. I meant what I said. Better to be innoculated today than contract the full disease tomorrow. Open debate is the best innoculation. Let’s see the enemy for what he is.
If millions of such people were coming in, overwhelming the natives, “colonizing” the place the way PeterUK has it, then I would have a different opinion. Perhaps Skook is right and “every other cabdriver” would lead only to utter spinelessness.
WichitaBoy:
Your prescription would work only if all the people affected reacted in the same way – and if they all agreed on the superiority of what you and I would call Western values. But if they or their elites don’t admire those values, or if they have spent their lives in opposition to those values, then it is all downhill.
Thought experiment. Could ultra-PC Seattle, if left alone as an island, passively become as Islamicized as, say, Malmo, Sweden in the face of massive immigration? Possibly.
WB, right–it’s a numbers game. I was thinking of France, where obviously under 10% did little to mithridate the French, who are now learning that some sort of tipping point happens around 10%. By the time they realized they were in trouble at all, they were already in deep trouble indeed.
Certainly it is a numbers game as the Dutch official admitted some time back – if 2/3rd of the people in Holland want sharia law, then the democratic thing to do is to give them sharia law. But it also can be abetted by the collapse of the elites in advance of the demographic tipping point being reached, if the elites despise the values the rest of us live by. That only exacerbates the process.
Well, to indulge a bit of academic absurdity, can a democracy vote itself out of existence? That’s what happened in 1933 Germany, and electing Sharia–unless Sharia changes, ha!–means, forget about voting it out of office, ever.
Democracy’s second derivative is changing government. In Iran, a candidate-approval process is run by the mullahs–the mullahs say who you can freely elect or not. Some democracy.
Wonder why the Dutch would accept the door clanging shut on any future say in their future governance?
“Wonder why the Dutch would accept the door clanging shut on any future say in their future governance?”
‘Cause they’re tired of living and have a death wish?
The cold grey light of the nether lands