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April 13, 2007
That old, familiar lie
Editorial
Comics are not just about taking the jalopy to Pop Tate's soda
shop with Jughead and Veronica anymore. The emergence of comics
and cartoons as a serious artform is not new. In the 1970s, Art
Spiegelman invented the characters and storyline that would inform
Maus one of the most accessible and affecting portrayals
of the Holocaust experience for younger readers. The cartoon artform
has been used increasingly to impart serious messages and, especially
in Asia, but growing here too, is a genre called anime, in
which often very adult stories are told using the traditionally
juvenile medium of cartoons.
Such an example came to wide attention Tuesday when National
Post columnist Jonathan Kay reviewed a 12-volume South Korean
series called Meon Nara, Yiwoot Nara (Distant Countries
and Neighboring Countries).
Among other things, the cartoon declares: "The final obstacle
[on the path to success] is always the fortress of the Jews";
"The American financial world is completely dominated by the
Jews"; and "American public debate belongs to the Jews.
It's no exaggeration to say that [the U.S. media] is the voice of
the Jews."
It would be nice to dismiss this series as meaningless and without
impact. But it has sold 10 million copies.
It is always interesting to note that anti-Semitism succeeds most
wildly in places where there are no (or almost no) actual Jews,
whose presence and humanity might actually contest the stereotypes
and hatred aimed at us. From South Korea to the Arab world, the
depiction of Jews in traditional medieval manners goes unchecked,
even as the number of actual Jews living in these societies is negligible.
It is, obviously, far easier to paint someone with lies if the truth
is nowhere to be seen. Still, even closer to home, where genuine,
real-life Jews do exist, it is not impossible to convince the gullible
of ancient aspersions.
The Vancouver-based magazine Adbusters has picked up where
it left off several issues ago. Obsessed with the relationship between
Israel and American foreign policy, Adbusters editor Kalle
Lasn wrote an article in 2004 titled "Why won't anyone say
they are Jewish?" In it, Lasn asterisks the leading foreign
policy advisors to U.S. President George W. Bush and asks the farcical
question "Why won't these people say they're Jewish?"
The joke, if it can be considered funny, is that the list is made
up of individuals with names like Abrams, Perle, Peretz, Cohen,
Kaplan and Goldberg. The idea that people with names like these
are somehow closeted Jews defies reason. What do you want, a yellow
star?
Now, in this month's issue, Adbusters takes up the pitchfork
again, running a piece by Kathleen and Bill Christison, who ask
"Does the Israeli tail wag the American dog?" (Adbusters
is big on rhetorical questions. The obvious answer, if you don't
get to pick up this month's issue, is "Of course.")
Zionists, they write, have gained "undue influence over U.S.
Middle East policy." The subjective term "undue"
presumably meaning any.
The problem with this line of inquiry is that it does two things
that "progressive" people should not do. It assumes that
one's worldview is born of blood and not intellect, and it relies
on the ancient theme of Jewish control.
A worthy measuring stick to determine the existence of racial preconceptions
is the "Shamrock Summit" rule of thumb. When Ronald Reagan
and Brian Mulroney met in Quebec City and sang "When Irish
Eyes are Smiling," one could have looked at this scene of two
descendants of the potato famine and declared the world (or, at
least, North America) as under the control of the Irish. This is
ludicrous, of course, because Mulroney and Reagan, for whatever
else they had in common, were not Irish extremists bent on global
domination. This, of course, is precisely the charge upon which
articles like those in Adbusters are founded.
In a free society, it is legal and appropriate to contest the motives,
as well as the views, of one's opponents. But when treading on ice
as thin as this when racial bias is so dangerously tangled
with political theory there is an added burden to ensure
that one's positions are intellectual and critical, not founded
and sustained by prejudice. The reason the Shamrock Summit did not
bring out conspiracy theorists insisting that the Irish are on the
march and control Washington and Ottawa is that there is no such
traditional racial preconception.
If, in response to this argument, you contend that the Jews are
bent on controlling the world, then we have our answer.
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