Charlie Rose

ShalomFreedman  01/09/2012 01:48 PM Report

Umberto Eco one of the most world's most foremost intellectual figures is to be commended for writing a work whose heart is in its condemnation of Anti- Semitism.

On the other hand the obsessive crank who hides behind the anonymous moniker ReMant once again reveals here his ugly anti- Semitism.

REMant  01/09/2012 11:36 AM Report

Every narrative is a morality tale. And hoaxes too. We've seen a manifold increase in these dramatizations of historical events which can only be intended to skew the understanding of them. It's a good reason for not reading a lot of books, watching TV or going to the movies. The reason they do it is the same as why newspapers allege conspiracies and boost heroes, because to put it in Perry Mason's terms, eyewitness evidence seems more substantial than circumstantial evidence, when it never is. It is always biased. Mr Eco should know a little about his subject since he has perpetrated a few himself, and it made perfect sense to me to couple him with Mr Rifkin.

In any case, there've been no shortage hoaxes in the world, going back as far as records allow. No doubt much of the Old Testament and Homer apply. There was Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite and various spurious gospels, too. The Bavaraian Illuminati, Ossian, Piltdown Man, Bruno Hat, and PT Barnum's various creations. Mussolini's and Hitler's diaries have been purported found. Then, of course, it has a long history in the spy business, for instance WWII's "The Man Who Never Was" aka Operation Mincemeat, and Cold War Penkovsky Papers. A good deal less meritorious, however: Gustav Siegfried Eins, The Tanaka Memorial, the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, various Vietnam-Era FBI efforts, and "yellow cake from Africa." There had been disputatious European writing about America and its indigenous flora and fauna from the time of Columbus, as well, all of it just as fanciful as this work is purported to be.

But the issue of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is not whether it is a fabrication, but whether it rings true. Experience is not prejudice, and I think Henry Ford had a pretty good idea of the statement he was making by distributing it. At the time many socialists admired the Soviets as much as others the fascists for the same reason, because they believed moneylenders had invaded the temple causing the world war and the Depression. The Spanish Inquisition was not to fond of Jews either, and has found itself similarly blasted. There have been many other such works about the Jews. But if you don't want to look at it this way, at the present time we have a lot of evangelicals calling Muslims Islamo-fascists, and Zionists declaiming the end of civilization, Mom and apple pie or Queen and country. Is it not in the same category?

If there's any reason to make an argument, it would seem, at least to me, but justice to be above board about it.