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This pretty much sums up the reality of IT all.
Once you start denoting people(s), for any reason, as "elites", then a situation is created whereby the "elites" believe that mundane human(e) things just no longer apply to them. They appear to be able to scapegoat themselves into believing that the number of "good works" they can do, now that they are "elite", outweighs the bad things they do, by their wrongly believing they are actually "elite".
There are always two sides. Every murderer has a side. Every priest who abused a child has a side. Slave holders have a side. Nazism had a side. For the purpose of this discussion, we could say there is the side of justice and the side of injustice. I choose the side of justice and I really don't care for the rationalizations of your side.
Racism is evil. Do you dispute that? If not, then you must accept that a racist ideology is also evil. And Zionism is a racist ideology. What makes Zionism racist is the denial of humanity, civil, social, and political rights of Palestinians that gave way to ethnic cleansing, dispossession, cultural genocide, imprisonment, policies of exclusion, brutality, and mass murder.
There is no such thing as a fair minded US administration. The US will pull the plug on Israel and the racist Zionist project just as soon as the last profitable barrel of oil has been extracted from beneath the feet of an oppressed and beaten Arab nation. Then the social and political elite will flee Israel for the comfort of Western states where their blood soaked money will still buy a nice dinner and the settlers will be abandoned to form the plot line to another epic story of biblical proportions.
ETA: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/a-massacre-of-arabs-...
FYI - the disgrace of Margaret Atwood. Seems the famous writer thinks the moon landing was a fake. And she could give a s*it about science. And so on.
Spartan Youth Radio interview with M Atwood
OTOH, if she really is a wing nut, then it shouldn't be a big surprise about her low level of socio-political understanding.
I heard -- and I'm NOT making this up -- that a few elections ago, she had both Liberal and Green Party signs on her lawn.
'Nuff said.
Snert - I don't agree with doing that but there's nothing wrong with it. Maybe Graeme supports the Greens and Margaret supports the Liberals.
I'm not so much rolling my eyes at the fact that there were two; that could be simple indecision. But look at the two! Chance couldn't have done worse. :)
Never before released moonlanding outake.
Nice, Cue.
You know, it's not a big deal for me that Atwood might have some weird views. Hell, some people might think me weird. Somehow, we expect more from such important and recognizable public figures. And i the case of sports "celebrities" /athletes then it's probably a mistake on our part.
If Atwood actually said something like, "I'm too dumb to figure this out. Sorry about that. It won't happen again," then I might actually give her a pass. It's the whiny bullshit, the insistence that she's got it all figured out, the conceit, etc. , that chaps my ass.
None of us are above society because we are all a part of, and come from, society. Even great artists.
Or even if she had just said: "I need the 1/2 million".
Well, yea. Admit it. And maybe donate what she can afford out of it to ...PalFest or the Palestinian Festival of Literature.
The PalFest has been going on while Atwood gets her award on the other side of the apartheid wall. Good thing she's Canadian and not Palestinian or she'd never have made it.
Here's some more from that Guardian piece ...
Boycott Those Who Refuse to Boycott:
http://endisraeliapartheid.blogspot.com/2010/05/boycott-those-who-refuse...
"The artists who refuse to honour the cultural boycott against apartheid in Israel need a wake-up call..."
BOYCOTT THOSE WHO REFUSE TO BOYCOTT
the other two would be equally bad - it's designed that way in this fixed game.
Electronic Intifadah: Artists thank Gil Scott-Heron for heeding boycott call
"Gil Scott-Heron's decision to cancel his concert in Tel Aviv is warmly welcomed by all of us here in Gaza and Palestinian civil society at large. This does not come as a surprise to us due to his luminous heritage in support of the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa. Once again, we wholeheartedly thank him for heeding our call for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel, until it complies with its obligations under international law and fully respects Palestinian rights."
...... a rebranding campaign using arts and culture to whitewash violations of international law and human rights.
OTOH, for Atwood we have ...
Atwood on the wrong side of history
I wonder what would be the literary consequence of a Peg Atwood sleep-over in Gaza. Would she write how the bleak landscape of a bombed-out refugee camp informs the character of its inhabitants? Would she call such a piece "Survival," or would that be too derivative?
And I think it goes without saying that if someone refuses to boycott those who refuse to boycott... well, you get the idea.
Was just thinking myself earlier this am, while pouring a coffee, that Atwood made a statement to the world at large that she choose them, and not the peoples of the world.
In doing so, she has made a step in fulfilling, or ensuring The Handmaiden's Tale comes to fruition.
And then I come here to see NBeltov redded it nicely, Atwood has come down on the wrong side of history, and indeed humanity.
Her self promoting pretentions have been exposed for what they are.
I doubt if little Bobby (Neighbourhood Bully) Zimmerman could be talked out of supporting Israel.
Margaret Atwood's Price
http://drdawgsblawg.blogspot.com/2010/05/margaret-atwoods-price.html
"So here's the challenge we should be now posing to Margaret Atwood. Use the money for good. Help Palestinian students get the books, paper, computers and other supplies that they need...
Use your influence to open some doors and windows in that vast prison known as Gaza.."
'the fly that sips treacle is lost in the sweets' - Beggars Opera
Not going to happen she probably had to sign a paper stating she would not do anything like that with the money....
You know what is really sickening about this, is that "progressives" who are co-opted by the Zionists, really are being paid to affirm to the Zionists that they were correct all along....
It seems lost on both the corruptor and the corruptee who ignores for self gratification the full implications of their actions.
Zionists purchase the glitter that covers their actions aka, Cohen, Atwood et al, thus allowing them to continue,while those they have purchased, get bigger bank accounts, and the award ego gratification telling them they are "someone".
The truth that their actions are nasty, destroying actions, is beyond them.
ETA:
Then again perhaps not, perhaps people like Atwood are only pretending to be activists, to further the Zionist agenda from the get go....
I hope that Atwood has been stung by this. A great artist, discovering a truth belatedly, can accomplish great things.
C'mon, girl. You were great once. Be great again.
There was a dream that was Canada.
Tomorrow's Nakba Day.
I won't go through with it, but I'm inclined to dig out my copy of The Journals of Susanna Moodie and burn it in the parking lot in front of Chapters.
I'll join ya. I think the nearest Chapter to me is in Nanaimo or Victoria, however. Somebody should give this Canadian literary icon a slap.
Before it's too late.
Chapters in Nanaimo is out by Woodgrove.
Me thinks she lost her "icon" status.
As Maggie was getting her prize and big fat cheque in Tel Aviv..
Israel's Red Line: Shin Bet Arrests Leader of Boycott Movement
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=19166
"the detention of Amir Makhoul and Omar Sayid is seen differently - as the gathering storm clouds in a political climate already fiercely hostile to its Palestinian citizens.."
Shame, shame, again and again upon her
I've actually been in that place....before the boycott, of course.
Well, if we're doing confessions, i admit to being paid by Chapters for an artistic/literary activity in one of their stores. Also, BB. However, I didn't like them already. I felt vaguely sluttish - like writing for the National Post or something - even though I badly needed the money and the self-esteeem that came from getting paid to do what I loved.
To paraphrase Marx, one big box store kills many smaller stores. And, in the case of bookstores, the stores being "killed" were just the sort of stores that friends of mine worked at, where interesting artistic and social events took place, and so on. In Winnipeg there was Mary Scorer Books, Heaven and Art Book Cafe, ...
We used to have a Mary Scorer in Saskatoon. There's a big bookstore here called McNally Robinson that snuffed out the little guys.
OK, I'll fess up too. I entered a Chapters in Regina a couple of years ago. Mme. Qa'bong was looking for some special book for one of the Bongettes that we couldn't find in Saskatoon. Chapters hadn't opened here yet. I ended up buying a history of Hamas and a collection of writings and speeches of Hezbollah bigshot (and maybe a distant cousin of mine) Hassan Nasrallah. I figured if I was going to buy anything in Chapters, these two books would be OK.
McNally Robinson declared bankruptcy late last year. They were a small(ish) Canadian chain.
And I forgive you, N.Beltov.
Reports of McNally Robinson's demise are greatly exaggerated. The store is still open here.
Never been in a Chapters, ever, and cannot imagine a scenario where I would be so induced.
Having a hard time with the reality that our local library gets its books from them. And I am wondering if BC libraries all have a contract with them.
maysie you are apparently much more tolerant than I, as I am not so forgiving of Beltov's sexism, contained in his "vaguely sluttish" analogy.
His having not been a "slut" means he never would know what it feels like in the first place, and secondly, what he felt was guilt at being materialistic over what he believed his moral code was....they met his personal price and he found it was lower than what he tought, the added ego gratification was all that was needed, it seems.
To liken that to what a "slut" may, or may not, feel is unacceptable.
He needs no forgiveness, from outside himself, for his own lack of moral integrity, based upon his own measure. It is his measure afterall.