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"Happiness" ..., Attitude of Allies to Holocaust ..., Re: Can we do better? (Venus Project) ..., "Warsaw, Past and Present" ..., Hebrew -- second official language in Poland? ..., Can we do better? ...
A few times in Vagabond you’ve quoted Aristotle’s definition that happiness is the goal of existence. On the other hand, Guy deMaupassant wrote, “le bonheur n’est pas gai.” (Happiness is not fun.) In one issue you also quote a visitor’s letter wishing you “tortuous joy.” So, “happiness” is perhaps not a sufficient expression of the goal of existence. -- have we become more subtle than the Ancient Greeks? C. Kramer
Dear William,
Your comments came as a surprise to me because I never made a connection between the Nazi Holocaust and the Allies inaction, not initiating destruction of railways and other ways towards extermination camps, gas chambers, crematoria, etc. I always despised anti-Semites for taking the too-easy path of liquidating the Jews. It was like an attack against defenceless children.
All the best,
J. Craine
I think it was Heinlein who condemned weakness as inviting the stronger to use their power. I wrote to a friend: In my opinion the Jews took the wrong pathway in the Diaspora by throwing themselves on the mercy of other nations which had made their own place in the world. Now the Jews show their power only in Israel. In the rest of the world, even in the USA, the Jews have no real power, only powerful friends -- which is not the same. Before Nazism, the Jews had real potential power in Europe and in the world which they totally neglected. As I wrote in my article "How many Jews did Hitler Kill?” (quoting from memory): "...the Jews disappeared (in the Holocaust) because they didn't have weapons." They didn't have weapons because they did nothing to get them. WM
Michael Adamski, author of the films here introduced: "Warsaw - Past and Present" shared with me his opinion about "The Venus Project". As his email was in Polish I've translated the relevant part:
As for the film “The Venus Project / Paradise or Oblivion”, unfortunately I'm rather pessimistic about the success of a non-monetary civilisation. It is another utopia similar to the Karl Marx experiment that ended so badly. Man’s instincts have sources from the hunter, a bloody fighter who murders to impose his wealth and power at others’ expense. That will be not easy to change.
With the approaching 68th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising, Michael Adamski sends his two films on the subject.
http://youtu.be/RlHcmWz5CG8
http://youtu.be/ExZvYo5wWqY
Three million Jews will return to Poland and the Hebrew language will become the second official language in our country? This, at least, is the postulate that opens Jewish Renaissance Movement in Poland during the first congress of this organization in Berlin - as reported by Polish information servis tvp.info. This movement is born in the frame of activities of the Israeli artist Yael Bartana.
William Markiewicz's comment:
I don't like the topic, but somebody sent it anonymously and surely expects a comment. I believe it's a Jungian maxim that we cannot live without dirtying our hands. A strange choice for the Congress: Berlin? Why not Auschwitz? There’s a saying that journalism is a shameful activity because it’s in the service of politics, and politics is a w … Whatever it is, it cannot be ignored. In the "communique" above, the provocateurs, idiots or opportunists, show a macabre sense of humor: "Three millions Jews" have to return to Poland? So, the resurrected have to return from the ashes and with bodies and spirits return to Poland. And Hebrew as an official language in Poland? The Jews who leave Israel also leave Hebrew. A propos Hebrew, it reminds me of an old joke:
President Bush covered Bagdad with banners.
What was on them?
I don't know – it was all in Hebrew
I just heard a rumour that the whole story is a joke; if it is, it's tasteless. Some jokes may leave deep wounds.
Courtenay Barnett comments:
We live in a world with:
- resource wars
- the US quest for global hegmonic domination
- other nations carving out spheres of influence for dominance
- massive areas of poverty
and I could go on - but can humanity do better? See:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=KphWsnhZ4Ag
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William Markiewicz