| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"Doreen Dotan" |
| Date: |
20 Aug 2006 12:11:00 PM |
| Object: |
Israel Must Not Return to the Status Quo Ante Bellum |
Israel Must Not Return to the Status Quo Ante Bellum
Now, with the cessation of fire in Lebanon when we are no longer under
constant threat of death, we look around us and allow ourselves to
estimate the full extent of the devastation. We bury our dead. We
mourn. We clear away the rubble of what once were homes and other
structures. We assess the ecological loss of forestry that was set back
fifty years. We ask: "Why? We ask: "Did this have to be?" We ask: "Why
weren't the lives of our soldiers protected to the absolute maximum?"
We ask: "Did our government betray and attempt to befuddle us?" We ask:
"How could Hezbollah have been left to arm itself and train without
disturbance for six long years?" We ask: "Why didn't our leaders
obviate this war?" We know that something, many things really, were
blundered horrifically. Young men paid with their lives and the
integrity of their bodies and psyches. Families are devastated.
But the execrable prosecution of this war was not just a matter of
blundering. It is not just a matter of faulty intelligence. Our
government always disappoints us. They always fail us. They always
abuse use. We always pay for their luxurious lifestyles with the
quality of our lives, if not our lives themselves. During wartime the
faults of governments are highlighted because they are exaggerated. The
truth is, governments are always bodies characterized by the crudest
methods of intimidation and grossest excesses of mendacity. They are
always peopled by those who, were they wiser and better, would refuse
to be government officials for the shame of the debauchery, improbity
and moral squalor being part in a government necessarily entails. We
simply see this in greater relief clearly after a war, but we see
nothing that is not always apparent, just somewhat less so. It is only
after a war that we all become agreed that the failings of government
must be addressed.
The government of Israel will now be faced with questions, but they
will still not be faced with the questions that most urgently need to
be asked in the forms in which those questions really must be
formulated. They will be faced with questions that they are eminently
capable of fielding and they will answer on their terms. They will
answer the questions posed to them such that they retain their
political positions; such that the economic status quo in Israel, which
keeps a full one third of Israel's children below the poverty line,
remains intact; such that Israeli workers continue to be worked to
exhaustion and live in constant trepidation of losing their jobs, not
being able to pay their mortgages or the many payments they are
responsible for; such that Israel's children remain the victims of
violence in public schools, to which they are sent in order to be
systematically broken into docile, subservient citizens who run to
their death when the government calls them to wars that need not have
been fought, wars they do not know how to prosecute, wars that are
fought so that the filthy businesses of the super-wealthy who produce
armaments continue at a brisker pace.
In the wake of this war we are at a crossroads. We can change society
substantially. Israel must not return to the status quo. The Israeli
people, if we are not to continue to be used, abused and sent to our
deaths, if we are not to fool ourselves that any victory in war is
anything but a Pyrrhic victory, must mature and take steps closer to
the way in which mature, fully Human beings organize society - that
is, the way of Anarchy.
The term anarchy has been much maligned. Anarchy does not mean a lack
of order. Governments would have the public think that Anarchy is a
state of violent chaos. It is anything but.
Governments and big businesses would paint pictures of Anarchists as
those dedicated to the destruction of society. We are anything but. It
is our purpose to build society =E2=80=93 real society that is inhabitable
for fully realized, fully human beings.
Anarchy means simply the absence of government. It is a condition in
which there is no state =E2=80=93 the people rule themselves and society is=
a
dynamic kaleidoscope of purely voluntary social and economic
interactions based on the common advantage of all who choose to take
part in those interactions. So too in an Anarchistic society, one may
choose freely not to take part in any human interactions that are not
personally palatable, productive or otherwise satisfying or desirable.
Anarchy is a condition in which there is no private property. Everyone
owns all, but of course, it is recognized that each individual needs
certain private effects that may differ from the needs of others and
those are provided for in such a way that the genuine needs of the
person are fulfilled, while capital cannot be made of the effects nor
can power accrue from them. Unlike Marxist Communism, as it is has been
expressed so dreadfully, there is no central state that controls the
modes of production. That which differentiates Anarchy from Marxism
must be made clear. We are non-authoritarian and therefore do not
accept the existence of any kind of state. The expression "dictatorship
of the proletariat" is half honest. It is indeed a dictatorship, but in
no wise represents the interests of or is concerned with the welfare of
the proletariat. Moreover, we understand that people are more than just
workers. Work is absolutely essential, of course, but we must associate
in the fullness of our humanness in order to access, express and share
the deepest levels of our being.
In an Anarchic society there is no state that retains an army and a
police force that are illegally utilized to put people out of their
homes and force them to live in tents. There is no value of commodities
or labor. Anarchists understand that it is impossible to determine how
much any item is "worth" based on the hours or difficulty of work that
went into it per se. Therefore, our motto is: From each according to
his or her ability, to each according to his or her need.
Anarchy is a condition in which children are not sent to prison-like
schools, which are nothing but indoctrination facilities and holding
pens in which they are subjected to monotony, humiliation, competition,
violence and more =E2=80=93 all intended to break the child's spirit and ma=
ke
him or her malleable.
In a state of Anarchy children learn for the sake of the joy of
learning, as was the case in the system of education developed by
Francisco Ferrer. The best in children is creatively drawn from them.
They are not force-fed unsupported and unsupportable assumptions like
ducks and geese being force-fed with pneumatic pumps for pate gras.
Anarchy is not only simply in keeping with Judaism, it is a
particularly Jewish mode of living and interaction.
Before Israel took upon itself the government of a king we lived in a
state of Anarchy. There was no centralized government during the
periods of early prophets and the judges. Prophets lived communally
with their students who attributed honor and authority to their revered
and beloved Teachers solely on the basis of their loving-kindness and
wisdom. Wise and trusted elders, who were known personally by the
people who sought out their counsel, settled disputes. The Dead Sea
Sect lived likewise communally.
The accepting upon ourselves of kings in order to be "a people like
every other people" was a decision that proved to be a disaster =E2=80=93
even the best of Israel's kings stumbled under the weight of a
responsibility that no human being can bear. From this we learn that
more than their appointed leaders, those who appoint leaders over
themselves are reprehensible.
When we accepted kings upon ourselves we abrogated the right to
self-determination. We became subjects, that is, we became slaves.
To this day the Jewish people remain slaves. We are slaves to
government. We are slaves to public opinion, which is shaped by
professional propagandizers, who are in the employ governments and,
more particularly, international corporations, which retain governments
as their private body guards. We are slaves to our jobs, which rob us
of the lion's share of our production and force us to work brutally
long hours under extreme physical and psychic pressure in workplaces
that are always understaffed in order to "cut the cost of labor". (It
was calculated by Anarchist economist over one hundred years ago that
to attain a middle class standard of living for all, all that was
required was four or five hours of labor a day. All labor above and
beyond that was, and is, pocketed by employers.)
It is a precept that slaves are forbidden to perform some of the
precepts of Jewish law. We cannot so much as understand the
foregoing precept profoundly or correctly. We imagine that it applies
to others. We imagine that we have understood the circumstances being
described. We do not realize that it is we to whom it applies. We do
not realize that it relates to our circumstances. I have explained how
we, in fact, are slaves in so very many ways. We are, then, in fact,
exempt from the practice of many precepts. When we insist upon
practicing those precepts we do so without deep understanding and in
the way of slaves, that is, hurriedly, under pressure and without real
joy. We are, in fact, forbidden to practice many of the precepts that
we, in our present state of slavery, try to do and in so doing we make
a mockery and a travesty of Judaism, which is none other than Freedom.
When we learn Torah we cannot possibly understand what we have read and
carry out the commandments properly. Chained, shackled, mutilated,
crippled and truncated as we are; we cannot move our bodies to do the
precepts properly. Poisoned as we are by state propaganda as well as
toxic air, water and food; we cannot possibly see or cognate clearly.
Do you know anyone personally who has attained true and complete
emancipation of the Soul, body, mind and emotions as a result of
carrying out the precepts as they are performed today? No! And neither
will you find such a one. Of course we are told tales about perfectly
righteous people who possess this freedom. Do you know them? Do they
deign to come to your home and live amongst you? No! Why? Because they
are yet more phantasmagoria concocted to enslave you still further.
True Judaism is nothing but Freedom and slaves know nothing of freedom
and are not capable of living as free human beings.
It follows, if we are to practice Torah as we should, that our first
order of business is to ransom one another, to emancipate ourselves and
one another mutually. The only real precept that we can carry out in
our present reduced state of bondage is to set ourselves free, to throw
off the yoke of government, to unloose the chains and shackles that
keep us captive to promises of that will never come to realization, to
illusions and addictions, to become free moral and moral-spiritual
agents.
To build an Anarchistic society is holy work. In fact, it is the only
holy work that we are fitted to perform at this juncture. It is the
sine qua non of being able to be fully realized Jews. We cannot pray
more perfectly than to toil for the purpose of building such a society.
No self-sacrifice is greater than this.
Only when we live in a non-authoritarian society characterized by
propertylessness, when there will be no more rich and poor, when there
will be no more institutionalized injustice that we must submit
ourselves and our children to for fear of being prosecuted by state
law, when we will have more free time to learn, interact with one
another freely and reflect deeply - then and only then will we be able
to know what it is to be Jews and know what Judaism is. Until such time
the vast majority of our religious expression is frustrated impotency
at best, a cruel and pathetic parody in the middling case, at worst
manipulation and suppression of the very best in us by agents of the
government who reduce masses of people to spiritual servility by
heaping upon them meaningless acts to perform and distorted
"interpretations" which are devised to prevent us from taking truly
moral direct action to rebuild society.
How many are straddled with poverty because of this pseudo-religion?
How many children subsist on white bread devoid of nutrition and
unhealthy, artery-clogging margarine while their parents give the
expected "presents" to their Rabbis and take part in pilgrimages and
other "obligatory" religious practices, which seem to multiply
exponentially? Those who turn to religion lonely, confounded and
disillusioned by the cruelty of society find not a programme for
reconstruction of the society that has failed them, but rather, have
laws and customs heaped upon them until they are crippled and break.
On the following link you will find essays on Anarchy. Most are in
English. Only the essay entitled =D7=90=D7=A0=D7=A8=D7=9B=D7=99=D7=94 =D7=
=9E=D7=95=D7=91=D7=94=D7=A7=D7=AA is in
Hebrew, having been translated by my husband, Daniel Dotan, at my
request. The original English version of =D7=90=D7=A0=D7=A8=D7=9B=D7=99=D7=
=94 =D7=9E=D7=95=D7=91=D7=94=D7=A7=D7=AA,
under the rubric "Authentic Anarchy", is to be found on the site as
well.
http://www.geocities.com/dordot2001/Mystical_Anarchy.html
Unfortunately, very little about true Anarchy is familiar to Israelis
and, thus, there are practically no treatments of the subject in
Hebrew. For the time being; we will have to suffice with the writings
in other languages, principally English, and only those who can read
other languages will be able to access this school of thought and
programme of action we call Anarcho-Syndicalism. It is the hope of the
writer that others will be inspired to take it upon themselves to
translate Anarchistic essays, lectures and books into Hebrew.
Many of the greatest Anarchists were Jewish. It is not difficult to
understand why. Anarchy is an integral part of true Judaism. No true
Judaism is possible without it. Those Jews who have loved and love
freedom best are those Jews who not only were attracted to Anarchy, it
was they who best expressed the heart, soul and intent of true Judaism
=E2=80=93 emancipation of the human being for the sake of allowing each to
actualize his or her absolute optimum and interact fully with others.
It has been said that Anarchists are non-believers, that they are
atheists. This writer, it should be stated categorically, is not an
atheist, but a convinced Jew.
It is true that most Anarchists do not believe in an authoritarian God
who compels people to actions that are not in keeping with their will.
It is true that Anarchists do not accept the authority of
self-proclaimed religious leaders. It is true that Anarchists do not
accept religious institutions bleeding the masses of their money and
impoverishing them. It is true that Anarchists do not accept compulsory
education of precepts without rational analysis. It is true that
Anarchists reject any and all superstitions and the inculcating people
with fear. It is true that Anarchists abhor telling the poor, hungry,
cold, sick, lonely and miserable that a better life awaits them in the
World to Come when a better world could be made for them here.
Are they, then, anti-religionists? No! It is by virtue of the foregoing
rejections that they are the very truest of those who express Judaism.
Emma Goldman (1869-1940), one of the most prominent Anarchist activists
and lecturers of her time and who continues to be an inspiration to all
of us, once addressed a large conference of clergymen. She explained
her antireligious position. Upon finishing, a Rabbi who had heard her
lecture said: "In spite of all Miss Goldman has said against religion,
she is the most religious person I know." Anarchists walk the walk that
the pseudo-religions only talk the talk about. Anarchists live to
emancipate those who are enslaved =E2=80=93 and they take great personal
risks in so doing for governments and corporations do not easily
surrender their power. Anarchists are the prophets and students of
prophets of modern times and they pay all the prices for freedom that
prophets and students of prophets of yore paid.
Is the realization of a society based on justice, equality and oneness
not the discovery and expression of the God of Israel in creation? Is
it not God which propels us toward this ultimate freedom which needs be
and will?
I invite those of you who truly love freedom and are intrepid enough,
who love humankind enough, to bear the responsibility of building a
better world, here in this world, to enter the world of the Anarchists
and to join hands with us. Is this not the Israel that we envisioned
during our two thousand years long Diaspora?
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
August 2006
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