Tag: Asia

Optimistic

It would appear that Spengler, for one, has been listening to the Learned Elders of Wye. His article makes it appear as if the precious golden geese who have healed America with prosperity are in the early stages of preparing to take flight once more. David Goldman has what strikes me as a remarkably optimistic article on how much the Chinese like and admire the Jews because they have so much in common.

There is no greater compliment to any culture than to be admired by Chinese, who with some justification regard their civilization as the
world’s most ancient and, in the long run, most successful. The high
regard that the Chinese have for Jews should be a source of pride to the
latter. In fact, it is very pleasant indeed for a Jew to spend time in
China. The sad history of Jew-hatred has left scars on every European
nation, but it is entirely absent in the world’s largest country. On the
contrary, to the extent that Chinese people know something of the Jews,
their response to us is instinctively sympathetic.

“I am always surprised by the expressions of affection that the
Chinese show for the Jews. Both cultures, the Chinese emphasize, share
respect for family, learning and, yes, money,” wrote the journalist
Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore last year. ‘”Most Chinese will think Jews are
smart, clever or good at making money, and that they have achieved a
great deal,’ Professor Xu Xin, director of the Institute of Jewish
Studies at Nanjing University (one of over half a dozen centers in China
dedicated to studying Judaism) told me last week,” she wrote. “This
logic — that the Jews are admired for their success despite their small
numbers and historical oppression — has also led to a burgeoning
industry of self-help books that use Jewish culture and the Talmud to
preach business tips.”

Family, learning, respect for tradition, business acumen: these are
Jewish traits that the Chinese also consider to be their virtues. All
this is true as far as it goes. One might also mention that China never
has had reason to view the Jews as competitors for legitimacy.

Christianity began as a Jewish sect and has vacillated between the
claim that is has superseded Judaism and the view that it is a daughter
religion that should honor its parent. Islam claims that Jews and
Christians falsified the revelations given to them and that their
scriptures are a perversion of God’s true message, which Mohammed
restored to its original integrity. But by no stretch of the imagination
could China view the Jews as a threat to the legitimacy of its
civilization.

The Chinese, in short, have no reasons to dislike or fear the Jews,
and a number of reasons to admire them simply because Jews display
traits that Chinese admire among themselves.

Now, it’s possible that Goldman is correct. I’m an East Asian Studies major, I’m not Chinese. Perhaps the Chinese will welcome the Jewish people with more or less open arms the way the American people did following the large-scale Jewish retreat from the European continent. On the other hand, there is also the possibility that the Chinese will look at the historical track record of the Jewish people, see what they have done to the United States of America during the post-WWII period, and view them as a parasitical threat.

Perhaps Goldman doesn’t view the financial rape of the USA or the fact that China is sitting on $1.304 trillion in U.S. Treasury bonds that could be rendered worthless overnight as a reason for the Chinese to dislike or fear the Jews, but I am a little less sanguine on the prospect. I also think Goldman underestimates the ruthlessness of the Chinese in matters tribal and nepotistic.

The survival strategy that worked so well in the Middle Ages, where the Jews would be expelled from a country, then quietly return until they were banished once more, doesn’t seem likely to work quite as well in an age of global communication. Hitler’s complaints about the Jews sounded entirely mad to Americans. They sound mad, and manufactured, even today. But in the event of the sort of economic catastrophe and political breakdown that so concerns the Elders of Wye, I tend to suspect the Chinese will take the accusations of President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert
Camacho a little more seriously.

Especially considering that the Chinese would like nothing better than to see a US political breakdown that would free them to claim the regional supremacy and world leadership they believe to be their civilizational birthright. I agree with Goldman that China does not view the Jews as a threat to the legitimacy of its
civilization; my understanding is that the Chinese already view them as a rival.

Protocols of the Learned Elders of Wye

I thought this 2006 article on Haaretz by Shmuel Rosner
concerning a conference discussing the survival of the Jewish people was intriguing, both for what it suggested in terms of what the future holds in store for America as well as what it implied about the Jewish perception of the transience of their relationship with America:

Two groups of Jews gathered together last weekend
at Wye Plantation, Maryland for a long discussion on the situation of
the Jewish people. The first group, which met Wednesday and Thursday,
consisted of the heads of 15 Jewish organizations such as the
Presidents’ Conference, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee
(AIPAC), the Anti-Defamation League, the Union of Orthodox Jewish
Congregations, the American Jewish Committee and others. In the second
group were the “thinkers,” as the organizers termed them: Natan
Sharansky from Israel, Charles Krauthammer from The Washington Post,
former Canadian justice minister Irwin Cotler, former Jewish Agency head
Sallai Meridor and many others….

The fear expressed that “a real decline of the West,
particularly the United States, would have dramatic consequences for the
Jewish people,” also led to controversy. Brandeis University president
Jehuda Reinharz agreed that this type of decline can be expected “in the
coming two decades” – but Stuart Eisenstadt was less emphatic about it.
He believes the United States will remain the leading power. In all
events, it was agreed the Jews “should strengthen cultural links with
non-Western civilizations, particularly China and also India,” powers
that are on the ascent. This is not a question of preference or
closeness; it is a question of survival, of readiness for the future.

I am very curious to know if there was any recognition that the observed decline of the West has any connection to a number of the policies that these organizations have supported for the last 50+ years? I also wonder why the targeted non-Western civilizations which are supposedly on the ascent, (raising some real questions about the participating economists given the ongoing Chinese meltdown), would be interested in stronger cultural links given the questionable consequences of those cultural links on the United States. The Indians might be amenable, but Chinese history suggests that the Han wouldn’t even blink before taking actions that would make Hitler look like a Righteous Gentile.

As an East Asian Studies major who is neither philo- nor antisemitic, I suggest the Elders of Wye might want to seriously rethink the potential of China as a safe landing place. Japan and Korea, too, are likely out.

The article tends to leave one with the unfortunate impression of rats congregating in order to contemplate the right time to leave a sinking ship. Or, to use a less ominous metaphor, magical golden geese who graciously convey manifold benefits and blessings on those with the courtesy to accept them discussing the right time to stop laying eggs and fly away before being greedily dissected. But regardless of whether one considers those discussing the timing of their exit as rats or golden geese. the mere fact that they are discussing the imminent sinking of the ship should be of no small concern to those who happen to be aboard it.

And before any philosemites feel led to cry holocaust, try to keep in mind that I didn’t forge the freaking article. If there is some non-pejorative way to view these discussions by a group of people actively making ready for an incipient American decline, by all means, feel free to share your interpretation. Regardless, it would be hard to deny that the conference participants do not see themselves as being a part of the American people.

The end of anti-racism

I’m not sure what is funnier, Day Above Ground’s song Asian Girlz or the hysterical reaction of the Huffington Post and all right-thinking anti-raciss individuals to it:

Today in horrible people doing horrible things: Day Above Ground released a song called “Asian Girlz,” and it’s about as bad way worse than you could possibly imagine. Judging by the reactions, “Asian Girlz” is either the most racist thing ever or just the most racist thing you’ll see all day.

Here’s what happens in the music video: The band is trapped in a bird cage while an Asian model strips out of a prim outfit to reveal lingerie and tattoos, while said band sings about things like fried rice and “buttf–king all night.” As Buzzfeed noted, the fourth verse is actually just a list of Asian stereotypes. While this is happening, every member of the band goes on a date with an Asian girl, nights chronicled in Polaroid snapshots. THEN, the model in question picks up the bird cage and takes it (and the band) to the bathroom where she — of course — draws a bubble bath and lets the miniature non-musicians out for a dive into the water….

Not only is there plenty of racist stuff to get one’s blood boiling, there’s also this actual lyric: “17 or 23, it doesn’t matter to me!”

Speaking as an East Asian Studies major, an Official Person of Color with an Asian grandfather, and a Japanese scientist, all I have to say is that the song is hilarious.  Especially the little pseudo-Chinese keyboard riff.  As for the stereotypes, they exist for a reason. 

It is observable that whites in general, and young white males in particular, are increasingly over the idea that racism is the worse of all possible evils.  And now that diversity is a central tenet of the establishment, it should come as no surprise that the young and rebellious fail to regard it as the holy of holies.

“Men have gone berserk”

Who could have possibly seen the likelihood of young men going berserk in a society where sex ratios are increasingly out of whack?

Ranjana Kumari of the Centre for Social Research think tank said there had been 127 rape cases registered in Delhi alone since the fatal December assault on the student.

“It is absolutely shocking and speaks volumes on how Indian society is treating women. The men have gone totally berserk. We’re feeling frustrated and in despair. What must we do to change their mentality? Women are becoming more vulnerable,” she said.

Women were being attacked even when they were with their husbands or male friends – and foreigners, previously regarded as less at risk, are also being targeted…. This latest gang rape is one of dozens reported in the Indian press since the December rape and murder shocked the nation and plunged it into a period of national soul searching.

It came just days after the Indian cabinet supported a new law to impose tougher sentences for rape and sexual assault, including the death penalty for cases where the victim dies or is left in a persistent vegetative state. 

Note that the problem in India is actually getting considerably worse despite the advance of sexual equality in Indian society that the feminists believe will solve everything.  As we’ve learned to expect, feminism wreaks societal devastation even in the process of supposedly offering a means of improvement.  In this case, it is the pro-abortion position that is leading to more rapes in India.

“According to the decennial Indian census, the sex ratio in the 0-6 age group in India went from 104.0 males per 100 females in 1981, to 105.8 in 1991, to 107.8 in 2001, to 109.4 in 2011. The ratio is significantly higher in certain states such as Punjab and Haryana (126.1 and 122.0, as of 2001).”

Anyone with more than half a brain has been expecting serious problems out of China and India since Western technology gave them abortion and the means of prenatal sex identification.  The world is quite fortunate that India’s excess male population appears to be inclined to occupy itself in pursuit of gang rape, considering that the more customary outlet is foreign invasion.

Of course, John Scalzi doesn’t rape due to sex ratios, John Scalzi rapes women, because, as he explains: “I will tell you one of the details about why I do it: I like to control women and, also and independently, I like to remind them how little control they have.”