Truth and Power

Those who lack the latter could stand to hear a little more of the former.

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A family member of three of the hostages kidnapped by Hamas during the attack on October 7 holds up a photo of one of the hostages and holds her favorite doll during a press conference on October 17, 2023, in Tel Aviv, Israel. (Photo by Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images)

“We are writers and artists who have been to Palestine to participate in the Palestine Festival of Literature.” So begins an “An Open Letter from Participants in the Palestine Festival of Literature” published in the latest edition of The New York Review of Books.

It continues with the self-anointed self-seriousness that is normally reserved for critical theory syllabi controversies or faculty parking disputes: “We now call for the international community to commit to ending the catastrophe unfolding in Gaza and to finally pursuing a comprehensive and just political solution in Palestine.”

This made me wonder a few things. First, is there some The Poseur Radical’s Style Guide for Dummies out there that mandates such headline-topic sentence redundancy? 

Headline: “An Open Letter from the Members of the Lollipop Guild” 

Lead sentence: “We are members of the Lollipop Guild.”

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  1. Avatar photo
    Danyluk89

    Whenever I think Mr. Goldberg has outdone himself with a previous installment, he outdoes himself all over again. Outstanding work, my friend. Absolutely outstanding.

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  2. Avatar photo
    Ben Connelly

    “Indeed, I’ve long thought that one of the things that arouses so much irrational hatred of Jews is the way they have demonstrated, over and over again, that victimhood is not a permanent anchor, that oppression need not be an iron cage. To borrow the language of the people who think losing a job offer is “violence” but cutting off a Jew’s head is the dialectical unfolding of justice, the truth of Jewish success and perseverance does violence to the whole “speak truth to power” paradigm.”

    Powerful stuff. You should do another G-File just on the first sentence in that paragraph.

    I’ve long thought that the “oppressor vs. oppressed” axis and the culture of celebrating victims, were both sick at bedrock. This is where the logic leads. The good guys can’t be good unless they’re weak and if the bad guys are weak that gives them a moral get-out-of-jail-free-card to rape and behead babies. I think both are logical (granted, a twisted logic) extensions of egalitarianism.

    As you say, power is corrupting, but so is powerlessness. I’ve said before that wealth is corrupting but so is poverty.

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  3. BDM

    This is a damned fine piece of clear-headed writing. Kudos Mr. Goldberg.

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  4. Geoborn

    Yes Mr. Goldberg.

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  5. Wlbrockman

    AMEN, Brother Jonah!

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  6. Smgordon67

    Pitch perfect. Thanks Jonah.

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  7. Mikedialj

    This is a bracing piece, with several observations that are new to me. More ammunition to fight the nitwits who want to send yet another 100 million to Gaza.

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  8. Jrtownson

    Nailed it. Thank you sir. Please continue.

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  9. The.Cullens

    Sorry, missed my main point. They do not think like we do!

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  10. The.Cullens

    I do not know how to get this to those who need to hear this and i thought of you, sorry. At the the end of the first segment of latest Editors podcast from NR the question they posed was “ if you are Hamas are you pleased with how this is going( delay of invasion)”. They all then made beard stroking noises before answering. If you think Hamas thinks in those terms should you really be talking about it?
    Thanks

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