Antisemitism is the death drive
The suicidal madness of the Axis of Antisemitism, the sadism inherent in atrocity stories, and the poverty of "Poor Things"
My latest column at JNS deals with the suicidal man who recently set himself on fire outside the Israeli embassy in Washington, DC and what his suicide says about the Axis of Antisemitism. I assert that, in all its facets, the Axis has effectively become a manifestation of what Sigmund Freud called the “death drive”: The urge present in all living creatures toward senescence, which when combined with equally powerful sexual impulses, is expressed in a compulsive drive toward destruction and death.
In effect, the Axis of Antisemitism as both an ideology and a social movement represents the death drive in its purest form. It has gone beyond antisemitism and become, for all intents and purposes, nothing but the death drive. The death it seeks is the death of both itself and others. Hamas chose others, the immolator chose himself. It is a distinction without a difference.
There are strong indications, outlined in the column, that this will manifest itself in further acts of both suicide and murder, and the relevant authorities ought to be ready to stop it.
You can see this phenomenon fairly clearly in the reaction to the recent riot in Gaza, in which many Palestinians were killed while attacking an aid truck. Now, it’s far too soon to draw any conclusions about what actually happened. Hamas is a notorious liar and has an obvious interest in trying to make the incident look as deadly as it can. At the same time, Israel likely has insufficient information at the moment to make a definitive statement on the event.
Of course, this hasn’t stopped the usual suspects from romanticizing the incident into a glorious act of suicidal resistance and proof of Israel’s inherent evil. This isn’t shocking. The Axis of Antisemitism knows that demonization goes a long way when you’re advocating genocide, which—let us not forget—is precisely what the Axis is doing.
I think the most likely scenario is fairly obvious: The mob wanted to get to the aid before Hamas stole it and, at the same time, to rip the IDF soldiers present to shreds. The soldiers then defended themselves, but my guess is that Israel is right that most of those killed died as a result of the stampede. Nonetheless, all of this is tentative at best. It’s far too early to know anything for certain.
Nonetheless, while inevitable, expected, and even cliched, the reaction to the incident is deeply disturbing. Those denouncing Israel are quite obviously writhing in near-sexual ecstasy at the spectacle of death. Nor can they conceal their joy that they now have an opportunity to make Israel look as bad as possible. The element of sadism is unmistakable.
In addition, they clearly believe the incident will give them the media ammunition they need to finally force the Biden administration to order Israel to halt its military operations, thus saving Hamas—which is, of course, their goal. Even better, it allows them to play the part of the weeping terrorist, performing their self-accorded moral superiority by shedding crocodile tears before the world.
It’s a rather ugly spectacle, all in all, but hardly shocking. Death is what the Axis wants and death is what it does. The problem is that it wants to take the rest of us down with it. We ought to have long and short answers to that.
I finally saw the much-acclaimed new film Poor Things and had a rather ambivalent reaction. It certainly had an air of originality about it, but the visual eccentricities felt somewhat overwrought and, while Emma Stone’s performance was certainly striking, it was fairly obvious Oscar bait.
Perhaps more disappointing was that the film was, in the end, a fairly bland fable of female empowerment. There’s no intrinsic problem with a fable of female empowerment, but one does have something of an obligation to make it interesting. Poor Things, unfortunately, was remarkably by the numbers: An unusual young girl has a sexual awakening and embarks on an exploration of it with various inferior men. She then returns home and takes up with the nice guy she left behind for want of excitement.
These are all standard cliches, but what is truly disappointing is that the film need not have been a standard cliche. I haven’t read the book upon which the picture is based, but from what I understand, it’s far more complex and ambivalent than the adaptation. Poor Things, in other words, was dumbed down in order to make a rather dull political statement. I found this particularly unfortunate because the film is at least an attempt to make a picture of substance rather than another soulless superhero cash grab. If this is all we get when Hollywood actually tries, then American cinema is certainly in a bad way at the moment.
All that being said, it was at least refreshing to see an American film that dealt frankly and explicitly with sex. The American tendency to linger over scenes of violence with almost pornographic fascination while regarding sexual content verboten has always struck me as deeply unhealthy. Poor Things manages to upend this particular neurosis with some aplomb. This, at least, bodes well for American cinema’s future.
You are right they cannot conceal their joy and ecstasy at making Israel look as bad as possible
Anti-semitism is baked into Islam, but is the anti-semitism I see in my rich, white Toronto students have any suicidal leanings? I think it's more TikTok and the slow death of critical thinking. Oppressor / oppressed is just really, really neat and tidy and easy.
Here's my essay on anti-semitism
https://open.substack.com/pub/paulfinlayson/p/hunting-the-headwaters-of-anti-semitism?r=iy2ds&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true and on the slow squeezing of free speech via speech codes
And deep cultural change in Canada. Scary.
https://www.freedomtoffend.com/p/if-we-value-freedom-of-speech-we?lli=1