by proldic » Thu Aug 18, 2005 9:49 am
R, thanks for the clarification on the word "aryan". So much for sloppy words of convenience. <br><br>I agree with you that the relationship has been complex, and is not easily reduced to stereotypes. <br><br>I tend to disagree w/ you on the other points.<br><br>Hyperbole? ???? Your study of history has led you to some VERY different conclusions than mine. What is "facile nonsense" is the idea that the role of jews in western & eastern were NOT very similar in many ways to India's lower-caste untouchables. <br><br>"Being a pawnbroker isn't the same thing as being a dung collector." <br><br>True. Being a pawnbroker or a tax collector would engender extreme resentment against jews among their neighbors, and deflect attention from the exploitation of the real ruling class. Which is the role that jews are playing in context w/ the current discussions on this board.<br><br>"The Jews weren't the "proles" of Europe. They couldn't be. There weren't enough of them. They were a separate society reliant mostly on mercantilism and trade."<br><br>That is not true at all. The jews of western & eastern europe were among the poorest of poor, partially-assimilated into the working-class masses, and a very significant and radical part of Europe's revolutionary class-struggle dynamic. AND they provided much of the dirtiest and most humiliating labor in that society for hundreds of years. <br><br>They WERE essentially a slave caste, literally "living" at the whim of their neighbors, forced into menial labor, paid less than their non-Jewish equals, restricted in acheiving higher occupation and education, and subject to triple taxation, especially by the Church, who regularly seized their meager assests, forever preventing them from ever acheiving advancement over their neighbors.<br><br>It perpetuates a dangerous stereotype to say that most of the Jews were "...a separate society reliant mostly on mercantilism and trade." <br><br>The VAST MAJORITY of the jews in western & eastern Europe were poor as hell, sweatshop laborers, factory workers, and employed in marginalized trades like street sweeping, rag collecting, and dung collecting.<br><br>When they did try to move up the ladder, so to speak, that's when they were prohibited from doing anything but pawns, tax collecting, etc. <br><br>Although there was a segment of more "orthodox" religious jews who exacerbated their isolation from the masses with dress and practice, and were encouraged to take certain positions in trade and commerce, they were only a (highly visible) minority. <br><br>"rich Jew - poor jew" <br><br>Although the general assimilation of Jews into european society began long before the end of the war, I think it's quite valid to point out that the Bolshevik revolution (which included jews galore) completely halted the cycles of pogroms, and the end of the 2nd war brought about a general recognition of the depopulation of Europe's jewry and the reality of anti-semitism in general , AND of course freedom to the tens of thousands of slave-laborers.<br><br>"And it's certainly no secret that the Rothschild banking dynasty rose to prominence with the full approval and participation of the Dukes and Princes of the German states..."<br><br>Ahh, the Rothschilds. The good ole' Birchite boogeyman. You are dating youself, eh old-timer? You MUST know how that's been the oldest trick in the anti-semite's bag. The name and Jewish heritage of the Rothschilds have been given excessive prominence at center stage since at least the 50's in "conspiracy circles" as right-wing shorthand for jewish power, and as fuel for the "Jews were powerful, not persecuted" "meme". <br><br>The only reason the Rothschilds, Disraelis, etc. were allowed to rise to the positions they did was due to the fact that they whole-heartedly rejected the political radicalism of the average jewish "bolshevik", and fully participated in planning their persecution. <br><br>There are a few very wealthy and prominent black families who hold power and feed into the elite structures here in America. I would hope 100 years from now that isn't used to imply that the vast majority of blacks had acheived anything close to liberation, or parity with whites. <br><br> <p></p><i></i>