While reflecting on my prior blog lamenting the challenges of sustaining civility amid tumult and controversy, I came to appreciate my own partial captivity in realms of darkness. The negativities I tried to discuss are the shadow land of my blog experience, which is more essentially lived in the sunshine of new and renewed friendship, solidarity, mutuality, and the new emotional and spiritual resonances of our era, what I would call, in the absence of greater precision, the emergence of ‘digital love.’
What becomes possible, although there is no doubt that it produces its share of blood, sweat, and tears, are invisible communities of commitment to a better future for humanity, all of it. Such communities keep candles of hope flickering during an historical period of thickening darkness when even the will to species survival seems to be in doubt. Why else would the world choose to live with nuclear weapons? Why else would political leaders turn their backs on the alarming scientific consensus as to the growing hazards and harms associated with climate change? Why else would the 1% be allowed to indulge super-luxuries while more than a billion struggle daily with the ordeals of poverty?
It is in this spirit that I write from an aspiring identity as ‘citizen pilgrim,’ not content with the way the world is organized or the way rewards and punishments are distributed, seeking of a better world as a bequest to the future. It is not sufficient to be a ‘world citizen,’ which to be sure takes an step away from the privileging of identities of nation, race, religion, and gender, an implied acknowledgements of the primacy of ‘the global interest’ and ‘the human interest,’ but still tied either to present security structures built around territorial claims or tied to some project of political unification that succumbs to the seductively misleading promises of ‘world government.’
In contrast, the citizen pilgrim is more concerned with time than space, favoring the profound readjustments that would be needed if the human species is ever in the future to fulfill its spiritual potential as well as satisfy its material needs and take the sort of prudential steps necessary to stave off civilizational catastrophe.
It is a grand thing to be dedicated to such a vision of impossible possibilities, the sole foundation of hope in our time that is not built on illusion. Yet such grandiosity is irresponsible unless coupled with a willingness to take present suffering seriously. It is this ethical imperative of the immediate and existential that has led me to do what I can to challenge oppression and side with the weak, marginal, and most vulnerable in their struggles for emancipation, rights, and justice. While all of us are entrapped in the downward spiral of world order, many are denied the minimal decencies of life on earth, while others are allowed to flourish, either benevolently through their works and prayers, or dishonorably by stealth and by making the most of systemic corruption.
I have strayed from my original intention, which was to make amends for my lack of graciousness so evident in my tiresome complaints about the torments of blogging. I wanted mostly to thank all those whose warm words of encouragement and support have given me the confidence and stamina to persist during these two years, and more than confidence, feelings of gratification that in some small way enclaves of truth telling are being constructed in cyberspace while the rulers are sleeping, building sanctuaries for those of us who seek refuge from a corporatized media that plays with our minds to induce the wrong fears while stimulating our most destructive consumerist appetites. Without doubt it is this experience of digital love, new to this century, that is allowing the light to get through even on the darkest of days!
It is my belief that there are many flickering candles throughout the world that partake of the special energies of place, culture, and memory, expressive of an array of distinctive identities unconsciously conjoined by mainly unrealized and unappreciated affinities. I would like to believe that we are participants in the founding of a new world religion that dispenses with institutions, dogma, and metaphysics, affirming a semi-conscious network of spiritually resonant citizen pilgrims aroused to action by urgent end-time challenges. Perhaps, just perhaps, ‘hope against hope’ (Nadezhda Mandelstam) is not yet an outmoded indulgence!
Global Justice in the 21st Century 
Reading this made my heart extra full, and brought tears to my eyes. But, they are tears of gratitude for my own good fortune to have the benefit of such wisdom and mentorship, and to be able to continue it across this technological medium with your encouragement. Thank you, Richard Falk, for all of the help and preparation that we need for this journey. *Not* making the pilgrimage has never been an option, and so you’ve made it possible, with your excellent guidance. It provides so much for us to share and share again.
Lovely to see you again Carla. Its been a long time since Truthdig days.
your blogs sustain us. thank you.
Robert,
Your work is a light fo all of us who are appalled and horrified,
Yes, you are right about “digital love”;
I have a connection with some people that is very special and th work of people like you
help me keep, going.
Thank you very much,
Dear Richard,
thank you for sharing with us your pilgrimage and your wisdom you experienced and gained throughout your life ! Thank you – your last blog-entry made my heart filled with light and hope !
What I would like to say concerning some “trolls” or even not so aggressive and better-mannering worded postings like of Rabbi Youdovin or Fred Skolnic: I think – and I am surely not alone within the blogsphere of the Internet – that both and maybe others too in their eager desire to defend wrongdoings of Israels government – they don’t see what has been written by themselves or ignore what and how their written postings/entries will be understood by other readers of your blog while not taking into consideration that individuals reading your blog could have also some profound information gained.
In far too many cases they just show how for example a clergyman who defends wrongdoings while at the same time accusing the oppressed how they dare to defend themselves and in another example the possibilities of our times in technical means – for example complete geographical details showing and explaining without doubt where, when (at which time) and how long settlements took place (even not named as settlements) – are neglected.
I am sure I am not the only one to read these examples and see their faulty “lines” as they are laid out plainly.
I think some of these Israel-wrongdoing-defenders don’t do any good to Israel at all in their desire to defend it.
What they show, as example for both above cited, is clear: a clergyman cold-hearted in his religion captured by more fundamental thoughts and lacking therefore the wisdom which a clergyman should be able to spread (at least most people would expect it) and an individual not aware which possibilities in our technical/computerized/gps-monitored world is possible to get an information.
In other words: those defenders of Israel’s wrongdoings are doing more for Palestinians as they are aware of – at least they bring some of your readers to the point of wanting to know the truth (especially when it comes to history) and searching by themselves.
As the truth is spreading and spreading what was shown clearly in the UN voting for Palestinians makes some organizations nervous. That’s for sure.
Thank you for being there and A Happy New Year,
monalisa
Dear monalisa:
You are, have been, and always will be a source of inspiration (and calm guidance) for me! I wish you a beautiful and satisfying year in 2013 with the hope that a truer picture of the Palestinian ordeal is beginning to control the high ground of human awareness.
Richard
Richard,
A very moving, but unnecessary, apology for your previous post about blogging. But please, not a new world religion. Philosophy, perhaps, but spare us new religions, no matter how secular. Your allusion to Nadezhda Mandelstam is appropriate. Her “Hope Against Hope” will stand as the template for all future actions against the dark days that have befallen us. Your own work and writings since I have been following you lend some of that hope to me and, I am sure, the many others that have shown their affection for you in these comments. May your light keep shining.
Gene
P.S. My critique of religion is manifested in a wonderful recent book by Georges Minois, “The Atheist’s Bible; The Most Dangerous Book that Never Existed.”
http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/A/bo10947067.html
Gene: I understand that ‘world religion’ is a hot button issue, but my idea of religion is to rid spiritual belief and community of dogma and metaphysics, and to be potentially inclusive of all persons. In that sense it has more relevance than ‘atheism’ that implies a modernist conception of knowledge that is almost totally tied to the European experience of religious wars and the response in the form of the Enlightenment. I am grateful for your comment as it has made me think more about I am trying to express.
I will take a look at this book as soon as I can..
Richard, I just welcome your courage. Don’t be so hard on yourself.
Thanks, Artie, although I think I am too easy on myself as I live in comfort
in a system that is cruel to many, and yet manage to sleep well most nights.
Dear Professor Falk,
I read your blog regularly and with interest and share them with like minded friends. It supplies me with content that simply cannot be found in most news sources and certainly not from a source so close to the situation as your position in the UN places you.
I feel it would be a loss (likely only realized in anguished retrospect) if you stopped this blog. Many have had the privilege of hearing your teachings, many more in reading your publications. What a great thing it is to have regular commentary from a respected (at least in my world) intellectual such as yourself. What a terrible thing it would be to have lost this. Haven’t we had enough of oppression and book burnings?
Having met you on several occasions as well as having read your blog and some of your writings I have found you to be a kind and gentle person saddled with both an intellect and a sense of responsibility towards the aims of social justice. And you seem to fall into a pattern of behavior which has plagued many people, myself included. The desire to do good goes along with the trait of kindness. I have made and I believe will continue to make the error of being too kind in many situations. And for many (I certainly don’t include myself here) kindness is a weakness and tends to provoke attack. But like you I and many people I know refuse to or are unable to give up the trait of kindness. It is an essential part of one’s character.
Well this blog is your house and I say, “Throw the bums out.” You needn’t tolerate attacks that don’t result in productive discourse here.. With Mr. Skolnick i seriously doubt that you will ever be able to get beyond the point of “agree to disagree”. So having his and other purely argumentative commentary here serves little purpose.
Keep saying what you say frequently. I and many of my friends deeply appreciate your point of view and support rights for all human beings regardless of gender, ethnic or religious affiliation.
And finally I think it is essential as an American to exercise intelligent free speech while we still have it.
Long may you write,
Allan J. Cronin
Alameda, CA
Thanks so much for this encouragement. I will do my best to justify this display of confidence, and intend to avoid wasteful controversy in this comments section in the future by following the sort of advice that you
have offered. HNY for 2013.
Richard, of course the Jewish defamation machine has to destroy you. The last paragraph of your post captures the utter hopelessness of this moment, with the accurate characterization of these as end times, with the cataclysm yet to happen. You cannot be allowed to continue speaking because, couched in your measured prose is an utter, inarguable condemnation of what one group’s behavior has wrought. The greatest taboo that no one is allowed to utter is that the world is broken (again), and one group is laughing about it and flaunting their carelessness, as we enter our seven years of famine. As we lurch from fiscal crisis to mass unemployment, murder of children in their classrooms, to acts of suicide terrorism by young girls seeking to avenge their fathers’ and brothers’ honor, and through apparently endless wars over nothing more than their deep, deep yearning for a land of their own, this group continues to brazenly steal from the people they impoverished and humiliated, in whose houses they joyously dance and exalt in the great love their god has shown to them, and his obvious disdain for the animals they are still working to fully vanquish. This group is so indifferent to the coming global depression that they have made sure, by corrupt practices, that whatever happens to the US budget, no matter what military, educational, scientific, or health programs must be cut or zeroed out, their blackmail money is sacrosanct and will never be reduced or delivered a moment late.
Richard, your goose is cooked and so is mine. When I read your blog posting On Jewish Identity, it was over for me. My eyes were opened, and I became aware that the historical record has been tampered with, and we probably don’t really know what happened in the second world war. My guess is that we are going to start finding the answers to many mysteries about the past. For example, what happened to General Patton? What caused the embolism that ended his life? Was it because he was arguing for leniency for the Germans and working to expose the illegitimacy of the Nuremberg Trials? And what happened to Yasir Arafat, and to James Forrestal and to John Kennedy? Once you understand that there is a group of people who are so determined to destroy their enemies, that they will happily cause the world to burn just to make sure they have inflicted the greatest price tag on those their god has directed them to smite, once you go down this path, you begin to question every episode of mass horror that has this group at its center, and you begin to imagine Abe Foxmans and Bibi Netanyahus from every period, attempting to skew the world in their favor, only to ignite mass retribution to rain down on them. Remember, the Germans that perpetrated the holocaust are the parents of the utterly civilized and humane adults who now govern their country with aplomb and decency, generously bailing out their profligate neighbors to the South. And the Arabs in Palestine, until their unfortunate bad luck to inhabit a parcel of land that a certain deity decided was not really theirs, were always considered a dignified, spiritual, artistic, cultured and successful people. In On Jewish Identity, Richard explains that when Jews express their belief that they are a superior breed that is preferred by god, they imply that those around them are inferior, and this behavior ultimately leads to Hatfield vs. McCoy style arguments over nothing that last generations. Those readers not familiar with On Jewish Identity should go back and read it, because it explains what has happened and makes pretty clear what is about to happen. That kind of truth cannot be tolerated by the Elders who think they run (and own) the world, therefore he must be silenced. There is no end to it, and we have to understand that this is a battle to the death.
Sorry to have to spoil the mood of mutual respect and love; but those who insist on an upbeat appraisal of current events risk failing to act in time. Those of us who recognize the danger to our civilization posed by this group must speak out, and those that do not, those who recoil in horror from the ideas presented here, must realize that by your silence you allow the crimes to continue and you countenance their escalation.
I think Walker Percy has been spending a bit too much time reading “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” and hasn’t yet been told that it was a notorious forgery. It is as though he got his info from Hitler’s “Mein Kampf”: “When this book becomes the common heritage of all people, the Jewish peril can then be considered stamped out.”
I would recommend he have a look at Umberto Eco’s more recent “The Prague Cemetery”, and get himself up to date.
Anyhow, this blog is not about the Jewish people, rather about the “Jewish” state of Israel, and its oppression of the Palestinian people.
Gene, nice job parroting back all of the lies you have been fed. It is irrelevant that The Protocols is a forgery. That is typical Jewish misdirection. It is an uncannily accurate description of what is happening right now. Everyone should read people read that book and the other banned narratives by the great patriots henry ford and Charles lindbergh, whose reputations have been smeared by the same shaming machine that is now going after Falk. And I disagree that this blog is not about Jewish people. If you go back and read falk’s post On Jewish Identity I think you will be ready to retract that statement. As Atzmon explains, Israel is only the latest lethal expression of the world view that appears to be an outcome of Jewish religious practice and cultural indoctrination. Sorry if you are offended, but the world can no longer afford to protect your feelings by supressing obvious truths.
Hey, Walker, talking about parroting lies, you’ve really been brainwashed. I, too, have been offended by the way the Zionist lobby works, and often, jokingly, compare them to the Elders. But I don’t believe the Jews are preparing to take over the world. They’re just trying to make sure they’re not going to be forever persecuted. I believe the Zionists, who claim to speak for all Jews (they don’t!) are going about it the wrong way and, in the end, just might be their own worst enemy, and bring anti-Semitism back in favor. You are an example of it. On the other hand, I do think there is a ruling class (the famous 1%) who are trying to control the world, and a small part of that class, like every other class, is made up of Jews. But it is wrong to point your finger only at the Jews, forgetting all the others, non-Jews, including the contemporary Henry Ford and Charles Lindbergh-types among them. If people like Richard Falk and others upset them, all the better. But comparing him to the former is outrageous.
Don’t bother replying to this comment. I have no interest in reading any more of your racist arguments.
Gene,
Unfortunately, I cannot comply with your request to stop speaking. You do not control this narrative, although you use the usual methods to try to shame truth tellers into silence. But the world is beginning to understand just how toxic jewish religious practice and cultural indoctrination really is. It is precisely people like you know the truth but continue to hurl accusations of racism (as if Jewishness is a race!) who present the greatest danger. Atzmon describes people like you as anti Zionist Zionists, and he correctly identifies this group as the most dangerous of all, because you unwittingly provide cover for the criminals in Israel by defending them on religious grounds, as if netanyahu, Bennett and Lieberman are in the least bit religious. sorry to have tell you that you are unwittingly doing their bidding; but you wont be able to use your willful blindness an excuse for your actions when our world lays in ruins again, so soon after the last catastrophe caused by Jewish antagonism and plotting. And, please don’t bother responding, I would prefer if no one was allowed to read what you have to say.
Walker
My goodness, Walker, you do persist don’t you. I know perfectly well that “Jewishness” is not a race. Judaism is a religion. In my mind, and in the minds of ethnologists, there really aren’t any races. Humans all share the same genes, some of which are variably expressed. Racism is a generic term which describes hatred of the other. My use of “racist arguments” as applied to you merely was to describe your own hatred. You ascribe a trait willy-nilly to a whole class of people, those who practice Judaism, without differentiating cultural-political differences within that class. In other words, for you, all Jews are evil. If you were truly honest, you would know that criticism of Israel is not criticism of Judaism, religious or otherwise.
I now retire. The floor is all yours to spume your racist arguments.
Dr. Falk – Dr. Bernard Lewis and Dr. Shelomo Dov Goitein have said that the “Universal Religion” already exists.
“Islam is an act of G-d’s mercy,” says German-born US-Israeli Jewish historian Dr. Shelomo Dov Goitein (died 1985) in book ‘Jews and Arabs’.
http://rehmat1.com/2013/01/09/egypt-and-the-zionist-jews/
Curious. It has now been over three days since a comment has been posted on this blog. Can it be that mine is the last word on this subject? Or, perhaps the comment section has been jammed, awaiting a new blog by Richard. Anyhow, the Skolniks and Percys seem to be quiet. Maybe shocked into silence by the latest rant of their hero, Bennie Morris, in Haaretz a couple of day ago, proposing that Iran is planning a preemptive attack on Israel: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article33557.htm
Anyhow, I hope Richard is doing well.
Until now, I had regarded this blog as a vehicle for anti-Israel animus masquerading as objective political analysis. This latest post, “Seeing the Light” shows that I was wrong. Prof. Falk sees the blog as an incubator for a “new world religion,” one rooted in “digital love.”
Standing at the epicenter of this epiphany is Prof. Richard Falk, a self-described “citizen pilgrim” who is a hounded on his journey by villains like Hillel Neuer of UN Watch; blasphemed by CRIF; denounced by Ban Ki Moon, Susan Rice and David Cameron, weak leaders who succumb to pressure exerted by the International Jewish Conspiracy; betrayed by Judas-like false friends at Human Rights Watch; and suffering slings and arrows hurled by Fred Skolnik and others who post critical comments. As the professor tells it, the “torments of blogging” in the “realm of darkness” others call the blogosphere seems akin to what Isaiah’s Suffering Servant must have endured in his time.
This claim warrants examination (which will have no impact on disciples who accept its veracity on faith). To be sure, there have been defamatory screeds directed at him personally. These have been few and far between, and tend to be very brief, inane put-downs that are easily dismissed as the work of cranks, In fact, they elicit very little response and are soon forgotten.
What appears to most disturb Prof. Falk are longer comments that cite legitimate sources to take issue with his views. Right or wrong, these in no way fall into the category of “very nasty personal attacks.” He complains that they challenge his “integrity, balance, judgment, and overall demeanor.” This easy mixing of four disparate criteria is revealing. Too often, Prof. Falk misreads criticism of his balance and judgment, which assuredly is permissible in reasoned discussion and probably essential to it, as challenges to his integrity. Everything becomes intensely personal. Even while insisting that posters focus on the message not the messenger, he makes it impossible to do so. Personalization of the message is common in religious writ.
In point of fact, the overwhelming majority of abusive comments on this blog are posted by Prof. Falk’s supporters. More than a few of these are redolent with anti-Semitsm. They sit unmolested and unchallenged by the moderator, making the realm of darkness even darker, and undermining his stated commitment to “live in the sunshine of new and renewed friendship, solidarity, mutuality, and the new emotional and spiritual resonances of our era.”
Other contradictions abound. For example, it’s odd to hear a person who makes much of the prestigious volunteer position he holds at the United Nations denounce the “seductively misleading promises of ‘world government.”
There is much to be commended in Prof. Falk’s vision of a better future for humankind, and even in his championing of the Palestinians’ cause. But as he, himself, argues, making this pursuit a matter of religious doctrine entrusted to a self-appointed elite fosters an insularity that is blatantly, and tragically evident on this blog.
To end where I began. One can debate theories. But one cannot debate religious doctrine when with unquestioning intransiance. This makes any attempt at rational discussion on this blog a futile undertaking, from which I now take my leave.
Rabbi Ira Youdovin
Dear Rabbi Youdovin,
It’s hard to reconcile the statements you make here, such as, “There is much to be commended in Prof. Falk’s vision of a better future for humankind, and even in his championing of the Palestinians’ cause” with earlier comments on other blogs where you would expect a somewhat different readership. In your Jan 11, 2011 commentary on the web site of The Jewish Federation of Santa Barbara, you write in response to Richard’s “On Jewish Identify” post: “In a conflict fraught with extraordinary complexities, where right and wrong exists on both sides, Prof. Falk choose to play an utterly one-sided, prejudicial and destructive role…. he tars Judaism with the accusation that its doctrine “unconsciously and indirectly gives rise to the murderous mentality of warfare.” Rabbi, you should remember how easy it is on the Internet to double check one’s integrity and consistency. I don’t bring this up merely to discredit you and expose you as a partisan, disingenuous actor who will say anything. My larger point is that Judaism is a pyramid scheme of social shaming leading to great accumulation of wealth by those at the apex, but that this scheme can no longer function because the Internet is basically a truth-revealing machine. The world will no longer tolerate the efforts of prevaricators like yourself who seek to inflict the world with your “public relations” on behalf of your sect, now that we can see what is really going on. I am not claiming that you are at the top of the pyramid. No, you are just one of the Amway grunts toiling in the pews, but your brazen and public attempts to defame Falk are probably tied to your efforts prove that you will sell your soul to ingratiate yourself with the monied interests that sit several levels above you. Once we understand that this is [probably who you are, and once we apply this template to every other outrage perpetrated by Jews on the human race, things begin to make more sense.
While you close by saying you will no longer play a starring role in Falk’s peanut gallery, my guess is that we have not heard the last of you.
Walker Percy
This is terrific stuff, Prof. Falk. Hang it on your wall as reminder of who your audience is.
As ridiculous as Rabbi Youdovin’s charges against Richard Falk are, Walker Percy does us no favors by continuing to manifest his blatant anti-Semitism on this blog. I guess I was wrong by suggesting in my previous post that he might have been silenced. I apologize for stirring up the racist wasp nest that had been silent for the past three days.
Gene, unfortunately for you, you cannot silence me. If you somehow convince Falk to blacklist me, I will find another venue, with a different no me de guerre. please remember that Judaism is not a race, it is a voluntary creed, and objecting to its practices and beliefs cannot be accurately characterized as racism. I, for one am an anti-racist, and I will strongly object to any accusations that my anti Jewish feelings are inspired by racism.
Walker.
To Walker Percy:
With your last posting you are fuelling the same flames as Fred Skolnik and/or Ira Youdovin. There is basically no difference only that the direction is different.
The flames are already too high and burning on far too many places. Hate and wrongdoings, disrespecting human rights as well as neglecting the sovereignity of individual and independent states are the signs of our times.
Peace doesn’t need the same fuel.
To put whole groups of indigenous people, believers of a religion and/or political colors into one pot and just let it boil while stirring constantly isn’t the receipe for truth and peace.
This was and still is the receipe of disrespect which we are all witnessing in our present times directly and should be ashamed of as is degrades our human race.
monalisa
Mona Lisa, while I respect your wishes for maintaining a veneer of civility, I am not sure how to do that, and I refuse to be silenced, even by well-meaning interlocutors like yourself. This nonsense has been going on for too long, and it appears that only extreme truth telling by heroes like Mearshimer, Atzmon and Falk can help us now. The vehemence and harshness of my comments are intentional, meant to grab readers’ attention and rip them out of their complacency.Once you start reading the invective coming from the jpost crowd, it becomes impossible to retain the veneer of gentility that you seek. Remember, Judaism is not a race, it is a voluntary creed, and those who adopt it in light of what is now known about the crimes it has inspired are culpable for what happens next. In this moment in history, as humanity hangs above the abyss manufactured for us by the neo-conservatives and their jewish stock broker funders, it is tempting to hope that everything will turn out OK, but that appears to less and less likely. Those of us who see what is happening must do what is necessary to “repair the world,” a concept Jews ludicrously claim as one of their prime directives, as they direct the money they “earn” as stock brokers to funding the villains who work to undermine our brilliant president and humanists like Falk.
WalkerPercy
I can’t do anything about your anti-Semitism. You are what you are, i.e., ignorant. But “undermine our brilliant president”? Please spare me your stupidity. That Uncle Tom doesn’t deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence as Falk.
to Walker Percy:
Sorry, you lost sight …
to take such an extreme standpoint without being aware that the same standpoint had already cost millions’ deaths as well as it is now the cover to murder other some thousands of people is the same as the Israel Lobby is supporting.
Seems to me that you throw the baby out with the bath water.
No koudos for extremism: Peace can never be achieved with any war machinery under which cover whatsoever.
To silence extremism doesn’t need extremism of another sort.
monalisa
Mr. Falk,
You disgust me.
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