Fantagraphics has released a series of graphic commentaries and reflections by Joe Sacco, author of "Palestine" and "Footnotes in Gaza," called "The War on Gaza." With the permission of Fantagrapahics and Joe Sacco, we are reprinting them on my Substack.
Arrest Netanyahu for genocide and crimes against humanity!
On Friday, September 27 at 10:00 AM Benjamin Netanyahu is slated to come to New York City and speak to the United Nations. Don't let this war criminal, carrying out a genocide against the Palestinian people, walk the streets of New York City without facing massive protests.
Joy - there will be no arresting of Netanyahu in the US. He will not even be criticized and certainly no protests will be permitted either. If protests do occur, they will be swiftly shut down to protect everything genocide. So, get on board Joy - support the killing of Palestinians, bombing of hospitals, murdering of journalists, health care workers, doctors, food delivery workers and vehicles so the Zionists can complete their project. When you accept all of this you will be rewarded with more friends who will show you how to be numb, quiet and supportive of the cleansing of Palestinians from their land. Remember, the US and Israel are the good guise and we should just go along with it and be quiet too. Come November remember to vote for more of the same - vote D or R, it hardly matters because nothing will change, and wars of aggression will continue.
"So, get on board Joy" Not a chance. I"m voting for Dr. Jill Stein, again. I will never stop doing whatever I can think of to help bring justice to the Palestinian people. I don't know how long you have been on this side of the struggle, but, me, 65 years and counting. Too old to change! But thanks.
I'm 70 years young and hope to always be open to the changes / challenges ahead of me. You are 100% on the right track regarding Netanyahu coming to NYC - my comments were not meant to disagree but to exaggerate my disgust. Will vote Stein if she's on the New Mexico ballot. Have never voted R, have been an Independent voter for many years and a fierce critic of the dismal D's. Be well Joy.
Joy: The problem is, BN will be 'choppered' directly in to the UN helipad, with roads within a half-mile radius blocked and cleared with heavily armed police and National Guard soldiers. And the blatantly incompetent mayor of NYC will make sure that any demonstrators will be brutalized, zip-tied, and jailed.
It is not that western humans have lost their way, they have always been this way, or at worst, are reverting to the mean. Just now they have newer and better weapons and means of control.
I think you are right Feral. Once you start closely scrutinizing important events in recent history, you can easily see that the people who really hold power in this world are true psychopaths. And that this system of immoral power is broader and more deeply rooted in our societies than almost anyone is willing to admit.
What's worse is the current power holders are logical. They see themselves as successful, as deserving leadership. And evoking what's moral brings in the non-rational...which is of course to be fully human. Why we need the humanities.
Not "always" and not all. The Celts kept traces of their human wholeness. In the early U.S. runaway colonists joined the Native nations. The countercultures of the Romantic era and '60s hippies. The Enlightenment should have died in WWI trenches, but The Best and the Brightest kept it alive. The reason why/how such thinking...see my long entry below.
That saying originated with the older meaning of the word "prove"--as in test. So pudding taste or exceptions to rules aren't made true by non-conformity, but rather called into question by it.
The true enlightenment is that what we do to others around the world we do to ourselves. What is happening to the Palestinians on behalf of the US Empire, is destined for the rest of us around the world and here at the homeland. And for many folks it is happening daily now. It matters not which brand of the corporate UniParty is in charge. Voting for either is voting for the continued demise of all life on earth. And right on cue the citizens will line up like sheep to slaughter and vote for their own death sentence. The manufacturing of weapons and their endless use around the world is all the US has to offer and which is the only thing keeping the so-called economy afloat.
I look around this city and increasingly see more of the unwanted / homeless / poor / throw-away people that do not matter - how dare they spoil my view of the mountains and trees. Being poor and homeless is now a crime in Santa Fe (and many other places in this god forsaken country). So, it's no surprise to me that we find it so easy to denounce these useless eaters / non-contributors / inhuman former human beings - just like those terrorist Palestinians and their offspring - no reason to not kill 'em all, right? The challenge for me is to not become bitter, angry and allow my heart to harden.
You don't know me - I will express my feelings and opinions as I choose - you are welcome to assume whatever you want. My heart is broken, if it were hardened like so many appear to be - I would be as silent and quiet as I am expected to be.
This "generalization" is logically just the opposite of hardened. It extends humane feelings to everyone in general and not just the few considered deserving by the rich and powerful. Would you feel better if there were specific examples? How about the photo of the little Palestinian girl with a pink roller skate who was blown apart? Or the news item about a mentally ill man, Anthony Mitchell, who was kept naked in an Alabama jail and subjected to freezing temperatures until he died?
I think many people see the injustices and I disagree with the implied generalization that most are indifferent to the human suffering. Since Ronald Reagan we have come a long way from the progressive achievements of the New Deal; however, people's thinking is beginning to change and the failures of the past 40+ years are apparent to many. Yesterday a court in Los Angeles ruled that the Los Angeles VA had to abide by an agreement that dates back to 1866. Land under the purview of the VA can no longer be used for activities other than those stipulated by the original bequest. Housing will be provided for over 5000 homeless veterans within several years. Naturally this ruling is under appeal; however, most likely the housing will be provided.
I read you as criticizing John because his generalization meant he didn't care when it was clear to me he cared for all. You clarify here you assigned generalization as not caring, a product of the Reagan years.
Not exactly so. The D party was usurped by neolibs by the late '70s--I know because as a labor activist and local D campaign mgr I fought them. These New Dems promptly dumped the New Deal and abandoned labor. Someone else here or on Les Leopold's site (Wall St's War on Workers) pointed out the timeline of Powell memo as likely connected.
I am sure the Powell memo is connected. The was the first inkling of the rise of America's Royalist Faction. I'm not sure how much the Dems were co-opted in the late 70s. Having lived during that time I had the following thoughts concerning the UAW: Some of their demands were absurd and did not represented good management practices - Why does someone need to call a Mill Wright to fix their station if they could do it themselves? Why does one employ a Pipe Fitter to walk around looking for leaks?
I never resented the pay, the health insurance or the benefits. Upon visiting one branch of my wife's family in the late 70s and early 80s and seeing their standard of living (a house on a lake, 4 snowmobiles, 2 cars, great health insurance, etc.), my first reaction was: This cannot last. Prior to that I had lived in Germany for a while and saw that German labor demanded less.
With the election of Ronald Reagan, the Age of Reagan began. I consider a transformation back towards one of the foundational economic models of the United States: the Plantation. Lest we forget, the plantation model in the US arose from the British model in the Caribbean. What do such civilizations do: 1) they devalue labor, 2) they devalue education; 3) they focus on maximal wealth extraction with as little investment as possible; 4) they minimally invest in the future of their civilization. Daron Acemoglu's book Why Nations Fail is germane.
We certainly were deep in the Age of Reagan during Clinton and up until now. Obama pushed back a little bit. Biden pushed back some but only around the edges. Now that China is rising all of a sudden our power elite is "afraid". Maybe they actually think that China wants to replace them on the world stage?
If you have not you should read parts of Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations (based on a series of lectures he gave at the Glasgow University). He understood very well the central role of labor to the creation of true wealth. He recognized very clearly that Royalists screw every good idea up.
I despise Royalists. I was raised in a New Deal household and certainly believe that FDR was the second greatest president in the history of the US. Abraham being the first because he fought against the Plantation Mentality.
Rafi - thank you. You sir are one of the commentors (at SP, here with Chris and at CN - they will not print my comments, so I stopped sending them) that I look forward to reading. I have saved many of your comments and bits of others in a special place where I can bring them back as needed. Keep up the fine comments - I will be looking for them. Thank you - Luchador
I gave up on SheerPost when an article posted by a Native American having to do with trans issues was trashed in the comments. I have personal experience of this subject and the scientific research to back up what I say. It really bothered me that not one person among the readership thought the thread worth reading nor came to the defense of a badly scapegoated group.
P.S. re: my writing. Long comment below on why/how Enlightenment thinking.
Yeah. And when I was making phone calls for Jamaal Bowman I was screamed at, people calling me an anti-Semite and that I should be ashamed of myself. The better-off people in Westchester did this. The people in the Bronx voted Jamaal. I still have a bitter taste in my mouth thinking about this.
I am sorry you were on the receiving end of “better-off” people whose lack of boundaries (arrogance) and essential decency ought to have made them ashamed of themselves. The scales have also been falling from my own eyes. The reality of the nature of people -the spectrum of emotional and psychological maturity- keep coming as lessons of who Americans are. Estes in her “Women Who Run With the Wolves” unfolds the meaning for women of the Bluebeard story as reflecting the experiences by which we become initiated from the “Blueberry Eyed Maiden” of the naive girl to the “Hooded Eyes of the Watcher.” Heaven knows! We’ve been getting crash courses in deep, shocking lessons about the nature of humanity. Especially American. We need to see and accept this if we are dedicated to our evolution and that of our nation.
My last quote was directed at your critics, Mitchy. People idolise the democratic system and yet because some habits are so powerful, voting for one or other part of the monoparty in this case, the failure to think again leads to the loss of credit (or credibility), honour and reputation.
When war, genocide, and body bags become comic strip characterizations, we'll know the civilization of humanity has ended. You can paint lipstick on Armageddon, but it's still Armageddon...
I, emotionally and physically, cannot read-see any more of the comic strips. I see photos of Palestinians and feel the timber within falling into screaming flames. When I began to read see his comics, I experienced such a revulsion, I thought I was going to vomit. I carry the pain around. And I know for me subjecting myself to more unbearable feelings - feelings I cannot take any further direction from than what I already feel moving in me that I must honor my boundaries.
Wow! A great question: Was the Enlightenment buried in the rubble of Gaza or was the rubble the Enlightenment's logical conclusion? Maybe some of both.
You're right this was an important point of this comic, so overwhelming is the death and destruction that I almost missed it. I am going to say that was the Enlightenment's logical conclusion, though undoubtedly hard to see at the time. Like communism, individual liberty and rationality sound great on paper, but in practice they have led humanity to this bloodbath and complete desecration of human values. I see the chief culprit is the idea that citizens have the ability to run a country through free discourse and democratic processes.
This has been decisively proven to be untrue in practice. Turn over a country to the will of the people and you leave open the door for more powerful, ruthless, and focused forces like private capital or the covert government agencies to steal the reins. People are easily manipulated, control the flows of the information and you can control any democracy on the planet, individual liberty is no match for organized mass propaganda. And thus our carefully constructed democracies have become beholden not to the citizenry, but to real monsters who know no bounds to their drive to hold power.
The only salvation I see is the rise of strong authoritarian states like Russia, China. and Iran who are able to stamp out propaganda and imprison the people who are seduced by it, and forcefully rebuke the unending bloodthirst of the "enlightened" western powers.
But they never did create a democracy. Not when half the population was disenfranchised by reason of gender and another significant number by reason of something called "race." Even men without property had no rights in the early days. Property was the new king. The Enlightenment was full of contradictions going back to the Cartesian dualism. That's what I meant by "Maybe some of both." We can't fault democracy when it hasn't been tried.
It's said that the Enlightenment died in the trenches of WWI. But no trenches in the U.S. Nor much property damage in WWII, so the evil spirit of Empire was able to go on. Maybe now the smug confidence of Enlightenment rationalism is finally dead. But its acolytes will not understand because theirs is the logic of power.
If we do not understand the source of such thinking, we cannot oppose it effectively. Read the neuroscientist Iain McGilchrist's 2021 magnum opus //The Matter with Things (Our Brains, Our Delusions, and The Unmaking of the World.)// Both hemispheres of the brain process all input, but how they do so is quite different.
The left side, dominant since the Enlightenment, wants certainty and control; it is disturbed by ambiguity and uncertainty. It wants to grasp things--the literal physicality of manipulation, ownership, and power over. Because it cannot sense what it lacks, it has great confidence in its own linear thinking and reasoned judgements. The attitude so well described in Halberstam's //The Best and the Brightest// about the U.S. in Vietnam we see in the current Dems with their Ivy "meritocracy."
In contrast, the right processes by gestalts, flow, connection, multivalence, intuition. It communicates by way of metaphor, seeking meaning and purpose. Its ways are valued by artists and indigenous peoples. Carl Jung once visited a Comanche elder and shaman who told him: "The difference between the Red man and the White man is that we see everything as alive and you think everything is dead, including other people."
Iain McGilchrist points out that the way of thinking that got us here will not work as the way out. Plus it's what quantum physicists have been saying for a hundred years--that reality is about uncertainty, ambiguity, and relativity. And possibly at least in part created by its observers. We need most of all to respect and encourage the creative aspects of ourselves--the humanities.
You've made the same complaint about several of Hedges' posts of Sacco drawings. You apparently have the idea that your paying $5 a month to Hedges entitles you to demand that Hedges conform to your dubious notion of what Howard Zinn was like. I've read lots of Zinn (with the greatest respect) and wouldn't at all describe his commentary about war as being "humorous." And in any case, Hedges is not Zinn (though I'm sure he appreciated Zinn), so it's absurd for you to demand that he start writing "more like Zinn."
I get the sense that your *real* (though largely unstated) problem with the Sacco drawings is that they are uncompromising in their powerful denunciation of Israel's depravity (and of the depravity of US support for Israel's monstrous crimes).
Jane - I am a paid subscriber too as are the other posters. I come to this site to see what he offers. If you want Howard Zinn, read Howard Zinn - his work still speaks. I loved that man and what he stood for - I feel the same about Chris. Be well.
I don't find Joe Sacco's drawings particularly compelling or truthful. They certainly accurately reflect the devastation of Gaza; that is insufficient to forge any change. They leave out the actions of HAMAS which employs its own citizenry as combatants.
"One might fairly ask, was the Enlightenment buried in the rubble of Gaza..." One could ask the same question during the 1930s and 1940s in Europe and Asia. It was not buried then and it is not buried now.
The reason you "don't find Joe Sacco's drawings .... compelling or truthful" is simply that you are an Israel apologist, as numerous of your comments have made clear. Here, you've limited your apologetics to an attempt to demonize Hamas, which is actually not a "terrorist" organization but rather a resistance organization that is fully justified in resisting Israel's cruelty, its sadism, & its murderous oppression.
What choices does Israel have? Do you expect that 7 million Jews will simply leave Israel? Given the animosity between the Palestinians and Israelis do you think that a one state solution would be acceptable to the Jews?
I suppose you can be characterized as an HAMAS apologist. As far as demonizing HAMAS, I should think that its attack on Israel which occurred on Oct 7 2023 would be sufficient evidence of its strategic failings. Reprisal was an expected consequence and doubtless ethnic cleansing will continue in the West Bank. These are the accomplishments of the various Palestinian factions for the past 75 years.
Would you consider HAMAS a successful resistance organization? I find the individuals such as yourself more interested in your concept of a just outcome than actual peace.
The deaths of innocent Palestinians caught up in the tragedy of their leadership's making will continue.
They could I suppose. I certainly see that as bringing this to an end. I should imagine there are some Zionists who "want it all". I think it is an over-generalization to consider that this desire applies to all Zionists.
I don't see this as related to greed and power. Israel already has sufficient power to have convinced Iran and the Arab states in the region that their active involvement in "invading" Israel will be met with terrible consequences.
It is the asymmetrical actors (HAMAS, Palestinian Jihad, and Hezbollah), that are the real problem. The Palestinians have no central leadership rather they have various war-factions.
Israel could be far more secure, far more powerful, and far richer, if they agreed to a Palestinian state that could ensure the security of Israel and its borders. They don't trust the Palestinians factions with their lives and why should they?
The Middle East is changing very rapidly and I imagine that the Arab States have absolutely no interests in either the ambitions of the extreme Palestinian factions or Iran. Those actors are bad for business and bad for their desires for modernization.
HAMAS should throw in the towel, recognize Israel, sew for peace, and take what they can get. The long term interests of the Palestinian people are not served by vengeance or "Justice", they are served by peace.
"It is the asymmetrical actors (HAMAS, Palestinian Jihad, and Hezbollah), that are the real problem." Yeah, a massive concentration camp paired with continuous illegal violent encroachment and confiscation can't be the real problem. Not to mention the 100 other things on the list that should come before your "real problem" - for the zionist strategy, your "real problem" is actually a "feature" that enables their brutal actions. Too bad for them most outside of that cult can see it for what it is. Come to the light.
Hamas has been offering peace deals this entire time. They didn't take hostages just for the fun of it, they want to make a deal. The fact that you are unaware of Hamas' peace negotiations tells me your news sources are rather biased. Legacy media reader I might guess?
People of New York!
Arrest Netanyahu for genocide and crimes against humanity!
On Friday, September 27 at 10:00 AM Benjamin Netanyahu is slated to come to New York City and speak to the United Nations. Don't let this war criminal, carrying out a genocide against the Palestinian people, walk the streets of New York City without facing massive protests.
Joy - there will be no arresting of Netanyahu in the US. He will not even be criticized and certainly no protests will be permitted either. If protests do occur, they will be swiftly shut down to protect everything genocide. So, get on board Joy - support the killing of Palestinians, bombing of hospitals, murdering of journalists, health care workers, doctors, food delivery workers and vehicles so the Zionists can complete their project. When you accept all of this you will be rewarded with more friends who will show you how to be numb, quiet and supportive of the cleansing of Palestinians from their land. Remember, the US and Israel are the good guise and we should just go along with it and be quiet too. Come November remember to vote for more of the same - vote D or R, it hardly matters because nothing will change, and wars of aggression will continue.
"So, get on board Joy" Not a chance. I"m voting for Dr. Jill Stein, again. I will never stop doing whatever I can think of to help bring justice to the Palestinian people. I don't know how long you have been on this side of the struggle, but, me, 65 years and counting. Too old to change! But thanks.
I'm 70 years young and hope to always be open to the changes / challenges ahead of me. You are 100% on the right track regarding Netanyahu coming to NYC - my comments were not meant to disagree but to exaggerate my disgust. Will vote Stein if she's on the New Mexico ballot. Have never voted R, have been an Independent voter for many years and a fierce critic of the dismal D's. Be well Joy.
Thanks John, I understood your message, but I had to respond as I did, in case someone else read it differently.
I'll be ten years older than you, come next year. TIme to learn how to treat your elders!!
Joy: The problem is, BN will be 'choppered' directly in to the UN helipad, with roads within a half-mile radius blocked and cleared with heavily armed police and National Guard soldiers. And the blatantly incompetent mayor of NYC will make sure that any demonstrators will be brutalized, zip-tied, and jailed.
Yes, there is that, but there will be thousands attempting to make their voices heard in NYC, located in, you know, the Land of the Free (TM).
We are extraordinarily brutal.
The care taken to portray such horror must be taking a toll. Every image is a lament. No word is enough.
So much destruction.
So much pain.
So much 2000 pound death.
So much suffering, damage, thirst, hunger, terror, exhaustion.
We have lost our way big time.
It is not that western humans have lost their way, they have always been this way, or at worst, are reverting to the mean. Just now they have newer and better weapons and means of control.
I think you are right Feral. Once you start closely scrutinizing important events in recent history, you can easily see that the people who really hold power in this world are true psychopaths. And that this system of immoral power is broader and more deeply rooted in our societies than almost anyone is willing to admit.
Hell, by the standards of just about any neurotypical human, most rulers styled "the Great" were glorified robbers at best and monsters at worst.
N.b. it is hard enough to type using paws. This stupid autocorrect makes things that much worse.
What's worse is the current power holders are logical. They see themselves as successful, as deserving leadership. And evoking what's moral brings in the non-rational...which is of course to be fully human. Why we need the humanities.
(I explain in detail long comment below.)
Not "always" and not all. The Celts kept traces of their human wholeness. In the early U.S. runaway colonists joined the Native nations. The countercultures of the Romantic era and '60s hippies. The Enlightenment should have died in WWI trenches, but The Best and the Brightest kept it alive. The reason why/how such thinking...see my long entry below.
The exceptions prove the point.
That saying originated with the older meaning of the word "prove"--as in test. So pudding taste or exceptions to rules aren't made true by non-conformity, but rather called into question by it.
The true enlightenment is that what we do to others around the world we do to ourselves. What is happening to the Palestinians on behalf of the US Empire, is destined for the rest of us around the world and here at the homeland. And for many folks it is happening daily now. It matters not which brand of the corporate UniParty is in charge. Voting for either is voting for the continued demise of all life on earth. And right on cue the citizens will line up like sheep to slaughter and vote for their own death sentence. The manufacturing of weapons and their endless use around the world is all the US has to offer and which is the only thing keeping the so-called economy afloat.
Humanity is Insanity.
I look around this city and increasingly see more of the unwanted / homeless / poor / throw-away people that do not matter - how dare they spoil my view of the mountains and trees. Being poor and homeless is now a crime in Santa Fe (and many other places in this god forsaken country). So, it's no surprise to me that we find it so easy to denounce these useless eaters / non-contributors / inhuman former human beings - just like those terrorist Palestinians and their offspring - no reason to not kill 'em all, right? The challenge for me is to not become bitter, angry and allow my heart to harden.
Given the degree of generalization, it seems as if you heart is already hardened.
You don't know me - I will express my feelings and opinions as I choose - you are welcome to assume whatever you want. My heart is broken, if it were hardened like so many appear to be - I would be as silent and quiet as I am expected to be.
This "generalization" is logically just the opposite of hardened. It extends humane feelings to everyone in general and not just the few considered deserving by the rich and powerful. Would you feel better if there were specific examples? How about the photo of the little Palestinian girl with a pink roller skate who was blown apart? Or the news item about a mentally ill man, Anthony Mitchell, who was kept naked in an Alabama jail and subjected to freezing temperatures until he died?
I think many people see the injustices and I disagree with the implied generalization that most are indifferent to the human suffering. Since Ronald Reagan we have come a long way from the progressive achievements of the New Deal; however, people's thinking is beginning to change and the failures of the past 40+ years are apparent to many. Yesterday a court in Los Angeles ruled that the Los Angeles VA had to abide by an agreement that dates back to 1866. Land under the purview of the VA can no longer be used for activities other than those stipulated by the original bequest. Housing will be provided for over 5000 homeless veterans within several years. Naturally this ruling is under appeal; however, most likely the housing will be provided.
I read you as criticizing John because his generalization meant he didn't care when it was clear to me he cared for all. You clarify here you assigned generalization as not caring, a product of the Reagan years.
Not exactly so. The D party was usurped by neolibs by the late '70s--I know because as a labor activist and local D campaign mgr I fought them. These New Dems promptly dumped the New Deal and abandoned labor. Someone else here or on Les Leopold's site (Wall St's War on Workers) pointed out the timeline of Powell memo as likely connected.
I am sure the Powell memo is connected. The was the first inkling of the rise of America's Royalist Faction. I'm not sure how much the Dems were co-opted in the late 70s. Having lived during that time I had the following thoughts concerning the UAW: Some of their demands were absurd and did not represented good management practices - Why does someone need to call a Mill Wright to fix their station if they could do it themselves? Why does one employ a Pipe Fitter to walk around looking for leaks?
I never resented the pay, the health insurance or the benefits. Upon visiting one branch of my wife's family in the late 70s and early 80s and seeing their standard of living (a house on a lake, 4 snowmobiles, 2 cars, great health insurance, etc.), my first reaction was: This cannot last. Prior to that I had lived in Germany for a while and saw that German labor demanded less.
With the election of Ronald Reagan, the Age of Reagan began. I consider a transformation back towards one of the foundational economic models of the United States: the Plantation. Lest we forget, the plantation model in the US arose from the British model in the Caribbean. What do such civilizations do: 1) they devalue labor, 2) they devalue education; 3) they focus on maximal wealth extraction with as little investment as possible; 4) they minimally invest in the future of their civilization. Daron Acemoglu's book Why Nations Fail is germane.
We certainly were deep in the Age of Reagan during Clinton and up until now. Obama pushed back a little bit. Biden pushed back some but only around the edges. Now that China is rising all of a sudden our power elite is "afraid". Maybe they actually think that China wants to replace them on the world stage?
If you have not you should read parts of Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations (based on a series of lectures he gave at the Glasgow University). He understood very well the central role of labor to the creation of true wealth. He recognized very clearly that Royalists screw every good idea up.
I despise Royalists. I was raised in a New Deal household and certainly believe that FDR was the second greatest president in the history of the US. Abraham being the first because he fought against the Plantation Mentality.
Rafi - thank you. You sir are one of the commentors (at SP, here with Chris and at CN - they will not print my comments, so I stopped sending them) that I look forward to reading. I have saved many of your comments and bits of others in a special place where I can bring them back as needed. Keep up the fine comments - I will be looking for them. Thank you - Luchador
I gave up on SheerPost when an article posted by a Native American having to do with trans issues was trashed in the comments. I have personal experience of this subject and the scientific research to back up what I say. It really bothered me that not one person among the readership thought the thread worth reading nor came to the defense of a badly scapegoated group.
P.S. re: my writing. Long comment below on why/how Enlightenment thinking.
Thank you. Still amazed by people asking me why I want to throw away my vote by voting Green Stein. Folks still saying "but Hamas".
Yeah. And when I was making phone calls for Jamaal Bowman I was screamed at, people calling me an anti-Semite and that I should be ashamed of myself. The better-off people in Westchester did this. The people in the Bronx voted Jamaal. I still have a bitter taste in my mouth thinking about this.
I am sorry you were on the receiving end of “better-off” people whose lack of boundaries (arrogance) and essential decency ought to have made them ashamed of themselves. The scales have also been falling from my own eyes. The reality of the nature of people -the spectrum of emotional and psychological maturity- keep coming as lessons of who Americans are. Estes in her “Women Who Run With the Wolves” unfolds the meaning for women of the Bluebeard story as reflecting the experiences by which we become initiated from the “Blueberry Eyed Maiden” of the naive girl to the “Hooded Eyes of the Watcher.” Heaven knows! We’ve been getting crash courses in deep, shocking lessons about the nature of humanity. Especially American. We need to see and accept this if we are dedicated to our evolution and that of our nation.
Humans are masters of rationalization.
My last quote was directed at your critics, Mitchy. People idolise the democratic system and yet because some habits are so powerful, voting for one or other part of the monoparty in this case, the failure to think again leads to the loss of credit (or credibility), honour and reputation.
You answer to your conscience which were you to betray it would be a kind of soul suicide
O yea, the idols I have loved so long
Have done my Credit in this world much wrong.
Have drowned my Honour in a shallow cup
And sold my Reputation for a song.
From the Rubbaiyat of Omar Khayyam.
Well, at least the ancient Persians were a bit self-aware, if the poet rendered the sense of the text correctly.
When war, genocide, and body bags become comic strip characterizations, we'll know the civilization of humanity has ended. You can paint lipstick on Armageddon, but it's still Armageddon...
Work on the Ground: Transforming Lives in Israel-Palestine — American Friends of Combatants for Peace
https://www.afcfp.org
For factual information:
https://www.btselem.org
Gush Shalom has been on the side of peace for many years:
http://zope.gush-shalom.org/index_en.html
ANERA
https://www.anera.org/
ADALAH
https://www.adalahjusticeproject.org/defend
Praise Fantagraphics for standing with truth.
And for supporting Joe Sacco and his valiant efforts in reporting the Israeli genocide of the Palestinian people. More political art, please.
I, emotionally and physically, cannot read-see any more of the comic strips. I see photos of Palestinians and feel the timber within falling into screaming flames. When I began to read see his comics, I experienced such a revulsion, I thought I was going to vomit. I carry the pain around. And I know for me subjecting myself to more unbearable feelings - feelings I cannot take any further direction from than what I already feel moving in me that I must honor my boundaries.
Wow! A great question: Was the Enlightenment buried in the rubble of Gaza or was the rubble the Enlightenment's logical conclusion? Maybe some of both.
You're right this was an important point of this comic, so overwhelming is the death and destruction that I almost missed it. I am going to say that was the Enlightenment's logical conclusion, though undoubtedly hard to see at the time. Like communism, individual liberty and rationality sound great on paper, but in practice they have led humanity to this bloodbath and complete desecration of human values. I see the chief culprit is the idea that citizens have the ability to run a country through free discourse and democratic processes.
This has been decisively proven to be untrue in practice. Turn over a country to the will of the people and you leave open the door for more powerful, ruthless, and focused forces like private capital or the covert government agencies to steal the reins. People are easily manipulated, control the flows of the information and you can control any democracy on the planet, individual liberty is no match for organized mass propaganda. And thus our carefully constructed democracies have become beholden not to the citizenry, but to real monsters who know no bounds to their drive to hold power.
The only salvation I see is the rise of strong authoritarian states like Russia, China. and Iran who are able to stamp out propaganda and imprison the people who are seduced by it, and forcefully rebuke the unending bloodthirst of the "enlightened" western powers.
But they never did create a democracy. Not when half the population was disenfranchised by reason of gender and another significant number by reason of something called "race." Even men without property had no rights in the early days. Property was the new king. The Enlightenment was full of contradictions going back to the Cartesian dualism. That's what I meant by "Maybe some of both." We can't fault democracy when it hasn't been tried.
Moral arguments are wasted on sociopaths. Even Gandhi recognized as much.
The Limits of Enlightenment Thinking
It's said that the Enlightenment died in the trenches of WWI. But no trenches in the U.S. Nor much property damage in WWII, so the evil spirit of Empire was able to go on. Maybe now the smug confidence of Enlightenment rationalism is finally dead. But its acolytes will not understand because theirs is the logic of power.
If we do not understand the source of such thinking, we cannot oppose it effectively. Read the neuroscientist Iain McGilchrist's 2021 magnum opus //The Matter with Things (Our Brains, Our Delusions, and The Unmaking of the World.)// Both hemispheres of the brain process all input, but how they do so is quite different.
The left side, dominant since the Enlightenment, wants certainty and control; it is disturbed by ambiguity and uncertainty. It wants to grasp things--the literal physicality of manipulation, ownership, and power over. Because it cannot sense what it lacks, it has great confidence in its own linear thinking and reasoned judgements. The attitude so well described in Halberstam's //The Best and the Brightest// about the U.S. in Vietnam we see in the current Dems with their Ivy "meritocracy."
In contrast, the right processes by gestalts, flow, connection, multivalence, intuition. It communicates by way of metaphor, seeking meaning and purpose. Its ways are valued by artists and indigenous peoples. Carl Jung once visited a Comanche elder and shaman who told him: "The difference between the Red man and the White man is that we see everything as alive and you think everything is dead, including other people."
Iain McGilchrist points out that the way of thinking that got us here will not work as the way out. Plus it's what quantum physicists have been saying for a hundred years--that reality is about uncertainty, ambiguity, and relativity. And possibly at least in part created by its observers. We need most of all to respect and encourage the creative aspects of ourselves--the humanities.
As usual, Mr. Sacco hits the nail squarely on the head. The truth is so brutal and so heartbreaking!
How powerfully and devastatingly truthful. I love Joe Sacco. Thank you for a clear look at our species.
I am a paid subscriber. I wish you would use the irony and humor Howard Zinn did to write about war, even if it isn’t a funny subject at all
You've made the same complaint about several of Hedges' posts of Sacco drawings. You apparently have the idea that your paying $5 a month to Hedges entitles you to demand that Hedges conform to your dubious notion of what Howard Zinn was like. I've read lots of Zinn (with the greatest respect) and wouldn't at all describe his commentary about war as being "humorous." And in any case, Hedges is not Zinn (though I'm sure he appreciated Zinn), so it's absurd for you to demand that he start writing "more like Zinn."
I get the sense that your *real* (though largely unstated) problem with the Sacco drawings is that they are uncompromising in their powerful denunciation of Israel's depravity (and of the depravity of US support for Israel's monstrous crimes).
Jane - I am a paid subscriber too as are the other posters. I come to this site to see what he offers. If you want Howard Zinn, read Howard Zinn - his work still speaks. I loved that man and what he stood for - I feel the same about Chris. Be well.
Wow, the statement on that last panel
The new Book of Revelations, by Joe Sacco. Armed with a pen mightier than any 2,000-pound bomb, and a heart courageous enough to wield it.
I don't find Joe Sacco's drawings particularly compelling or truthful. They certainly accurately reflect the devastation of Gaza; that is insufficient to forge any change. They leave out the actions of HAMAS which employs its own citizenry as combatants.
"One might fairly ask, was the Enlightenment buried in the rubble of Gaza..." One could ask the same question during the 1930s and 1940s in Europe and Asia. It was not buried then and it is not buried now.
The reason you "don't find Joe Sacco's drawings .... compelling or truthful" is simply that you are an Israel apologist, as numerous of your comments have made clear. Here, you've limited your apologetics to an attempt to demonize Hamas, which is actually not a "terrorist" organization but rather a resistance organization that is fully justified in resisting Israel's cruelty, its sadism, & its murderous oppression.
What choices does Israel have? Do you expect that 7 million Jews will simply leave Israel? Given the animosity between the Palestinians and Israelis do you think that a one state solution would be acceptable to the Jews?
I suppose you can be characterized as an HAMAS apologist. As far as demonizing HAMAS, I should think that its attack on Israel which occurred on Oct 7 2023 would be sufficient evidence of its strategic failings. Reprisal was an expected consequence and doubtless ethnic cleansing will continue in the West Bank. These are the accomplishments of the various Palestinian factions for the past 75 years.
Would you consider HAMAS a successful resistance organization? I find the individuals such as yourself more interested in your concept of a just outcome than actual peace.
The deaths of innocent Palestinians caught up in the tragedy of their leadership's making will continue.
Israel could accept a two state solution and let Palestinians have their own land, but in their greed and power, the Zionists want it all.
They could I suppose. I certainly see that as bringing this to an end. I should imagine there are some Zionists who "want it all". I think it is an over-generalization to consider that this desire applies to all Zionists.
I don't see this as related to greed and power. Israel already has sufficient power to have convinced Iran and the Arab states in the region that their active involvement in "invading" Israel will be met with terrible consequences.
It is the asymmetrical actors (HAMAS, Palestinian Jihad, and Hezbollah), that are the real problem. The Palestinians have no central leadership rather they have various war-factions.
Israel could be far more secure, far more powerful, and far richer, if they agreed to a Palestinian state that could ensure the security of Israel and its borders. They don't trust the Palestinians factions with their lives and why should they?
The Middle East is changing very rapidly and I imagine that the Arab States have absolutely no interests in either the ambitions of the extreme Palestinian factions or Iran. Those actors are bad for business and bad for their desires for modernization.
HAMAS should throw in the towel, recognize Israel, sew for peace, and take what they can get. The long term interests of the Palestinian people are not served by vengeance or "Justice", they are served by peace.
"It is the asymmetrical actors (HAMAS, Palestinian Jihad, and Hezbollah), that are the real problem." Yeah, a massive concentration camp paired with continuous illegal violent encroachment and confiscation can't be the real problem. Not to mention the 100 other things on the list that should come before your "real problem" - for the zionist strategy, your "real problem" is actually a "feature" that enables their brutal actions. Too bad for them most outside of that cult can see it for what it is. Come to the light.
And your path leads to peace?
Hamas has been offering peace deals this entire time. They didn't take hostages just for the fun of it, they want to make a deal. The fact that you are unaware of Hamas' peace negotiations tells me your news sources are rather biased. Legacy media reader I might guess?