Jan Olof Bengtsson

Av Catelina Johnstone

The human species has essentially been transformed into a giant machine to generate profit for corporations.

Under capitalism, humanity exists to serve the interests of the corporation. We are all livestock; beasts of burden used to carry margin expansion forward from quarterly statement to quarterly statement. Enjoyment of life has no value other than the extent to which it can be used to increase the net worth of the shareholders.

That’s why everyone’s so unhappy. We’re not living with purpose. We’re not working together to build a better world and a better future, we’re just pulling levers to turn gears to make the arrow line go up on the graph in the conference room. It’s a hollow, pointless way for people to live.

It makes our whole culture vapid and soulless.

Music is made to be as profitable as possible, which means giving it the broadest possible appeal using formulaic song structure calculated to cause a chemical response in the largest number of human brains.

Movies are designed to draw the largest possible box office revenue at the lowest possible risk to studios and investors, often by just rehashing a movie that’s already proven successful in the past or by slapping together a story about an IP with pre-existing mass appeal.

Food is made to be fast and addictive rather than nourishing.

Healthy human connection has been commodified as social media intertwines with friendships and dating apps insert themselves into the development of romantic relationships.

Human sexuality is being warped and twisted as internet porn normalizes violence and degradation for the maximum number of clicks.

Attention and engagement have been monetized, creating an information ecosystem dominated by conflict and gossip designed to appeal to our baser instincts.

Advertisement is injected into every possible corner of our waking sensory experience, with any available space where the eye might rest or the ear might listen being flooded with psychological manipulation compelling us to consume. They’ll start running commercials in our dreams the instant they have the technology to do so.

You spend eight hours at the office working to generate corporate profits, then you come home and consume products to profit other corporations. You need your beer and snacks to unwind, your streaming services and social media to distract your mind from the stress of it all, your online clothing purchase to try to feel good about yourself, and your prescription drugs to get to sleep at night. People live their entire lives like this.

And that’s those of us who are lucky enough to be living in the global north. In the global south you get wage slavery and exploitation with far more toil, far less relaxation time, and no cheap products made by impoverished workers on other continents with which to comfort yourself.

All of humanity has been roped into this mess. And for what? To make the numbers in some bank accounts increase. To get some green arrows pointing upward on the stock exchange. To enable a few billionaires to buy islands and elections.

All while destroying the biosphere we all depend on for survival.

This, we are told, is the best possible system we could possibly be living under.

I personally do not believe this is true. I personally believe we can have better. Those who benefit from this current arrangement are going to assure us it’s impossible and do everything they can to stop us from changing it, but we do have the means to reclaim the wealth, dignity and happiness that they have stolen from us.

They built this whole machine on our backs. All we need to do is stand up.

Texter av Catelina Johnstone

Chris Hedges och Aaron Maté diskuterar:

The Weight of Three Thousand Years

Forewords by Gore Vidal and Edward Said

With a new introduction by Norton Mezvinsky

Pluto Press, 2002 (1994)

Amazon.com (2024 edition)

Publisher’s description of the 2008 edition:

Israel Shahak was a remarkable man. Born in the Warsaw ghetto and a survivor of Belsen, Shahak arrived in Israel in 1945. Brought up under Jewish Orthodoxy and Hebrew culture, he consistently opposed the expansion of the borders of Israel from 1967.

In this extraordinary and highly acclaimed book, Shahak embarks on a provocative study of the extent to which the secular state of Israel has been shaped by religious orthodoxies of an invidious and potentially lethal nature. Drawing on the Talmud and rabbinical laws, Shahak argues that the roots of Jewish chauvinism and religious fanaticism must be understood before it is too late.

Written from a humanitarian viewpoint by a Jewish scholar, this is a rare and highly controversial criticism of Israel that will both excite and disturb readers worldwide.

–

Blurbs and reviews on the back cover and in the front matter:

“Shahak is an outstanding scholar, with remarkable insight and depth of knowledge. His work is informed and penetrating, a contribution of great value.”

Noam Chomsky

“Let me recommend [Shahak’s] latest book … In it Shahak subjects the whole history of Orthodoxy to a hilarious and scrupulous critique.”

Christopher Hitchens, The Nation

“The future of the Palestinian people would have looked much brighter if there had been more Israelis like Shahak … An outstanding personality.”

The Jerusalem Times

“Shahak is a very brave man who should be honored for his services to humanity … One of the most remarkable individuals in the contemporary Middle East.”

Edward Said

“This is a remarkable book … [It] deserves a wide readership, not only among Jews, but among Christians who seek a fuller understanding both of historical Judaism and of modern-day Israel.”

Ted Schmidt, Catholic New Times

“Shahak’s overview of Jewish history is both erudite and readable … The shell containing the polemic core of the essay, in which the Jewish religion’s attitude to non-Jews is exposed and dissected … is a trail-blazing, double taboo-breaking piece of dynamite.”

Middle East International

“Above all, Shahak has the courage to say what most Israelis do not dare to say and definitely do not want to hear … Remarkable, powerful and provocative.”

London Review of Books

“Anyone who wants to change the Jewish community so that it stops siding with the forces of reaction should read this book.”

Raphael Salkie, Jewish Socialist

“Shahak is the latest – if not the last – of the great prophets.”

Gore Vidal

“[This is] a powerful book calling on Jews … to face up to some abhorrent aspects of their own religious heroes and traditions … Israel Shahak’s stirring challenge has deep relevance for Israel’s present policies.”

Tom Harpur, The Toronto Star

“Israel Shahak won fame in Israel by his principled persistence in telling truths which most Israelis don’t like to hear.

[This] book offers three central theories … [one] is that the heritage of Jewish fanaticism, especially in the domain of Jewish attitudes towards Gentiles, is a stumbling block preventing the development of a secular and enlightened Jewish civilization.”

Benyamin Beit-Hallahmi, Haaretz

“The real test facing both Israeli and diaspora Jews is the test of their self-criticism, which must include the critique of the Jewish past. Most disturbing, Shahak insists that the religion, in its classical and Talmudic form, is ‘poisoning the minds and hearts’. This controversial attack of Isreal by a Jew is bound to alarm Jewry worldwide.”

American Library Association Booklist

“[Shahak is] a fine scholar and Israel’s foremost defender of human rights … [this is] a ruthlessly penetrating examination of Jewish religion and history.”

Ian Gilmore, London Review of Books

“We should all be grateful that Dr Shahak has persevered and given us this important work. His message gets to the heart of U.S.-Israeli relations. It is not only Jews who should read Jewish History, Jewish Religion, but Christians as well.”

Grace Halsell, Middle East Policy

“Shahak’s book is among the few that are most essential to those of us interested in the Middle East.”

Henry Fischer, The Link

–

Chapters:

1 A Closed Utopia?

2 Prejudice and Prevarication

3 Orthodoxy and Interpretation

4 The Weight of History

5 The Laws Against Non-Jews

6 Political Consequences

–

About the Author:

Israel Shahak was a resident of the Warsaw Ghetto and a survivor of Bergen-Belsen. He arrived in Palestine in 1945 and lived there for the rest of his life. He was an outspoken critic of the state of Israel and a human rights activist. He was also the author of the highly acclaimed Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel (Pluto Press, 1999) and Open Secrets: Israeli Nuclear and Foreign Policies (Pluto Press, 1997).

Dizengoff Circus

Cecilia Uddén rapporterar i Godmorgon världen om israeliska freds- och judisk-palestinska enhetsrörelsen Standing Together (Omdim Beyachad/Naqif Ma’an).

“För mer än 20 år sedan fanns en stark fredsrörelse i Israel. Både den stora kända ‘Peace Now’ och även ‘Fyra Mammor’ – en organisation som samlade stora demonstrationer mot Libanonkriget på den tiden.

Idag, efter 7 oktober-massakern, är fredsrörelsen mycket liten. Men den finns. Och det finns mycket aktiva individer som både både försöker förhindra bosättavåld på Västbanken och protestera mot krig och ockupation.

Vår korrespondent Cecilia Uddén har träffat några av dem.”

Så här beskriver den sig på sin nätplats:

“The current socio-political reality in Israel is unbearable. Unending occupation feeds violence, fear, and hatred between Israelis and Palestinians. Economic inequality is widening. Poverty is deepening. Israel’s Palestinian minority faces increasing discrimination. Women, Mizrahim, immigrants, the LGBTQ+ community, the elderly, and people with disabilities are marginalized socially, economically, and politically. Working people must labor for longer at stagnating wages while the cost of living continues to soar.

Rather than seriously address these problems, our political leaders use fear and racism to divide us. Instead of providing genuine security solutions, they deliver never-ending wars. Rather than serve the majority, they look out for the rich. Our government is increasingly disconnected and corrupt. Israeli society is in a deep crisis. 

Still, we find cause for hope. Most people want to live in a just and equal society. Our country is blossoming with promising initiatives: worker’s unions, anti-occupation campaigns, environmental movements, and so much more. 

These struggles inspire hope and help catalyze political change. However, as long as they remain disconnected, their power is limited. 

To build peace, equality, and social and climate justice, we need a mass movement. Currently, the Israeli left is dominated by professional NGOs, which despite their important work, can never become a political home for the masses. Meanwhile, Israel’s leftist political parties can no longer mobilize large sectors of the population. Many people want progressive change. They support peace and oppose the occupation; they support equality and oppose racism; they support social justice and oppose rule by wealth. They need a movement to unite them, inspire them to take action, and turn their solidarity into a powerful political force. 

Standing Together is this movement. We are building a shared home for all of us. We won’t erase our differences, but rather believe in building a true partnership based on shared interests. This is the meaning of Standing Together.

We envision a society that serves all of us and treats every person with dignity. A society that chooses peace, justice, and independence for Israelis and Palestinians, Jews and Arabs. A society in which we all enjoy real security, adequate housing, quality education, good healthcare, a liveable climate, a decent salary, and the ability to age with dignity. 

Such a society is possible – we’re already building it.”

Wikipedia

Höglund sökte medla mellan Ture Nerman och Kata Dalström i religionsfrågan, och kom därmed att inta en ståndpunkt som innebar en avvikelse från Kominterns linje. Den av hans dotter Gunhild skrivna fjärde delen av hans memoarer ger en klar bild av den tidiga Sovjetunionens fullständigt verklighetsfrämmande ateistiska och materialistiska fanatism, representerad av Zinovjev. Efter den allmänna ryska centraliseringsfrågan blev väl detta en annan orsak till brytningen mellan Höglund och Komintern.

Gunhild Höglund inkluderar in extenso faderns karaktäristiska och vitt spridda och översatta artikel ‘Kommunism och religion’, först publicerad i Folkets Dagblad Politiken 1923. Noteras bör att för Höglund denna socialistiska religionsdebatt inte bara rörde kristendomen, eller kristendomen som representerad av statskyrkan, utan religionen i mer allmän mening. Och åtminstone en orsak till detta var väl att Dalström själv var teosof, brahmanist och buddhist.