Comments for YDS: The Clare Spark Blog

Comment on Malkin, Dolan, and the Empire State Building by clarespark

clarespark — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 16:28:42 +0000

I wouldn’t leave out the antisemitism that was in the populist movement, directed at both bankers and at cities in general. The Progressives co-opted populist demands. The most interesting development was the attempt to attach Hamiltonian big government measures to what were Jeffersonian agrarian impulses, but this happened gradually. Jeffersonian writers (Pound and William Carlos Williams) in the 1920s-30s were capable of referring to Hamilton as a Jew. (See Stephen F. Knott’s book.)

Comment on Malkin, Dolan, and the Empire State Building by CatoRenasci

CatoRenasci — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 14:53:22 +0000

I think you are right that Progressivism was primarily Protestant, entwined with the Social Gospel movement. Although it is also true that the Roman Catholic Church’s social teachings have always been anti-capitalist – no more implacable foe of economic and individual liberty than Pio Nono (Pius IX) – it was only with Leo XIII that it took on an explicitly Christian socialist/progressive character.

Progressive antisemitism has always struck me as more related to the xenophobia that also had Progressives discriminatory towards Southern and Eastern European immigrants generally than to antisemitism per se. German Jews were assimilated culturally and often were as aghast at the influx of of mostly poor Eastern European Jews. German Jewish discrimination against Eastern European Jews continued well into the third quarter of the 20th century – it took the ‘Our Crowd’ Jewish partners of a major New York law firm almost 20 years to secure the admission of a very eminent partner in the firm to the Harmonie Club because he was a Russian Jew.

Comment on Racism, Modernity, Modernism by Whitney’s spectacular demise « YDS: The Clare Spark Blog

Whitney’s spectacular demise « YDS: The Clare Spark Blog — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 16:13:32 +0000

[...] many blogs complaining about primitivism, racism, and the decline of American civilization. (see http://clarespark.com/2010/04/08/racism-modernity-modernism/.) I am so disturbed by the mindless media frenzy following Whitney Houston’s not-so-sudden death [...]

Comment on The Romantic repudiation of Freud & Co. by clarespark

clarespark — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 22:54:39 +0000

I will check the source when I have a minute, David, but I don’t think that I would have remembered the claim that psychoanalysis was a Jewish tic, unless it was in Berger and Luckmann. I could have added the career of the Jungian Henry A. Murray, who thought that Freud had overemphasized sex, and wanted to appropriate Freud’s insights into his program of psychological warfare. The idea was that the Jew Freud had preternatural abilities to see into the minds of the little people responsible for fascism.
I have no problem with responsible criticism of banking and mental health as practiced today; I was not exonerating them but insisting that the “Jewish” overlay be removed before evaluation.

Comment on The Romantic repudiation of Freud & Co. by david gansel

david gansel — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 22:32:20 +0000

I have a different take on Berger’s and Luckmann’s mention of psychoanalysis. In discussing the idea of a subjective sense of reality, they contrast that of “middle-class Jewish intellectuals in New York City” with that of rural Haitians. They allude to psychoanalysis and the associated notion of neurosis as constituent elements of the world-view of the former and of Voudun and the associated idea of spirit possession of that of the latter. I see no mention (or implication) of psychoanalysis as a Jewish thing, nor of Jewish carnality, nor of attribution of quackery to Jewish analysts.

I also have a problem with your ideas of a subtext in which banking and psychotherapy are characterized as Jew-dominated. Doesn’t this preclude the possibility of any non-anti-Semitic criticism of banking and the mental health professions?

Comment on The Romantic repudiation of Freud & Co. by clarespark

clarespark — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 22:23:58 +0000

You had it right, David. The use of quotation marks was to indicate a sub-text that banking and mental health work were or are “Jew-dominated.”

Comment on The Romantic repudiation of Freud & Co. by david gansel

david gansel — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 22:05:45 +0000

I’ve noticed that in many or your blog entries, you enclose the word Jewish in quotation marks. Here, you mention “Jewish” bankers and “Jewish” mental health workers. I take this to mean that populists denigrate bankers and mental health workers , Jewish or not, in some anti-semitic fashion. Am I wrong? Would you mind clarifying this particular use of quotation marks? Thanks.

Comment on Links to Nazi sykewar, American style by Nazi sykewar, American style, part one « YDS: The Clare Spark Blog

Nazi sykewar, American style, part one « YDS: The Clare Spark Blog — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 21:39:26 +0000

[...] lying. It is all shocking, and justifies everything on my blog to date. For the complete series see http://clarespark.com/2010/04/18/links-to-nazi-sykewar-american-style/. Like this:LikeBe the first to like this post. Comments [...]

Comment on Disraeli’s contribution to social democracy by The Romantic repudiation of Freud & Co. « YDS: The Clare Spark Blog

The Romantic repudiation of Freud & Co. « YDS: The Clare Spark Blog — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 20:03:04 +0000

[...] to my blog on Disraeli’s novels and his role in the development of British social democracy: http://clarespark.com/2011/07/16/disraelis-contribution-to-social-democracy/. How Disraeli adapted to the dominant Anglicanism is also taken up: he moved the center of [...]

Comment on Good Jews, Bad Jews, and Wandering Jews by Whitney’s spectacular demise « YDS: The Clare Spark Blog

Whitney’s spectacular demise « YDS: The Clare Spark Blog — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 21:07:07 +0000

[...] the demonic with art-making is an old Romantic tic that should be recognized and condemned. See http://clarespark.com/2010/11/16/good-jews-bad-jews-and-wandering-jews/. The same with sadomasochism, no longer a symptom to be identified and treated, or, more [...]