During the High Holy Days, Jews are supposed to engage in strenuous self-examination. Even as a secular Jew, the solemnity and moral obligation of this time impels me to look inside and make reparations to those I may have neglected or lied to or otherwise misled as to my deep inner beliefs or opinions.
My thought crimes that everyone already knows about:
a. The subject of antisemitism is only partly understood, even by Jews and their friends;
b. The exact techniques of populist demagoguery always rely on an underlying antisemitic set of assumptions about “the money power.” If we knew even the basics of finance and economic history, the bogey man of Wall Street would disintegrate;
c. I enjoy Ayn Rand’s novels with some reservations (masochistic sex), but given her particular history, I brush them aside;
d. Even if there was “school choice” there is no guarantee that students would be prepared for citizenship, given the curricula in vogue, which do not begin to teach freedom of thought, dominated as they are by authoritarian, under-educated, or wimpy progressives;
e. Progressivism and communism are now so interpenetrating that it is hard to tell where Democrats leave off and hard leftists begin. Those scholars who have studied communist influence in the US and who think that the Reds are no longer relevant are mistaken;
f. Although left-wing anarchists and right-wing anarchists would appear to be immiscible, they are both counter-culture and probably acting out rebellion against the rules set by their parents. Anti-capitalism vs. anarcho-capitalism may not be as significant as enjoyment in prolonged tantrums;
g. Much of what passes for high art is primitivist, or at times, expresses nostalgia for an agrarian past that lacked cities, machines, and annoying Jews who make you think too much;
h. The sexual revolution of the 1960s on has been a disaster for most women, who have bought into the regnant masochism and degradation of our gender;
i. Freud is more relevant than ever, yet rarely understood: though a professed atheist, he is still too Jewish;
j. Many workers continue to be exploited and/or have boring, even dangerous jobs.
Thought crimes that nobody knows about:
a. People should not have children if they can’t support them. If marriages break down, the couples should stay together in most cases for the sake of family stability: children hate change and often are caught between parents, with bad life-long after-effects;
b. Some of the authors and artists I most admire are turning out to be either romantic rebels or reactionaries or downright offensive and I don’t care: I will defend their freedom of expression as long as I am breathing;
c. Being at odds with most of the world is downright fun. John Dos Passos admitted this in his old age (see Century’s Ebb), and I recognized my own proclivities. Call me joyfully alienated; (One relative through marriage rightly suspects me of these contrarian tendencies.)
d. As long as I am on hot on the trail of a new (for me) miscreant or set of ‘em, I am happy;
e. Nothing more exciting than changing my mind or reconfiguring a picture of the world: to see with fresh eyes. While I was making radio documentaries, was heard to say that a good edit was way better than sex. Collage will do that for you;
f. I was invited to submit a proposal for a class I would teach in the Los Angeles Woman’s Building. I submitted this title and nothing else: “PUNS KEY TO SECRET ORDER IN THE UNIVERSE.” No one signed up and I didn’t care.
The Clare Spark Blog 
Are you still around, I mean, not “aged out” in some life-after-death collage that is key 🔑 to secret order in the Galaxy? I see the most recent post here is late 2012.
Because, if you are, I just wanted to send along an appreciation, as GKC might put it (“Dickens”), for your contrarian tendencies, though it’s too late (at night) to do it in collage format.
I wrote the briefest of ditties regarding Pacifica, which you can find if you goo goo “John Ervin Opednews”.
I have benefited tremendously from listening to Roy Tuckman’s show for 40 years, and am researching Pacifica. Your blog about it certainly gives me a lot more depth to work with, that I’ll say for sure.
Beyond that, I am still in ignoramus mode on many things, but I’m mostly a musician, and think in those forms, in that realm.
Peace ✌,
John Ervin
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Comment by John Ervin — July 5, 2016 @ 7:59 am |
[…] divorce (though this is rarely admitted). I have already expressed my opposition to divorce here: https://clarespark.com/2012/09/16/thought-crimes/. A true confession: my own parents divorced when I was nineteen years old, and I never got over it. […]
Pingback by Is there life after birth? State’s rights and controlling our children | YDS: The Clare Spark Blog — October 10, 2015 @ 6:36 pm |
Immissible and regnant- you’re my kind of girl! Just joking. As your opposite, an old cowboy near the end of his trail, a christian jew with a chinese wife and an adopted mexican son, I am elated to learn that we share so many essential notions. Pat Buchanan is a little to my political left,(right next to Genghis Khan),and Apostle Paul is my adult male role model.You make a lot of sense! I will “read up” on y’all.God be with you.
Comment by white tiger — September 20, 2012 @ 6:37 am |
Keep your thoughts coming. I am a fan, But, I do not believe you when you say you don’t care. Saying I do not care is a thought crime of mine, so I am projecting this onto to you as if such denial is a universal reaction to perceived rejection. Shana Tova.
Comment by Bob Ennis — September 17, 2012 @ 9:35 pm |
My unconscious is terra incognita for me, Bob, though occasionally an inspiration pops up, like my advertisement for the Women’s Building Class. As to my “don’t care” posture, it remains among the many ambiguities with which I live. Thanks for the greeting and supportive comment.
Comment by clarespark — September 17, 2012 @ 9:39 pm |
Change the title too: Half truths are a way of understanding the secret order of things.
Thought Crimes:
Having a unhealthy desire to please; yet, I fight it…suffer over it, and do what I want… but instead of being happy, I still feel the desire to please.
My freedom is so powerful, it even scares me…but why? I never asked that question before, until now.
Comment by Rothschild — September 17, 2012 @ 5:05 pm |
Each of us maps a personal strategy helping us to survive what we cannot change. At least carve out an inner space for yourself and find reliable attachments, if such exist, that love you no matter how your thought deviates from theirs.
Comment by clarespark — September 17, 2012 @ 9:41 pm |
Sweet, I find many parallels with my own suspicions. A reactionary romantic rebel. . .
Comment by Jeffery — September 17, 2012 @ 3:16 am |
I don’t get the reactionary part. And how about confessing your own thought crimes, Jeffery.
Comment by clarespark — September 17, 2012 @ 3:32 am |