Comments on: Nashi http://larison.org/2007/08/21/nashi/ n. the principle of good order "Observe the strange inversion of all order and sense! Dignity debased; how vilely is the function of a consul prostituted!" ~The Craftsman Wed, 08 Feb 2012 21:28:55 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.4 by: Roach http://larison.org/2007/08/21/nashi/#comment-7533 Wed, 22 Aug 2007 13:41:21 +0000 http://larison.org/2007/08/21/nashi/#comment-7533 Let's just speak plainly for a moment. Jews because of their tragic history are fearful of strong expressions of nationalism in Europe. They're particularly fearful of such expressions in countries where they formerly (1) had bad relations with the locals and (2) at various times oppressed the locals, such as in 17th Century Ukraine on behalf of Polish landlords or in Bolshevik Russia as the first few generations of "nomenklatura." These nationalist movements redefined the relevant areas and by definition excluded some groups from full participation. Even though Jews had a very privileged position in Communist Russia, the inherent paranoia of the regime and the fear of foreign agents after the establishment of a neutral or pro-Western Jewish state led to their decline. Even then, of course, they remained ahead of their peers due to education etc. The level of oppression they experienced in post '67 Russia was a shadow of what some of them had inflicted in the '20s and '30s. The old pre-Bolshevik Russia of the Kulaks and the drunken and envious proletarian stir up great fear in Jews; it's the Cossack with his saber all over again ready to kick them out of their houses, steal their money, beat them up, etc. A Russian who is not a "Soviet" or who is not apologizing for some alleged harm to Jews 100 years ago--as if the intervening 80 years never happened--is someone who cannot be easily brow-beaten. Any self-confident, nationalist, and explicitly Russian notion of Russian identity threatens existing Jews and ethnic minorities in Russia according to our minority-obsessed culture's chief theorists exponents, the successful minority par excellence. Russia is a threat to the Western world's decline because it has the muscular nationalist and ascendant energy of an India or China, but it's a nation of white people historically who are Christian and ill disposed towards the Jews for alll of the usual reasons. Nashi is just a symbol of this, but for the people who see another Holocaust everywhere it's far too similar to the HJ. Let’s just speak plainly for a moment. Jews because of their tragic history are fearful of strong expressions of nationalism in Europe. They’re particularly fearful of such expressions in countries where they formerly (1) had bad relations with the locals and (2) at various times oppressed the locals, such as in 17th Century Ukraine on behalf of Polish landlords or in Bolshevik Russia as the first few generations of “nomenklatura.” These nationalist movements redefined the relevant areas and by definition excluded some groups from full participation. Even though Jews had a very privileged position in Communist Russia, the inherent paranoia of the regime and the fear of foreign agents after the establishment of a neutral or pro-Western Jewish state led to their decline. Even then, of course, they remained ahead of their peers due to education etc. The level of oppression they experienced in post ‘67 Russia was a shadow of what some of them had inflicted in the ’20s and ’30s. The old pre-Bolshevik Russia of the Kulaks and the drunken and envious proletarian stir up great fear in Jews; it’s the Cossack with his saber all over again ready to kick them out of their houses, steal their money, beat them up, etc. A Russian who is not a “Soviet” or who is not apologizing for some alleged harm to Jews 100 years ago–as if the intervening 80 years never happened–is someone who cannot be easily brow-beaten.

Any self-confident, nationalist, and explicitly Russian notion of Russian identity threatens existing Jews and ethnic minorities in Russia according to our minority-obsessed culture’s chief theorists exponents, the successful minority par excellence. Russia is a threat to the Western world’s decline because it has the muscular nationalist and ascendant energy of an India or China, but it’s a nation of white people historically who are Christian and ill disposed towards the Jews for alll of the usual reasons. Nashi is just a symbol of this, but for the people who see another Holocaust everywhere it’s far too similar to the HJ.

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