Revolutionary Moderation

Speaking of anti-Semitism



Actually, I wasn't, other than to allude how crazy Ernst Zundel and his ilk are. But anti-Semitism can be far more subtle and tricky than him.



For instance, remember the Christmas Cracker episode in Calgary? Who knows how many unsuspecting children had their holidays ruined by a sudden desire to read Mein Kampf and get prison tattoos? And now Coke is destroying the tolerance inherent in a generation of children who call Hong Kong home.



We get so afraid of of people like Ernst Zundel, who claim that the Holocaust never happened. I don't see why that frightens us. It's preferable to believe that than to believe that human beings could perpetuate such an unbelievable horror through the tools of bureaucracy. But we escape both thoughts: of course it happened, but humans didn�t cause it... it was caused by Evil, by Nazis, by the people and symbols that have become verboten in our culture. Leonard Cohen wrote "All there is to know about Adolph Eichmann" to remind us that the Holocaust was perpetuated by banal people doing banal things, and that a very thin line separates us from that time and that horror.



Why am I going on about this now? Because when I hear that people are upset about swastikas appearing in innocuous places, probably intended as Buddhist symbols by the producer, I get the feeling that people have completely disconnected from the content, so busy they are being concerned about the symbols. Your children are not going to be converted to anti-Semitism through Pepsi giveaways. They might be susceptible if they're constantly told their worthlessness, told never to question authority, told that the world or some element thereof is out to get them. They'll be susceptible if they're taught to hate, and it takes more than a panda or robot to teach that.