העורך Editor
Gary North Exposes Classical Greece
An excerpt:
What were the foundations of classical Greek civilization? I offer you this list.
1. Pederasty. This is the homosexual union of an older married man with a teenage boy. The men often met the boys on their way to the gymnasium, the building in which the boys danced and played sports naked. The men then became the boys’ lovers and teachers.2. Demonism. The Greeks were polytheistic. Greek family life rested on a system of sacrifice to demons that masqueraded as the spirits of dead male relatives. So did clan life, which became political life. These demons also presented themselves as underground gods and spirits, who demanded sacrifices and special rituals to keep from destroying people. On this point, see the works of the early 20th century archaeologist-historian, Jane Ellen Harrison. This never gets into the textbooks, although specialists are well aware of it.
3. Warfare. At the center of the literature of classical Greece was Homer’s poem, The Iliad. It is the story of how Achilles’ resentment against King Agamemnon raged because the king took his kidnapped concubine for himself. All the other men had concubines for the ten years they were at war. But no children are mentioned by Homer. Now that’s real Greek mythology! Their wives stayed home and kept the ritual home fires burning — to placate the family’s departed male spirits. Athens destroyed itself in Pericles’ needless imperial war against Sparta. Then the Macedonians conquered war-ravaged Greece. But the textbooks praise Pericles as a pillar of wisdom, reprinting Thucydides’ posthumous version of Pericles’ suicidal imperial oration.
4. Slavery. At least one-third of Athens was enslaved. The figure was as high in Sparta. Every household owned a slave. This provided leisure for their owners, who despised physical labor as beneath them — servile. Slavery was a universal institution in Greece.
5. Autonomy. Greek philosophy was based on the ideal of man’s mind as completely sovereign — no personal God allowed. Well, not quite. Socrates claimed he was given guidance in his thinking by a demon (daimon). But rationalistic scholars, beginning with Plato, have always downplayed this. They have sometimes said this was just hyperbolic literary language. Socrates could not really have believed in a demon. After all, they don’t.
6. Welfare State. At least one-third of all male Athenians were on the government’s payroll in the time of Pericles.
7. Human Sacrifice. This was a basic theme in Greek literature. It was part of Athenian religious liturgy. There was no widespread movement to decry the earlier practice. The great expert here was Lord Acton, who wrote a long-ignored essay, “Human Sacrifice,” in 1864. It is online here. It is included in Volume 3 of Selected Writings of Lord Acton, published by the Liberty Fund. From the day he published it in order to refute the great historian Macaulay, historians have refused to incorporate it in their narratives. It is way too embarrassing.
8. Cyclical View of Time. The Greeks did not believe in long-term progress or a final judgment — just endless cycles forever: rise and fall, rise and fall. According to the historian of science, Stanley Jaki, this was why the Greeks never developed science, only technologies.
9. Female Inferiority. Wives were only for procreation. They could not be citizens. They had no legal rights. A man needed a male heir to perform the ritual sacrifices to feed him after he died. Women had no political influence except as prophetesses and mistresses.
Suggesting JEWISH TERM for the ‘Diamond–Water Paradox’
First, what is the paradox?
Courtesy of Wikipedia (bolding added):
The paradox of value (also known as the diamond–water paradox) is the contradiction that, although water is on the whole more useful, in terms of survival, than diamonds, diamonds command a higher price in the market. The philosopher Adam Smith is often considered to be the classic presenter of this paradox, although it had already appeared as early as Plato’s Euthydemus. Nicolaus Copernicus, John Locke, John Law, and others had previously tried to explain the disparity.
Wikipedia also presents the Austrian solution. And here is Hebrew Wikipedia.
Let this henceforth be known as:
זבל פרדותיו של יצחק ולא כספו וזהבו של אבימלך!
(BTW, see the mashal in Yerushalmi brought here.)
Today: Chanuka Vacation
My apologies to those who JUST subscribed…
Here’s an old Chanuka anthology, though.
Yay! I Was Published on American Thinker!
My chosen title was edited to reflect the alleged sarcasm…
And don’t be misled: “Yehuda Israel” is a pseudonym.
Now here goes:
Sarcasm on: How the state of Israel successfully convinces the world the Jews are land thieves
Some people seem awfully puzzled these days. How come international Jew-hatred increased right in step with the holiday pogroms?
They even killed Man’s Best Friend. Where’s the sympathy?
Shouldn’t the hate have dipped a bit, at least politely paused until the Israeli army struck back?
How odd!
Is it wokeness? What, then, of the non-woke?
Well, here’s another riddle for you. Unrelated, of course, but if the shoe fits, well…
Imagine you hear of a conflict in some faraway land you can’t find on a map, between two parties whose names you can’t spell, and you don’t have the foggiest idea about any of the relevant history. Not Israel. Still, you would like to take sides, so you listen to the official speakers hoping to determine who is in the right.
One side speaks of a “rich historical connection” to the land and the other starts shaking the keys to their alleged ancestral homes from which they were displaced.
One side says, “Did you not notice? We criminalized those who use rhetoric that sounded like a mirror image of your own. We were hoping to model good behavior for you.” And the other side says: That’s the least you could do!
One side is aggressively violent and refuses to “recognize” anything about their enemy, but the political leadership of the opposing side invites the liberation movement’s leaders into the country, gives them legitimacy and money, and views them as junior partners.
One side mentions other powerful states giving them guarantees and talks of how the UN once voted in their favor. The other side swears fealty to undying eternal justice and states no one else has a right to touch their patrimony.
One side notes they ceaselessly prayed to return from the diaspora but the others insist they are indigenous to the region, and the others are all interlopers and colonizers. “Possession is nine-tenths of the law,” if not more.
One side says they demand the immediate return of their refugees and the other says, “Well, that’s hardly feasible, especially by now. Let’s be reasonable. How about we negotiate?”
One side says, “We are a simple people. We demand justice, simple as that.” The other side whines, “But we want peace with you! We keep offering you peace. Why won’t you lay down your arms and accept our unending overtures of peeeeeace?!”
One side says we are willing to give some of the land to you, as long as you stop teaching your kids that we’re prey. The other side rages, “No way! It’s all ours, the River to the Sea!”
One side lustily kills civilians on the other side but the victims’ regime cracks down hard on “their own,” brutalizing and torturing their own so-called “terrorists” while giving free guns, free electricity, and free everything else to the killers from the other side.
One side unanimously shouts that any sincere peace treaty would constitute treason and the other side cries in exasperation: “Oh, why do you keep missing golden opportunities?!”
One side says: “Look at all the good we’ve done for you. We found a desert and transformed it into a garden!” The other side answers: “This may be true. But it was my desert and now it has become your garden”. (Source: Rabbi Meir Kahane)
Now you tell me: Which side would you tend to support?
Come, let us abandon weakness and speak of justice and the truth. Our actions, too, must reflect justice and the truth. This is how we win hearts and minds and achieve victory.
Yehuda Israel is editor of Hyehudi.org – Aggregated Articles About Judaism: Daily articles on Emuna, The Temple, Jewish Clericalism, Libertarian Anarchy, Austrian Economics, and more. Yehuda Israel is a pseudonym.
Again, find it here.