Archives for March 2012

Readers of Percy’s The Moviegoer probably remember the following passage:

An odd thing. Ever since Wednesday, I have become acutely aware of the Jews. There is a clue here, but of what I cannot say. How do I know? Because whenever I approach a Jew, the Geiger counter in my head starts rattling away like a machine gun; and as I go past with the utmost circumspection and with every sense alert—the Geiger counter subsides. (The Moviegoer)

I’ve always thought that machine gun was a poorly chosen metaphor, especially for the way it’s mixed with the much better metaphor of the Geiger counter. But he continues, making it clear that this is not (as a woman I once spoke with thought) some weird species of anti-semitism. Quite the opposite, I think:

Jews are my first real clue.

When a man is in despair and does not allow in his heart of hearts that a search is possible and when such a man passes a Jew in the street, he notices nothing.

When a man becomes a scientist or an artist, he is open to a different kind of despair. When such a man passes a Jew in the street, he may notice something, but it is not a remarkable encounter. To him the Jew can only appear as a scientist or artist like himself, or a specimen to be studied.

But when a man awakes to the possibility of a search and when such a man passes a Jew in the street for the first time, he is like Robinson Crusoe seeing the footprint on the beach.(The Moviegoer)

Fast forward twenty years, when one of the more memorable passages from the Percy’s fifth novel, The Second Coming, has protagonist Will Barrett speculating on relations between the local Jewish population and the majority population around them.

Did the growing madness have something to do with the Jews pulling out? Who said we could get along without the Jews? Watch the Jews, their mysterious comings and goings and stayings! The Jews are a sign! When the Jews pull out, the Gentiles begin to act like the crazy Jutes and Celts and Angles and redneck Saxons they are! (The Second Coming)

I was reminded of all this when I read the following headline at the Der Spiegel site online: “More and More French Jews Emigrating to Israel”.
As noted in the first paragraphs of the article, this is so the rise in violence against Jews in France, and Europe more generally:

More and more French Jews are buying homes in Israel amid fears of rising anti-Semitism in France. Many complain of being harassed in public and feel the country is no longer a safe place to raise their children. In the wake of the Toulouse attacks, the wave of emigration is only likely to increase. (Spiegel Online)

“What’s the big deal?” says a hypothetical America Firster (Or EuroFirster, as the case may be). “They need to make up their mind about what country they want to belong to anyway. They have their own country, let them run it. They’ve been running ours for too long now.”

Well, the big deal should be obvious, I think. But in case it isn’t, here is the next paragraph:

Many must have been reminded of the treatment of Jews under the Third Reich. Shortly after the attack on a Jewish school in the southern French city of Toulouse on Monday, school principals in the city walked into classrooms and asked the Jewish pupils to come forward. “We ask you to leave the class and join the other Jewish children, who are in a locked and safe location.” (Spiegel Online)

I felt a distinct chill as I read this. Not because of yet another reference to the Third Reich, allusions to which are now de rigueur for just about any political argument, on either or any side. It was the segregating of the other Jewish children in a locked and safe location. What exactly constitutes “safe location” these days? Well, read on:

It was intended as a precaution in response to a request from the Jewish community. But it also highlights the degree to which many Jews in France feel that they are a threatened and increasingly excluded minority. Every year, these feelings prompt thousands to take a dramatic decision, namely, to pack their belongings and move to a crisis zone: Israel. They feel safer there.(Spiegel Online)

So: an increasing number of Jews feel safer in the Middle East than they do in Europe. In Israel, where just a few years ago there seemed to be a suicide bombing every couple of days, and even now appears to be on the brink of war with Iran. Of course, Mohamed Merah shooting up a Jewish school in Toulouse isn’t exactly a suicide bomber, but I don’t know how much comfort we should take in the fact that it was the French police who took him out. Some, I suppose. More notable, pace Will Barrett, is that more and more Jews are choosing to take up residence in a different polity altogether.

There are levels of craziness, after all, and it isn’t just Celts and Saxons, or in this case but not really, Gauls. And craziness requires some kind of general agreement about what constitutes sanity. There seems to be less and less of just this sort of agreement these days, and, more important in the long term, what manner of culture supports it.

There are strange and difficult times ahead.

Death is coming.  So is the Gerasene Writer’s Conference.  How will you prepare?  What will you leave behind?  What will you bring to the conference?