(Article changed on October 10, 2012 at 05:25)
Average man is always a coward
Mark Twain
I recently acquired
an interesting piece of information. I watched a semi- documentary movie about occupied France
in 1940s and suddenly found out
that in the Vichy
territory, the so- called Free Zone, they had a special card- a card of non-
belonging to the
"Jewish race'.
If we put aside for a moment that there is no such thing as "Jewish race', the actual idea is fascinating. Just think about it. An average French citizen could approach the authorities with all his/her genealogy ( sort of like they search on ancestors.com) and present sealed copies of the documents, proving that within three generations he/she never had his/her blood tainted by even a drop of Jewish blood. Too bad the DNA does not have a specific "Jewish protein' or French chemists might have discovered DNA earlier. In any case, all those documents then were to be notarized and upon scrutiny and approval a person would receive a certificate of non- belonging. I bet the good Frenchmen had family holidays upon receiving such documents; they would invite the Monsieur Council on Jewish affairs and all his staff and toast to a triumph of the bureaucracy. Eventually, when Germans occupied the whole France I am sure some of those French folks got aware of the famous phrase by Hermann Goering, " I decide who is a Jew," but who could predict the future. For now let's celebrate.
When I found out about that nice invention of the people of Free Zone I wondered how would Joanne D'Arc react to the idea that all Frenchmen in then Free- From - English zone would have to obtain a photo- ID of non-belonging to the English heritage. I am afraid Joanne would behead an unfortunate councilman who would suggest such nonsense, rightfully noting that most of France had been under English for a very long time and vice- versa, so it would be unlikely to find some pure- blood Frenchman among the good peasants. Oh, yes, there was such attempt before. .That was called the selling of indulgences. The indulgence was a certificate of absolution sold by Catholic Church in the 16th Century in Europe. For a hefty sum of money you could get a piece of paper which absolved you for your future sins, sort of an insurance policy on the way to Heaven. That remarkable idea backfired so much that the Lutheran Church emerged.
But French, you know, they never recognized the experience of foreigners.
Turned out not only them. A certificate of non- belonging sounds familiar, doesn't it?
Right now, in the good ole US of A, a certain institution named TSA offers every citizen for a fee to get a proof on non- belonging. Just pay some money and surrender to a background scrutiny and you can get a document certifying that you are not an alleged terrorist and not a candidate to the no -- flight list, not one of those saps who stay in line. You can proudly enter the security zone and puff your cheeks like a eunuch entering a harem; look, you, suckers, I can see those women naked every day while you cannot even see their faces.
Inadvertently we expand this. Like for instance if you want to go into the public service you have to prove that you are not one of the following: an atheist, a socialist, a Communist, a Bolivarian, a lover of young girls, a Moslem (or if you want to be a Moslem, you have to prove that you are a eunuch), an angry black man ( angry white man is OK), an educated person, an illegal immigrant, an immigrant, a secular Jew, a non- mobster Russian, a person who can speak English, a chess --player, a person who hates baseball, a person who hates Oprah, a person who hates American football and (a carnal sin) a person who thinks Americans are not the best people on Earth, etc, etc. Oh, I forgot: you must not have compassion for any people killed by Americans. You cannot mourn the 100000 Japanese killed in one day and ABSOLUTELY cannot express horror when witnessing your President watching a killing of an unknown man on TV.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).