Mussa Dagh born again

 
Humanity is blessed with at least two groups of people:

The multitude of members of one of them have been successfully subordinated to stereotype thinking. They meet a person and/or an idea - and immediately the wheels run lazily trying to fix you in the right drawer, according to the order that was installed in their brains from the mouth of their elders, an order they will never dispute as it takes too much energy and is indeed a scary endeavor..

The other group, much much smaller indeed, offers a hand and an open mind and says, "Pleased to meet you. My Name is Corinna Hasofferett."

Go read The Forty Days of Mussa Dagh and learn what havoc brain-washing can bring about and how much those are the roots of evil.

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posted by Corinna at 11:40 PM  

Sadly Funny

 
Just found in a books chainstore a heavily discounted beautiful book - red hardcover, excellent paper, jacket - a pleasure to hold and behold: Mark Twain's "A Tramp Abroad".

I'm still at the beginning yet already reading Twain's humorous description of the German students' spartan corps code and their insane dueling, one stops smiling. A root, unstroken.

>"...It was considered that a person could strike harder in the duel, and with a more earnest interest, if he had never been in a condition of comradeship with his antagonist, therefore comradeship between the corps was not permitted..."

"...I had seen the heads and faces of ten youths gashed in every direction by the keen two-edged blades, and yet had not seen a victim wince, nor heard a moan, or detected any fleeting expression which confessed the sharp pain the hurts were inflicting..."

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posted by Corinna at 1:23 AM  

That War, Revisited

 
Two new books, in English, are discussed this weekend in Haaretz.

"The Yom Kippur War: The Epic Encounter That Transformed the Middle East," by Abraham Rabinovich. Schocken Books, 560 pages, $27.50.

I must confess that although I have not yet read any of them, for Abraham Rabinovich I have special sympathy: years ago he came all the way from Jerusalem to my HILAI project in the Galilee, stayed with us for two days, and wrote for Jerusalem Post a glowing excellent four-page reportage.

In Haaretz Hebrew online edition Prof. Benny Moris discusses the book with much appreciation.

In Haaretz English edition Chemi Shalev recommends Rabinovich and a second new book on that traumatic experience:

"The Eve of Destruction: The Untold Story of the Yom Kippur War," by Howard Blum. HarperCollins, 350 pages, $25.95.

I cannot wait to read them both!

"...Of contemporary interest, of course, are the descriptions of the battlefield antics and achievements of then-general Ariel Sharon, whose actual accomplishments, as depicted in both books, fall far short of the legend and hype that have become the conventional legacy of the war. Blum goes so far as to quote then-colonel Amnon Reshef's internal thoughts as "believing that there would always be a danger lurking in Arik's command, a rashness or an unruliness that was nothing less than madness."

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posted by Corinna at 6:50 AM