When I was growing up, one of the greatest joys while reading the newspaper or magazine was to see something by Joseph Sobran. In a world full of predictable crassness, his writing abounded with subtlety, literature, and more. As I came to adulthood, I became acquainted with others--George Will, Walter Williams, and so on--and in the mid-1990s, I lost touch with his work.
I found out somewhat later that there was a reason I'd lost touch with Sobran's work; after the first Iraq war, Sobran had started to make an animus against Israel's foreign policy a key part of his work, leading to his firing from National Review and the end of his newspaper columns. Themes perfectly acceptable at the United Nations were, of course, not acceptable to William F. Buckley and others. (this is of course a good thing--at least for National Review, but of course not for the UN)
Sobran chose to self publish, went on to add the theme that Jews were overrepresented in various movements he deemed subversive, and even appeared at Holocaust denial conferences. So what do we make of the last 17 years of his life? Was he simply a more erudite Mahmoud Ahmadinijab?
I'm not convinced he was; rather, I believe that he fell into the trap of failing to test his own hypotheses. Ironically, this was one of the things I loved about him at the beginning; he forced you to think. However, in the case of his writings about Israel and Jews, he largely lost this focus.
A great example is the "sinister" note he gave (linked in the link above) about Jews being overrepresented in various movements he considered subversive; the clear inference is that there is some kind of plot going on. Now is that the case?
Well, let's introduce a more general hypothesis; literate people who know they may periodically be chased from their homes by Cossacks will tend to choose jobs where you don't need to have a lot of capital. That is, of course, exactly what we see; this people has wisely chosen professions not requiring a lot of capital like law, education, medicine, and yes, politics--the last being also a nice way to see what can be done about reducing the funding for training Cossacks.
So is it the threat that one might infer from Sobran's work, or is it about as surprising as finding a fishing rod in a Minnesota home? We ought to infer that a wonderful way to honor Sobran's life is........to remember what he initially brought to the table, and live for that. Rest in peace, Joe.
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5 comments:
joe commited the one unforgivable crime of the political right, for which the accusation itself is a conviction: anti-semitism, and all one needs to do to be found guilty is to offer up any honest criticism of the Right's fascination with 'a tiny far away ethnocracy'.
i've been so slammed myself. but i dont care. i speak what I beleive, and let God judge my soul.
May God bless joe, and hold him close in the next life.
Yes, may God hold him close....and for the rest of us, let's not make the mistake of hanging out with people without checking on their logic and evidence. I can excuse getting to know the holocaust deniers of the world; I cannot fathom why Sobran did it without checking up on their thinking.
Put gently, by many accounts, most of Hitler's aides were charming people. 'ol Schicklgruber didn't get 30% of the vote simply by being a cartoon evil guy, after all.
do you remember when i said i wouldnt let a jew work in the state dept, or serve in congress?
i didnt get much blowback for that. i guess not enough heard it.
but sobrans termination due to the inability of jews to fathom any ideas that didnt agree with their zionist desires would only push him to find quarter among friends wherever they can be found.
and by extension, only add fuel to the argument that jews are out to control the world and yadda yadda yadda.
agree with the jews, or they will ruin you.
Gino, there is a point where a man, however mistreated he may be in his own opinion, is still required by the Almighty to remember the basics of logic and evidence. Sobran ignored that in his dalliance with holocaust deniers, and his reputation suffers rightly for it.
that is true.
meanwhile, put some blame also where it belongs on his accusers who made a mountain out of a molehill, and then complain people dont like them.
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