Happy Hanukkah, You Backwards Fundamentalist
You know that saying "the medium is the message"? It implies that the way in which you express something can be even more important--or at least impacting--than the information you're actually attempting to share. I found myself meditating on that concept yesterday when I stumbled upon an article in Slate by Christopher Hitchens. Titled "Bah, Hanukkah", and subtitled, "The Holiday Celebrates the Triumph of Tribal Jewish Backwardness," the article is a scathing indictment of the Jewish holiday that began last night. I was shocked to find it on Slate, not because of its content, which is quite interesting and historically relevant, but because of its means of conveying said content--its tone or medium, so to speak.
Hitchens introduces Hanukkah as a holiday that celebrates "not the ignition of a light but the imposition of theocratic darkness," and goes on to insist that the Jewish people chose Jerusalem and "the grim old routines of the Torah" over Athens and "the schools of philosophy." In language that can only be described as aggressively hostile, Hitchens accuses the ancient Jews of "preferring fundamentalist thuggery to secularism." He declares that when the Jews repudiated Athens for Jerusalem "the development of the whole of humanity was terribly retarded." Quite a liability to burden one small people with, no? The whole of humanity? Terribly retarded? Please, give me a break.
Hitchens seems to miss his own point, even as he goes on to say that "to celebrate Hanukkah is to celebrate not just the triumph of tribal Jewish backwardness but also the accidental birth of Judaism's bastard child in the shape of Christianity."
His final blow is his most dangerous and appalling:
The display of the menorah at this season, however, has a precise meaning and is an explicit celebration of the original victory of bloody-minded faith over enlightenment and reason. As such it is a direct negation of the First Amendment and it is time for the secularists and the civil libertarians to find the courage to say so.
To call Hanukkah, as it is commemorated and celebrated today, "a direct negation of the First Amendment" is anachronistic, irresponsible, and dangerous. Especially in a medium like this, where qualifications and explanations cannot be made in real time, and where the tone of the article speaks, in many ways, more loudly than the content, Hitchens is creating an opportunity for misunderstanding and hatred.
I understand his annoyance with the contrivances of the "holiday season." I can relate to his gripes about the problems of all of the monotheistic, Judeo-Christian religions. But it's one thing to present historical information sans emotion. It's one thing to offer people a chance to become enlightened, and it's another altogether to present irrational, anachronistic, emotionally fueled fumings that accomplish nothing other than angering, hurting, alienating, and misinforming readers.
Yet Another Hint From Europe?
While trying to light my cigarette this morning on a break during work (my Zippo was out of fuel, sadly), I came across this article (I was reading the print edition, of course). I found it very interesting. I've always felt that Europe is light-years ahead of the U.S. in certain respects, namely the social arena. And this might be another example.
For those of you with diminished attention spans, the article speaks of a $38 million dollar program the Dutch are instituting for schools and neighborhood in which they hope to stem the growth of right-wing nationalism and Islamic fundamentalism in their country. They're not fighting these groups--merely preventing new ones from forming. A rather novel idea, I'd say. Attacking the source of the problem, the root rather than the branches. Kill the body and the head will die.
After the 2004 death of filmmaker Theo Van Gogh by a Muslim extremist, the number of hate crimes in the Netherlands rose sharply. Many of these involved Muslims in retaliatory attacks by Dutch citizens (Note: 5.5% or about 1 million of the country's population is Muslim). Such a reaction is natural, I suppose, given the current geopolitical situation. After all, it seems like in today's lightning-fast, media-driven, consumerism-saturated world, where everyone has their 15 gigabytes of fame, you really have to do something extreme to get noticed and have your voice truly heard above the din.
But let's get back to The Program, as it were.
Stopping hatred before it starts, is essentially what they're doing. Teaching the youth (5 to 16 or 18, I'm assuming) that such radicalism and subsequent hate (terror?) crimes will not be tolerated in their society, and on a larger scale, the world. That's absolutely brilliant, I say. Yes, parents are also responsible for the rearing and teaching of their children, especially on an intrapersonal level. But so is the government, and especially on the interpersonal level (ah, there's the Democrat in me). After all, it's a global society now, and whether we like it or not, we're all hooked up to the same cable now--as close together as stations on a dial. A shock at one end will travel round, affecting everyone. The flapping of a butterfly's wings can cause a hurricane on the other side of the world, it seems.
I say bravo to the Dutch. I really hope their program works. Because as each new, successive generation inherits the planet (amid the cries of "It was broken when I got here!"), the problems and the solutions fall to them; they become the new stewards of society. There is a sense of duty and responsibility, I think, that they will accept. This planet is all we've got, and if the whole Human Comedy is to continue, we've got to live with each other as best we can--you and me, we're in this together now.
I don't know what the curriculum entails. I assume it's something along the lines of common sense: that in order for humanity to keep progressing, we've got to stop the formation of the radicals/fundamentalists of all stripes who wish to keep the status quo and drag us back into the Dark Ages because it's easier to just give in and not fight, it's more comfortable that way; change is bad. A static society is easier to control than a dynamic society.
I hope the Dutch kids go for this program. After all, the Netherlands is a very liberal country, it seems; we all know the stories about how Amsterdam is a creative and recreational capital, with its Red-Light District and 'coffeehouses' and other so-called 'hedonistic' venues. Hell, they have the brains to legalize all the things we good Americans consider bad and impure, and what do they get: a pretty laidback and liberal society. They're a beacon of social tolerance and they really get along with each other.
Could such a program work here in the U.S.? Maybe, I don't know. I mean, there's plenty of students with beards, but I really don't see our country moving towards the left end of the sociopolitical spectrum for a while--at least 20 years or more, when the twentysomethings of today hit their forties and get really active in national politics and keep the ideas of their youth. For great change does not come in leaps and bounds, it comes in baby steps. And in order for something of this nature to take place in such a puritanical country as America, we've got to wait for the old guard to fade away and let the young Turks take the reins. Yes, there will still be the right-wing holdovers of another time and another place hanging on and railing against the change (Hell, maybe we do need them, for balance, as Believers need Skeptics), but we're all heading for the same destination: the future. And we've already brought about such a globalized society that we're experiencing many other cultures and people who are much different than we are--what did we expect, for Them to be all like Us? And we're all in the same boat...if it sinks, we're all Doomed, so let's try and make the ride comfortable for everybody.
I say to the Dutch, you've got at least one American behind your noble efforts. I hope that one night, we can all go to sleep and wake up the next morning to find that the Dream has been realized.
Needled News: Marisa DiMattia's Tattoo Revue
Praise be! Salvation for all porn-lovin heathens is herein the form of tattooed hipsters. It was only a matter of time: Evangelical Christianity meets Miami Ink, screaming out for its own reality show.
The highlight of the tattoo news this past week was a NY Mag interview entitled The Hipstervangelist. Turns out Jim and Tammy Faye Bakkeryou know, the PTL ministers who bilked Christians in the name of the lordhad a son Jay. Jay lost Jesus after dad became someone's prison bitch and mom began to inspire drag queens everywhere. He later found Jesus in the capital of ironic retro, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where 80s teleministry scandals is the new indie chic.
As co-founder of Revolution, a church "for those who feel rejected by religion," Jay holds services in Pete's Candy Store bar. His mission is to show just how hip fundamentalists can be. His life and work is also the subject of a documentary series, One Punk, Under God, for the Sundance channel.
While some may find this punk rock religious passage a passing fancy, like the Kanji tattoo, others find it much more dangerous. In the book Righteous: Dispatches from the Evangelical Youth Movement, reviewed this week in The Rocky Mountain News, author Lauren Sandler looks at how "a bright candy coating of secular cool (sweetens) the bitter pill of addictive orthodoxy." The review offers Sandler's cause for alarm:
Evangelical Christians are wooing American youth in astonishing numbers, courting them at skateparks and malls, sharing common interests in tattoos and rock music, and offering community and certainty in an uncertain world.
Sandler gives a sweeping view of what she dubs the Disciple Generation, these counterculture evangelists and the broken people, ages 15-35, that flock to them.
Typical of fundamentalism of any kind, it stresses the coming apocalypse, subjugates women and squashes competing ideas - and devotees make no secret of the fact that they are committed to imposing their extreme beliefs on others via institutions of the state.
In essence, her fear is that evangelicals will succeed in endangering secularism through rock-n-roll. She may be right. Just looking at this week's news items, you'll see that bad ass Jay Bakker made headlines while the ChristiaNet Poll finding body art blasphemous lingered unnoticed by the media on PR Web. Co-opting cool to sell a product, or a religion, is a marketing commandment. And aren't we all disciples to advertising?
Makes me wonder: Will the Old Testament be a NY Times best seller now that rapper Nelly has Moses tattooed on his arm?
But there is hope. To lead us out of fundie land and combat the forces of the hipsterevangelists is the Dark Lord himself, NY tattoo artist Paul Booth and his Last Rites army. Offering a media alternative to Bakker's bible thumping, Booth has teamed up with MTV Overdrive and created Paul Booth's Tattoo Theater. Tattoo Theater is a glimpse into his ominous studio and the world of fine art tattooing via video clips. I immediately felt Satan's smoldering embrace after watching the first online installation entitled Sweet Pain. While the sound quality may be a bit off, it's worth straining your ears to hear stories of Booth getting his head tattooed, a torture worse than a G.W. good vs. evil presidential address.
Indeed, through Tattoo Theater we can find deliverance from the holy warriers who invade our coffee houses and troll our bars. At the very least, we'll be saved from bad tattoo art. It's time to testify!
Marisa_DiMattia is a lawyer and editor of Needled.com, a blog on tattoo art and culture.