MC’s latest essay includes an update on the situation in Sderot.

Carefully Chosen Words

by MC

In this world where words have to be carefully chosen, we have a new euphemism for stupidity: cognitive dissonance. CD is where the erudite beliefs of the beholder are contradictory (but must be hammered home to all and sundry just as if they were rational).

I first met this effect at University where the (left-wing) union executive were espousing women’s rights, but allowed the non-faculty staff to hire the main Union bar for a party for which they also hired a stripper. This was about 1971/2.

It was harmless enough, but when called out on it they blustered and denounced their critics as ‘bigots’ with all the usual leftist mewling. If someone wants to earn their living as a sex worker, all well and good; nobody is damaged by seeing a naked human body. However, the leftists called prostitution exploitation and continually stressed that women were ‘forced’ into that trade.

For me as a proto-leftist these double standards were a stark warning.

Whilst I majored in Chemical Engineering, my hobby was 20th-century history. I had been forced to give up history in high school; a teacher described an essay as “regurgitated canine food”. This was before the days of computers and word processors, but when handwriting and spelling were considered more important than intellectual ability. I have several autistic spectrum disorders, and spelling ‘and’ as ‘anb’ was one of them. Dyslexia was not tolerated, and neither were problems with the hand-eye micro-control required for readable handwriting.

This severely affected my ability to function well in subjects such as history. The stress induced by teachers who could only see ‘careless work’ and not content made school days a nightmare.

At Uni I discovered that I could ‘write’, but by that time my self-confidence had suffered terminal damage. Constant criticism does not help educate anybody and squelches creativity, but then creativity was not the object: the focus was to get the student to be able to function in an office environment. If one attended a free government school, said government laid down the objectives. An analysis of adult creativity in the UK would show that the most creative adults did not attend government schools…

Socialists, like Muslims, do not like ‘creativity’. They like the peons to be obedient to their masters, and if cognitive dissonance (stupidity) is required, then it should not be questioned. The peons can only write what the masters dictate; they must stick to the narrative.

The leftist answer to Islamic violence is to blame the victim for her/his Islamophobia. This effectively removes the need to confront the failure of socialist immigration policy and the assumption of multicultural ‘equity’. Allowing an army of military-age Muslim males into a country is just asking for trouble. Islam is perhaps the most invasive force around, having spread from Arabia to Spain, Vienna and Indonesia/Malaya over the course of the last millennium. It is an empire, and Muslims are colonialists par excellence. In its most dire and cruel form, hiding behind its religious propaganda, it is the most virulent of forces for both slavery and violent oppression. Maybe all those trans (females) have already got the message and are fleeing their femininity in preparation for capture. Once absorbed into this borg-like entity, all creativity grinds to a halt. There was no golden age of Islam, only a sunset of previous enlightened creativity. Europe looks as though it will succumb. It appears to have accepted Islamic supremacism and is just waiting for the Caliph to pass judgement.

The United Nations is supposed to stop things like 7^th Oct from happening, but all the time it is worrying about ‘human rights’ abuses in Israel, it cannot see the woods for the trees. The concept of Human Rights has a context, which is based upon mutual trust. Whilst it takes two to make peace, it only takes one to make a war. Israel arrests children for throwing stones; Israel arrests young men for using slings to hurl deadly rocks at passers-by. Both are true, but one is a contextual lie.

The UN’s tunnel vision means that they only see the lie. They have now criticised Hamas for their savagery, too little, too late.

Outside it is still popping and banging, but no missiles so far today. There may, however, have been some mortars. The main road to Ashkelon has re-opened, and we are not so cut off. There is Hope for Sderot yet…

Discussing this with Stewart, we were wondering how many Jewish refugees will refuse to return to the Gaza periphery, and what it will do to the city. Its economy must have been absolutely trashed by the war and the evacuation.

Some people are returning to find their kitchens, and fridges particularly, a mess. All the food spoilt and stinking. Hope for Sderot is feeding soldiers and families. My son is expecting a 36-hour pass in the next few days; we will have to feed him up — army rations, sweet corn and tuna get a bit monotonous. It is also getting much colder. I am not sure if the IDF issues winter clothing.

I am hoping to hear that the IDF has located the remaining hostages. Careful questioning of those who have been released may well reveal some clues as to where they were/are kept. Much is being kept under wraps because of the safety of those who remain under Hamas control, but the released foreign workers described the conditions under which the males are being kept. UNRWA is denying that their employees kept hostages: a war crime, but it is what we have come to expect from UNRWA, an organisation mainly funded by US and EU taxpayers. How can refugee status be hereditary? Is it because it provides so many well-paid sinecures?

I would love to see the ICC put senior UNRWA officials on trial, they would probably get a real prosecution, unlike those as yet innocent Serbs who just happened to die in custody.

MC lives in the southern Israeli city of Sderot. For his previous essays, see the MC Archives.