Realm of the SCENSCI

When an old Tolstoy had fallen severely ill, the much younger Chekhov fearing for Tolstoy’s death, wrote to a friend: “Tolstoy takes a firm stand, he has an immense authority, and so long as he is alive, bad tastes in literature, vulgarity of every kind, insolent and lachrymose, all the bristling, exasperated vanities will be in the far background, in the shade. Nothing but his moral authority is capable of maintaining a certain elevation in the moods and tendencies of literature so called. Without him they would be a flock without a shepherd, or a hotchpotch, in which it would be difficult to discriminate anything.”

In wake of the ongoing events in Palestine and Israel, Norman Finkelstein for the second time in recent times has called Mehdi Hasan a sewer rat (the first time was unrelated to Palestine/Israel) . This time it was triggered by a tweet from Mehdi (I am sure he has made plenty of other similar tweets) in which Mehdi stated: “Taking children as hostages, if confirmed, is barbarism, plain and simple, and does nothing to advance the cause of peace, resistance, or ending the occupation.” Norman apparently was irked at Mehdi’s readiness to condemn something which hadn’t even been confirmed then. I am guessing the underlying complaint that many of Mehdi’s detractors have towards him is the following: Mehdi Hasan almost always likes to both-side things, he loves to preen his feathers and loves to show how balanced, principled and fair he is because he criticizes everyone. In doing so he ends up writing such slimy pieces as this one: Dear Bashar Assad apologists. To some of those who detest him, he does this because he is an opportunist and a careerist (I don’t know and I don’t care).

On the other end of the spectrum is, Glenn Greenwald, who has long since turned away from being a fire-breathing leftist and has seemingly become a (Christopher) Hitchenesque figure in his (justifiable) hatred of the Democrats and the liberals, (not to mention the fact that he is butt-hurt that he doesn’t get invited to the garbage MSNBC anymore). By primarily going against liberals, and not only giving a pass to right-wingers but often passionately defending them, slowly and surely Greenwald has morphed into someone I do not recognize. This may well be because I started reading him in his pre-Snowden Guardian days, and never had the chance to read his even earlier downright shitty blog.

Anyway, as he has morphed, I have been amazed by his repeated defense of right-wingers and his utter inconsistency in defending and attacking people. For instance, when he was friends with Mehdi, he defended the above slimy piece by Mehdi quite strongly and used the most inane logic to do so. I believe it was something along the lines of: Mehdi has used so many great citations and worked so hard on that piece. Secondly, Mehdi has not named anyone in the article, so I don’t understand why people are getting annoyed !!! The bald-faced cheek! Of course, now that he and Mehdi are no longer friends, he wouldn’t dream of defending Mehdi’s pieces as the one above. Now he uses the same inconsistency to defend his new found rightwing friends, much like he used to defend Mehdi.

Nevertheless, despite all of this, despite his clear ignorance and inconsistency, I felt he was still a good nut as Prof. Finkelstein might say. That misapprehension though was shattered by two things: both important but it was the second one which concerned me more. The first was his vociferous defense of Tucker Carlson’s despicable anti immigration views. I was so disturbed by that particular interview and rant, that I remember even shooting a mail to Chomsky, who responded, like he did to all similar queries about Glenn that were apparently coming to him during those days: “I don’t know what he is up to”. About Glenn’s defense of Tucker Carlson, Chomsky said much else besides, which I won’t share.

However, it was the latter occurrence which really caused me a great deal of concern. I noticed that since starting his personal Substack and then Rumble, Glenn had become noticeably less vocal on Israel Palestine. This was both in terms of quantity but perhaps more importantly, quality. The same vociferous invective he would earlier use against Israel and its supporters, and that he still uses against the democrats and liberals, went missing altogether. The reason was clear. The first time he criticized Israel after starting his Substack, he received harsh feedback from his rightwing followers, which apparently jolted him enough to tweet something to the effect that: it seems that Israel/Palestine is still one issue where [now enlightened?] right-wingers appear to retain their earlier views

The violent reaction that he received from his new-found rightwing supporters did the trick. Glenn Greenwald has not been the same on Israel Palestine. Recent events in Palestine and his reaction to them in the form of several tweets and Rumble podcasts have confirmed the same. His reaction has been limited to either tepid reposts of some other people’s interviews and other people’s tweets (pro-Palestinian for sure) or to framing the Israel Palestine conflict in terms of attacks on free speech, or framing the conflict in nationalist, America-first terms, i.e., the US should not get involved etc.

What takes the cake is this Rumble video, in which after, flattering his audience (I know our audience is so mature that they are not here only to have their views reinforced, and several other such ingratiating remarks), he goes on to say a whole lot of nothing about Israel’s monstrous actions. He goes so far as to say something along the lines of I realize that people are heated on this issue (you don’t say) and people bring up Israel’s justified right etc. Really? Where is the same invective that this irascible idiot uses against AOC, one woman, who for all her faults, perceived or real, in comparison to the state of Israel must be deemed a goddess. Is there even any comparison? In which universe are the two even comparable? Instead of taking this opportunity to dismantle Israeli propaganda to his hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of viewers, the above is what he did. One may view the whole pathetic 2 hour long performance and wonder how this is better than anything Mehdi Hasan does. In fact its much worse. So if (and only if) Mehdi Hasan is a sewer rat, then Glenn Greenwald is an inconsistent bristling pig!

However, quod licet Iovi, non licet bovi (“What is permissible for Jupiter is not permissible for a cow”). What feats and follies are allowed to someone like Norman Finkelstein are not allowed to dwarfs such as myself. Norman Finkelstein is someone who, to quote Chomsky, has done more for the Palestinian cause than anyone in the west. So I am not going to label either Mehdi Hasan or Glenn Greenwald as sewer pigs and so forth. Because if dwarfs such as myself start this sort of labeling then where does it end. Ali Abunimah of Electronic Intifida who is solid on Palestine, had said that “Chomsky, like his grumpy acolyte Norman Finkelstein, steadfastly resist engaging with Palestinians”. Imagine saying this about Chomsky and Norman Finkelstein, people who have been engaging with Palestinians from before Ali Abunimah was born. Where is the sense of proportion? Sure, you disagree with Finkelstein or Chomsky on some issues, that’s fine. That does not allow you to calumnize them, especially given these are people who have given their entire lives for the cause, starting from a time when siding with the Palestinians was unheard of in the west.

Quod licet Iovi, non licet bovi. Dwarfs such as myself should not do what Norman does. What I will allow myself is the following. All we have are exasperated, bristling vanities who do not and cannot hold a candle to the likes of Chomsky, Eqbal Ahmed, Norman Finkelstein et al. So don’t call Mehdi a sewer rat Norman. Glenn Greenwald and Mehdi Hasan are all you are going to get. There are good reasons for this. People such as Greenwald, Hasan and co., don’t understand that left intellectuals are supposed to work within an ecosystem of activism, don’t have much historical context of movements, and quite importantly have their brains fried by constantly being on Twitter/X and other social media (this is not a joke) . What else can be expected from people such as them (or someone like me even further down the scale)? The era of thoughtful, painstakingly diligent, discerning, unpretentious people is gone. What we have is what we have; it is what it is. Glenn Greenwald, Mehdi Hasan, Ali Abunimah, Max Blumenthal etc., do good things and they do shitty things and that’s the best we are going to get.

Chomsky is dead, long live bristling, exasperated vanities!

(This essay is simply me taking the easy way out because given what’s being done to Gaza right now, the brandishing of Israel’s flags on European buildings (which is where I live), ban on protests, etc., can only make one curse and shout, not write! Gandhi for all his faults, saw a truth that most of us Easterners still haven’t imbibed properly: “Western Civilization? It would be a good idea.”)