Category Archives: Rationalism

Ho, ho, ho. Merrybeginningof Christmas, you low Protestant plebs! In the spirit of the ongoing season, Id like to update this little corner with some thoughts on that touchiest of evergreen third-rail topics: Santa Claus.

Santa Claus has been enjoying some good press recently thanks to Neil DeGrasse Tyson, who made a heavily ratioed Christmas Eve tweet reminding everyone that Santas reindeer would have been vaporized into oblivion long before they could complete a delivery trip around the planetin case we werent aware. Twitter had a romp with this, of course, in the grand Twitter tradition of mercilessly roasting Neil DeGrasse Tyson. Perhaps my favorite was a straight-faced reply thread calmly explaining that Neil is applying an outdated scientific framework to Santas sleigh, which requires a quantum physics analysis. You see, once Santa is observed by a child, the wave function collapses, which is why children can never catch him. The whole thing was delightful.

Still, glorious as it was to enjoy all this fun at Neil DeGrasse Tysons expense, I remain as personally crotchety as Ive always been on the merits of teaching your kids to believe in Santa Claus. Yes, insert grumpy Clint Eastwood GIF here. Im not a fan, guys, sorry to say. This might earn me some boos from certain quarters, which doesnt shock me. It seems that every year, without fail, some would-be Chesterton starts posting about why actually, parents who withhold the Santa Claus Myth from their kids are just being stick-in-the-mud fundie spoil-sports who dont understand the awesome power of Story. Jesus told parables, after all. Why are Christians so hung up about this, when Christians should be the first to throw themselves into an unfettered celebration of creative make-believe?

Recently, I caved and watched the original Miracle on 34th Streetfor the first time, a movie which seems to define the phrase having your cake and eating it too. For anyone who doesnt know the plot, its a charming fable aping the structure of Christs incarnation and rejection, but without anything so grim as a crucifixion to make the analogy complete. As the real Kris Kringle makes his benevolent way around New York, children are thrilled, adults skepticism is tested, and one little girl and her mother learn the true meaning of faith.

The movies adorable heroine, precocious 8-year-old Susie (Natalie Wood), has been thoroughly trained in cold rationalism. Shes That Kid, the one who priggishly spoils the fun for kids who are still in a state of suspended disbelief. And not only does she doubt Santa, she cant even play basic pretend games with her friends. When Kris teaches her how to imitate a monkey, its a revelation for her. All of this, we learn, is transferred jadedness from her mother Doris (Maureen OHara), a divorcee who has learned the hard way not to wait for wishes to come true. In the end, the mothers own faith is sweetly restored by the earnest young lawyer who vindicates Kris in court while falling in love with her. The lawyer also gets the movies famous one-line definition of faith: believing when common sense tells you not to.

The movie is emphatic that this is the real take-home message, even as an actual evidential case mounts for Kriss authenticity. A Lewisian trilemma could be applied, as Kris seems manifestly not to be a bad man in either sense of the word. Meanwhile, Susie suspects something is up when he takes a small Dutch girl on his knee and begins fluently chatting in her native tongue. Yet, curiously, the precise extent of Kriss powers is left in soft focus. We never see him perform a concrete miracle, although its hinted at the very end that he might have teleported from one place to another. His method of supplying gifts repeatedly seems to consist of giving the right parent the right store tip in the nick of time. Before the conclusion, Susies budding faith is momentarily shattered when Kris is unable to make the Cape Cod of her dreams materialize immediately. He tells her that he is sorry, that he tried his best but he just couldnt make it happen. Her mother tries to buoy her up by repeating that she has to keep believing anyway. You mean its like if at first you dont succeed, try, try again, Susie replies bitterly. I thought so.

This importantly blurs together two very different conceptions of faith. There is faith as defined in the tagline, meaning belief beyond evidence, beyond common sense. But then there is the kind of faith C. S. Lewis defines, while explicitly rejecting this definition. Faith isnotabout believing beyond what the evidence warrants. Rather, it is about holding on to what you know to be true in spite of shifting moods. That is a very different kind of thing. But for Susie, in her moment of disappointment, they are inextricably bound up together. Yet a couple scenes later, she can be found sitting forlornly on the couch, repeating under her breath, I believe, I believe, its silly but I believe.

In the end, Kris once again performs a non-miraculous nudge by giving young Fred the directions to Susies dream house, where Fred promises to buy it and proposes to Doris on the spot. In thinking back over these accumulated nudges, I was reminded of the way Michael Ruse frames Christs miracle of the loaves and fishesthat most likely the true miracle was not that Jesus literally multiplied the food, which would be the crudest form of jiggery-pokery, but that he inspired the crowds to bring out and share what they had with each other. In the same way, the makers of the film seem to want to avoid directly ascribing miraculous power to Kris, emphasizing that human love and brotherhood is the real reason for the season. Kris Kringle is a Christ figure, but only according to a watered-down modernist vision of ChristChrist by way of Tbingen. Let people have Christ, it seems to whisper, just as we let the children have Santa. Are they really so different?

This is the sort of subliminal cultural messaging that makes Christian parents uneasy with the Santa myth. Theyre not wrong to feel that discomfort. The messaging is unmistakably there. And C. S. Lewis isnt quite the ally some seem to think he is in making their case to the contrary.

Of course, theres more than one way to let the children have Santa. One can allow the fable to filter naturally to them by osmosis. One can make a game of it when theyre still too little to ask precocious questions. And, contra the strawman of rigid repressed Susie, one can nurture a childs imagination in all sorts of ways that dont involve elaborately blurring the distinction between fable and reality. But in the end, fables are meant to be held lightly, as no more than what they are. And faith, as the writer of Hebrews has it, should be presented not as a closing of the mind, but as the substance of things hoped for with good reason, from that place where heart and mind unite. It may not be a faith that is always easy to maintain, as Lewis well knows and recognizes. God may choose not to grant prayer, not to make wishes come true. But it is precisely because Christ and Kris Kringle are notone and the same that we are made able, even in these most painful moments, to keep saying, I believe. I believe. Its not silly, and I believe.

More here:

Will the Real Santa Claus Please Stand Up? - Patheos

A lot of noise is being made over criticism of MK Gandhi after Kalicharan Maharajs recent speech at the Raipur Dharma Sansad. The Chhattisgarh government headed by Congress Bhupesh Baghel has now arrested Kalicharan and many people are asking an important question. Is MK Gandhi beyond criticism? Why are some political leaders so touchy and indignant about Gandhi being criticised?

Author and scientist Dr Anand Ranganathan today shared some statements written by Dr BR Ambedkar wherein he had criticised MK Gandhi and his style of politics in a not so subtle manner.

Dr Ranganathan questioned those who are demanding the arrest of those criticising Gandhi if they would go after Dr Ambedkar too. While sharing an excerpt from an article Dr Ambedkar wrote about Gandhi, he said, What Kalicharan Maharaj has said on Gandhi is nothing compared to what Dr Ambedkar had said on Gandhi, a tiny fraction of which I attach as proof. Dear bhakts of Mahatma Gandhi, let me see if you have the guts to go after Babasaheb. Bloody hypocrites.

The excerpt Ranganathan shared was from the article Is Gandhi A Mahatma? Dr Ambedkar wrote for a Marathi Magazine Chittra. It was published in its Dipavali Special Number, J 938. It is also available on page 66 of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Writings and speeches volume 17 part II available on Ministry of External Affairs website.

In the article, Dr Ambedkar talked about how the politics of Gandhi was hollow and noisy. He said, The politics of Gandhi is hollow and noisy. It is the most dishonest politics in the history of Indian polity. Gandhi was the man responsible for eliminating morality from politics and instead introduced commercialism in Indian politics. Politics has been denuded of its virtue.

In the 1,800+ word article, Dr Ambedkar extensively talked about why he had a problem with Gandhi being referred to as Mahatma. He said he was sick of the question Is Gandhi a Mahatma. Explaining why the question annoyed him, he said, Firstly, I hate all the Mahatmas and firmly believe that they should be done away with. I am of the opinion that their existence is a curse to the nation in which they are born. The reason why I say so is because they try to perpetuate blind faith in place of intelligence and reason. Secondly, I do not know what exactly people understand by the word Mahatma.

Explaining how people were referred to as Mahatma in India at that time and how easy it was to become one, Dr Ambedkar said, It is very easy for anybody to become a Mahatma in India by merely changing his dress. If you are wearing an ordinary dress and leading an ordinary life, even if you perform extraordinary noble deeds, nobody takes any notice of you. But a person who does not behave in normal manner and shows some peculiar trends and abnormalities in his character, he becomes a saint or a Mahatma.

Dr Ambedkar said he was not surprised Gandhi became Mahatma in India because people had the tendency to worship those who discards his clothes, run about naked, grows long hair, abuses people and drinks dirty water from the gutters. He added, people fall at his feet and begin to worship him. In these circumstances if Gandhi becomes Mahatma in India there is nothing surprising. Hinting India was an uncivilised country, Dr Ambedkar said, Had these things been practised in any other civilised country, people would have laughed at him.

Dr Ambedkar expressed his confusion why people fussed over Gandhi over the teachings like Satya and Ahimsa that originally came from Lord Buddha. Nobody except an ignorant fool or congenital idiot would give credit to Gandhi for originality in this matter. There is nothing new in the pronouncement that Truth and Non-violence are necessary for the preservation of human civilisation. There is nothing new that Gandhi has added to the maxim, he said.

He added Gandhi did not provide answers to many questions regarding in what circumstances the world should uphold the noble principle of truth and consider violence a right action. He said Gandhis character leaned more towards cunningness than seriousness or sincerity. He has managed to keep himself in the forefront by means of cunning and inherent shrewdness. A person who has faith in his capacity and character faces the realities of life in a bold and manly manner, Dr Ambedkar added.

Treachery and deceit are the weapons of the weak. Gandhi has always used these weapons, said Dr Ambedkar. He mentioned how during the Round Table Conference, he promised not to raise any objection against the demands to be tabled by the Depressed Classes. However, as soon as they tabled their demands, he objected to the same. I call it a betrayal of the people belonging to the Depressed Classes, Dr Ambedkar said. He added, He went to the Moslems and told them that he would support their 14 demands if they in turn opposed the demands placed by the representatives of the Depressed Classes. Even a scoundrel would not have done this. This is only one instance of Gandhis treachery.

He further added how Gandhi, in order to humiliate Nehru, opposed the proposals made to amend the Nehru Committees Report during an open session of Congress. He said, The corrections which were proposed to be made in the Nehru Committee Report were suggested by Mr Jinnah for the benefit of his community. But, when Gandhi came to know about it, he thought a great deal more had been given to the Moslems by Pandit Motilal Nehru than what he wanted In order to humiliate Pt. Motilal Nehru he vehemently opposed these proposals.

Dr Ambedkar also blamed Gandhi for the hostile relation between Hindus and Muslims. He said, Hindu-Moslem hostility is the result of the deceitful action on the part of Gandhiji. This immensely pained me. There is an old saying which benefits the occasion (Bagal mein chhurri Munh mein Ram) : Gods name on the lips and dagger under the armpit. If such a person can be called a Mahatma, by all means call Gandhi a Mahatma.

He added, The politics of Agarkar and Tilak was based on honesty and truth. It was not hollow and noisy. But the politics of Gandhi is hollow and noisy. It is the most dishonest politics in the history of Indian polity. Gandhi was the man responsible for eliminating morality from politics and instead introduced commercialism in Indian politics. Politics has been denuded of its virtue.

Dr Ambedkar urged Hindus to find a way to get rid of the pernicious saintly idiosyncracies of Gandhiji in Indian public life. He said, If the Hindu India does not realise it today, it will take a long time to retrace its steps. Majority of the Indian population is illiterate, ignorant and uncivilised. This may not be the fault of the people. The privileged few of the society have deliberately kept the masses ignorant and illiterate. As a matter of fact it is impossible to fight against the Mahatma on the strength purely of logic and rationalism.

Dr Ambedkar questioned the saints and mahatmas of that time and equated Gandhi to them. He said they had learned the ways to befool people. He questioned if Hindu would try to change the minds of mahatmas so that they try to serve India rather than themselves.

The rest is here:

Gandhis politics is hollow and noisy, full of treachery and deceit: Read what Dr Ambedkar said about the Mahatma - OpIndia

For us at OpIndia, the year 2021 has been tremendously productive. Its been a year of progress and possibilities. Its been a year in which weve bettered our own performance, leaving many well established and bigger websites behind in terms of traffic while maintaining unwavering support from our readers.

In the face of this devastating pandemic that left us all devoid of the fervour of life, we at OpIndia have attempted to be our readers eyes and ears as they were stuck in the four walls of their abode. Despite our limited resources, we managed to publish many excellent articles, which were extremely well received and appreciated. Alongside, there were some articles from our regular contributors which helped us go viral and made them the most read this year.

Yet another year has come to a close but our journey has just begun. We promise to continue busting propaganda and delivering the harsh truth and we thank you all for keeping us going.

Below is a list of those 30 opinion pieces, some written by our staff members while some by our contributors that were the most read this year. It may be noted that the list is in random order. You can click on the links provided to read the full article.

This article published on August 19, contributed by one of our guest authors, named Vahram Ayvazyan, spoke about the civilizational, cultural, socio-political and economic tiesArmenia and India have shared and how the time was apt for the two countries to collaborate given the ongoing capricious political climate.

In the article by R Sood published on our website on August 12, the author wrote about the looming controversy related to the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), an autonomous organisation of the Government of Indiathat prepares and publishes textbooks used by schools across India. He brought to the fore how NCERT has distorted Indian history by focusing primarily on Modern India i.e, the British and post-independence and Medieval India i.e the Sultanate and Mughal period and conveniently skipping the glorious rich ancient history of India that is Bharat.This article found a place in our 40 most read opinion pieces of 2021.

Tsewang Rigzin, a Fellow at Columbia Population Research Center and Social Policy analysis doctoral candidate at Columbia University, USA, wrote an article for OpIndia where he discussed why India should confer Dalai Lama with the Bharat Ratna award.

The author opined that His Holiness The Dalai Lama of Tibet brought back the Indian tradition of Ahimsa (nonviolence) in the arena of political struggle an idea that changed the world from civil rights movements in the US to the Solidarity movement in Poland and the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa. He wrote how a number of Indian intellectuals and thinkers have opined that the Tibetan spiritual leader deserves the Bharat Ratna for spreading the message of peace and Karuna all his life. This excellent piece was amongst the 40 most read OpIndias articles of 2021.

Author Rajan Laad, who Tweets at@Sir_R_U_L, wrote on July 1, how Indian politics is being impacted by big tech companiesdue to its biases by drawing a parallel between the pattern of behaviour of big tech in the US and India. He explained how the interference of tech giants like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram facilitated the victory of Joe Biden over Donald Trump that too by a slim margin in key states.

Speaking in detail about the biases of these big social media giants, he suggested how the government through its Digital India and Make in India initiatives should commission local talent to either develop or improve upon Indian platforms and provide alternatives to Facebook, Twitter, Google, YouTube, and WhatsApp.

Another article that found its way to the top 40 of 2021, was that by our regular contributor named Suren. He wrote about how the Dravidian brand of rationalism is about attacking only Hindu beliefs and icons while being careful to never critique the beliefs and practices of any other religion. Giving the example of the renowned hatemonger EV Ramasamy, aka Periyar, the author recorded how in the past, the slightest resistance from the Indian Muslim population was sufficient to make the Dravidian movement capitulate, while the campaign of abuse and calumny against Hinduism has gone on for decades, in spite of widespread protests.

Another article that was amongst the most read articles of 2021 was that written by OpIndias former employee K Bhattacharya, where he discussed the biases of the leftist media. He wrote how time and against such mainstream media has resorted to peddling fake newsin order to peddle the political agenda of their masters. The article throws light on the biases of The International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN). It reveals how IFCN has accredited fact-checkers like Boom Live and Alt News as such leftist outlets ideological orientations are similar to their while denying accreditation to websites like OpIndia and Facthuntdue to nothing more than a disagreement over politics.

In a report titled Suicides among the Clergy of the Catholic Church in India: A disturbing trend, Suren throws light on the emerging issue of suicides of young clergymen and women in India. Chronicling many incidents where the Clergy of the Catholic Church in India have committed suicide, the author discusses the plausible reasons why these priests are forced to take up such harsh steps and why over the years critical issues like this one have been swept under the carpet in the name of secularism.

As tensions mounted between Israel and Palestine, the Muslim community from across the globe had registered their strong protest against Israels retaliatory response. The Palestinian supporters in India had implied that the Indian supporters of Israel were nothing but communal and Islamophobic. In such a situation, this article by an author named Mrityunjay delved into the reasons why an average Hindu showed solidarity with Israel. This article was one of the most read articles of 2021.

This article was published on May 7. Writer Michael Tracey wrote how the CIA, USAs premier foreign intelligence agency, enthusiastically endorsed several key tenets of what has now indisputably become a hegemonic left/liberal ideological and rhetorical construct. This article again garnered a lot of appreciation from our readers, propelling it into the top 40 most popular articles of 2021.

This article written by Suren talks comprehensively about Veda Pathashalas, the traditional Vedic schools in India. From its funding to courses available to the career options to the reforms and suggestions to balance the needs of modern society against demands of Vedic learning, this article is so extensive that it piqued our readers interest and made it to the top 40.

This article was co-authored by @aryasanghi and @Vedic_Revival speaks about the assassination of Mahashay Rajpal, the publisher of the satirical book Rangeela Rasool, which revealed details of Prophet Mohammads marriages and sex life as it is in the Quran and had a surface appearance of a lyrical and laudatory work on Muhammad and his teachings. Explaining how Mahatma Gandhi became instrumental in the killing of Mahashay Rajpal by inciting the Muslims against him, the article also hints at the double standards of the left cabal, who try to portray themselves as proponents of secularism and free speech in India while suppressing dissenting voices.

Towards the end of March this year, President Ram Nath Kovind had given his assent to the National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Act, 2021. When the bill was passed by Parliament, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had termed it a sad day for Indian democracy. This article by S Sudhir Kumar delved into the unnecessary media outrage over the Government of NCT of Delhi (Amendment) Act. He explained how the biased media helped Kejriwal, by pinning the blame on Modi for a law bought by the Congress party. This article, which exposed leftist media bias, received a lot of attention from our readers and became one of the top 40 most viewed stories of 2021.

Bombay HC judge Justice Pushpa V Ganediwala had drawn flak for her controversial skin-to-skinorder on sexual assault at the beginning of the year. In his article, OpIndia contributor, Pranav Choudhury, analysed the controversial judgement given by the Bombay HC judge that trivialised the ghastly crime of sexual assault, opining how it is critical for the judiciary to intervene and protect the victims, rather than reading statutes in a way that allows the criminals to get away with their crimes.

The opposition parties in Andhra Pradesh, right-wing activists have long been accusing YS Jagan Reddy, a Christian, that ever since he became the Chief Minister of Andhra, he has spent a huge amount on the Christian community services, with an eye on encouraging conversion activities. Experts have raised their concerns regarding the spree of freebies doled out to the Christian communities by the YS Jagan Mohan Reddy-led Andhra Pradesh government.The freebies were not only causing a loss of public money but these appeasement schemes are also aimed at encouraging ordinary Andhra citizens to convert. This article by Sai Priya Chodavarapu, speaks about how ramping up of conversions, and their large-scale commercialization began under the Congress government of YSR.

There is a long history of dissonance between the indigenous ethnic Uyghur and Chinese authorities. The Chinese government refuses to categorize Uyghurs as an indigenous population and describe Uyghurs as a regional minority. Dr Burhan Uluyol (Uyghur), the articles author, spoke about Chinas unabashed atrocities against the countrys ethnic minorities, particularly the Uygurs, while also pointing to the stoic silence of other countries, especially Islamic countries, over the issue, which he believes have been bought by China.

Modi bashing has been the favourite sport of the opposition parties, the coterie of leftists and their friendly media ever since the former has taken up the reigns of the country in his hands. In this article published on February 15, 2021, writer S Sudhir Kumar spoke about all those climate activists who have invariably criticised Prime Minister Modi, that too for reasons outside of climate change.

This year, Twitters left bias has been a widely discussed topic. In the run-up to the US elections, Twitter played a significant role in censoring content that was inconvenient to now President-elect Joe Biden. In this article writer, T Waraich discussed how Twitters attempt to equate the Farmers Protest to the Arab Spring was its attempt to delegitimize the Indian Government in the eyes of the Indian people and the rest of the world. The author stated multiple facts to assert that Twitter had fanned an Arab Spring-like situation in India, hoping for it, by not withholding accounts that have either indulged in or fanned an insurrection in India. This article did exceptionally well with our readers safely securing a position in the top 40 most-read articles of 2021.

Carola Rackete, an ANTIFA activist and German woman infamous for captaining and docking a sea vessel with 53 illegal migrants, and her subsequent arrest in Italy, hadexpressedsupport to the farmers protest in India along with an endorsement for infamousHinduphobeRana Ayyub.She had also gone on to recommend following the Twitter account@standwithkashmir, a Twitter account that openly calls for the end of Indian Occupation in Kashmir. This article by T Waraich delved upon the global conspiracy of Kashmiri separatists to fan protests in India.

An article on Hindu Temples by Monidipa Bose Dey, which discussed Vastu Shashtra as a directional science and the various gods associated with it and also discussed the foundation rites and rituals followed while constructing a temple, also received tremendous response from our readers making it one of the most read articles of 2021.

Another article that made it to the top 40 was written by Devanshu Mittal, who detailed how incendiary Punjabi songs reinforced dangerous narratives surrounding the farmers protests. He documented a number of songs that were meticulously exploited to incite secessionism and promote the Khalistani narrative in order to further divide Punjab and India.

With the media playing such a significant part in Indian politics, a number of fact-checkers have sprung up that strive tirelessly to legitimise the ideology they believe in, even if it means falsifying facts. In his article, the author- Abhishek Banerjee talks about such fact-checkers and how they came in super handy for the liberals in the aftermath of the Republic Day violence.

Discussing how the fact-checkers went into overdrive in the aftermath of the R-Day violence in Delhi, the author defined the job of the fact-checker, who, according to him, work tirelessly to dismantle the narrative of the other side, by making people focus on marginal details instead of looking at what actually happened.

The recent spate of temple vandalism incidents in Andhra Pradesh has shocked and scared Hindus across the country. The unjustified, systematic attacks on Hindu temples across the state, which have grown in frequency and severity over the past year, are concerning, to say the least. This article by writer Sai Priya Chodavarupa gave an insight into this concerning issue that has only grown under the YS Jagan governmentin the state.

Author Saket Suryesh in this article discusses how the western media has always treated brown-skinned nations and their societies with brazen disrespectby discussing a report by New Yorkers published on 15thof January, 2021, where the writer, Bill Mckibben, has used the follies of his own political systems and societal prejudices as an excuse to attack India and Hinduism.

In 2021, American society stands massively divided due to divisive politics followed by both sides of their two-party system perhaps, the most polarized it has been since the American Civil War. While President-elect Biden mouths cliched statements about unity and healing, his own party is undergoing a significant churn as progressives within the party want to move the Democratic Party more and more to the left of the political spectrum. This article by @brakoo analysis this churn.

Throughout 2021, when the opposition parties, especially the Congress, was crying foul at the central government three farm laws, a politicalthunderstormtook place in the state of Chhattisgarh where CM Bhupesh Baghel and ex-CM Dr Raman Singh were atloggerheadson the question of mismanagement in paddy procurement. BJP alleged that Congress had failed to deliver its promise of buying farmers produce at Rs. 2500/- quintal MSP while Congress has blamed BJP for creating confusion. This article by @anandwalu gave an insight into the political crisis over the crop procurement in Congress-run Chhattisgarh.

This article by Nivan helps bust the narrative created by the leftists that India under Modi has been recast as a Hindu Rashtra where non-Hindu communities would face brutal oppression, and be either suppressed or exiled. Though this notion is incorrect, the Left ecosystem has successfully manufactured this narrative in a bid to terrify non-Hindus living in Bharat, polarising them for political gains. This interesting article that busts this propaganda weaved by the leftist ecosystem, has successfully made its way to the top 40 opinion pieces of 2021.

After thearrestof comedian Munawar Faruqui in Indore, Indian liberals were asking their favourite question all over again. Why do Hindus these days have no chill? Why cant they just take a joke? And what about free speech? Read this article by our regular contributor Abhishek Banerjee in which he discussed the double standards of the so-called liberals, that has been out there in the open for decades.

A conference that took place in September this year, with sponsorship from Universities in the United States of America had attracted a lot of attention in India. Thethemeof the conference was Dismantling Global Hindutva and was attended by eminent intellectuals of the Indian liberal camp. Shockingly, the anti-Hindu lobby chose the anniversary of one of the worst ever Islamic terror attacks, which took place in New York on September 11, 2001 to hate on Hindus. Besides, the numerous ridiculous and asinine comments that were made at the conference the timing of the event was something far more ridiculous, as discussed in this article by Priyank.

Sanjay Manyal in his article explained how with the collective efforts of farmers, industry, agricultural scientists, state and central government, the sugar industry has had a turnaround from being a vulnerable Industry to a strong cash flow generating sector in Uttar Pradesh.

The Moplah genocide of Hindus is hardly taught in our history books and the Khilafat movement leading up to it are shamelessly whitewashed. In our history books, we are often told that the Khilafat movement was one where Hindus and Muslims fought together to oust the British.OpIndia has extensively covered the Moplah genocide of Hindus and brought to the fore the harsh truths about the heinous genocides in history, that was started as Malabar Muslims supporting the Caliphate in Turkey under the Khilafat movement and got widespread support from Congress leader, mostprominently, by MK Gandhi. This article by Shyam Sreekumar delves into the topic, which has widely garnered the interest of our readers.

In the early morning of October 10th 2021, frontier corps (FC) Balochistan, killed two Baloch minors and injured another by firing mortar shots in the Hoshab area of Turbat Balochistan. Two of the killed children were identified as Allah Baksh, his sister Sharatoon (Malee) aged 5 and 7 years old and wounded one identified as Muskan. All three kids were playing in the back of their home when FC personnel fired mortar shots, as a result of which two of the three victims were killed and one suffered serious injuries. This article by the President of Baloch National Movement UK Zone, Hakeem Baloch, wrote in detail about the atrocities meted out by the Pakistani forces.

Link:

From Balochistan to US, Armenia, Hindutva, threat of Big Tech and more: Here are the top 30 opinion pieces from 2021 handpicked by Editors - OpIndia

This article was originally published here

Z Relig Ges Polit. 2021 Nov 26:1-20. doi: 10.1007/s41682-021-00095-9. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

The article presents the results of the interpretation of qualitative interviews with coronavirus critics. It focuses on the forms of social criticism manifested in the interviews. The analysis (1) shows that the critique is based on a rationalistic ideal of crisis resolution. The fact that the coronavirus crisis, from this point of view, is not dealt with rationally is seen as an indication that there is something fundamentally wrong with it. It is this problem that the conspirituality of the critics reacts to: a combination of conspiracy theory and esoteric ideas whose unity is based on the interest in the mysterious. The analysis (2) allows to determine the specific style of the critique of counter-measures as formal pathetics: Substantially, it remains relatively empty, while rhetorically it is emphasized all the more emphatically. The rhetorical means are the most drastic comparisons possible, the romanticism of the heroic resistance and the claim to be committed to the well-being of children. Finally, (3) we put forward a socio-theoretical embedding of the critique of counter-measures, which assumes with Eisenstadt that modern society is characterized by an erosion of the foundations of all certainty. This leads to a fundamental credibility problem, manifesting itself in the loss of confidence in central social institutions (politics, science, medicine, media). The criticism of counter-measures expresses that in an ideal-typical way.

PMID:34938949 | PMC:PMC8620311 | DOI:10.1007/s41682-021-00095-9

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Rationalism and mystification. On the formal pathetic of being against - DocWire News

In 1843, English civil servant Sir Henry Cole, who would become the first director of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, asked his friend John Horsley to design what would become the first-ever commercially printed Christmas card. The first cards were hand-produced and each copy cost a shilling, which was more than the daily wage of many workers in the Victorian Age.

As printing methods improved and production costs went down, gifting Christmas cards became a very popular practice. But the artwork used on these cards to share seasons greetings have undergone many transformations since then.

More interestingly, starting from the Victorians macabre sketches to Spanish artist Salvador Dals surrealist experimentation, many Christmas cards over the ages have used artwork that challenged conventions, inspired awe and even provoked outrage.

Dals surrealist art would be a good point to start our journeyalbeit a non-linear oneinto the history of the most bizarre Christmas cards.

Born in the aftermath of World War I, surrealism was an artistic and literary movement that had a firm focus on channeling the unconscious to unlock the power of imagination. In a departure from the post-enlightenment logic of absolute rationalism and realism, surrealist art was illogical, absurdist and at times even unnerving as it thrived on biomorphic and dream-like imagery.

In surrealism, there is something awkwardly unsettling about the juxtaposition of images that break the chain of causality, when one moment or expression leads to another without any logical connection being established. The conflation of images gives rise to a sense of forced hybridity, as in the famous dream sequence in Alfred Hitchcocks Spellbound where free-floating eyes transform into painted curtains, which are shredded by a man with scissors; a scene succeeded by a game of cards and a man without a face.

Spellbound, starring Ingrid Bergman as a psychiatrist, capitalised on the rise of pop psychology in America in the light of the growing public interest in the work of German psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. For its dream sequence, Hitchcock had roped in Dal who had become synonymous with the surrealist movement that gained prominence in the early part of the 20th century.

The sequence from Spellbound in a way typifies the excesses of the surrealist movementeach image alluring as it provokes a sense of fear and desire, capturing the fragility of each moment as the next person or object makes an illogical and forced intervention. The montage becomes a visual hybrid of what Umberto Eco may call oneiric images.

Like most surrealists, a sense of forced displacement that causes shock was important for Dals art. In 1959, Hallmark approached him, paying an advance of $15,000 for submitting images for greetings cards. Dal ultimately submitted 10 images for Christmas cards, but most of them were considered to be too unsettling to be put into production.

By the late 1940s, Hallmark had started using paintings of contemporary artists on their Christmas cards. So, through the unsophisticated art of greeting cards, the worlds greatest masters were shown to millions of people who might otherwise not have been exposed to them, company founder Joyce Clyde Hall wrote in his autobiography.

By the time Hallmark approached Dal, it had used the art of Pablo Picasso, Paul Cezanne, Paul Gauguin, Vincent Van Gogh and Georgia OKeeffe on their Christmas cards. But Dals surrealist renditions of the Christmas tree and the Holy Family were considered to be too dangerous or avant-garde at that timeof the 10 images he submitted, only two were finally put into production.

The ones that were rejected included images of a headless angel playing a lute, a Christmas tree made of butterflies and a representation of three wise men riding camels.

Even the two images which were selectedThe Nativity and Madonna and Childhad the ebullient excesses that embodied Dals style. They marked a radical departure from depictions of the nativity scene or Madonna in high Renaissance art. The difference in Dals imagery is stark when compared alongside the magical transcendence embodied in a painting like The Mystical Nativity by Renaissance master Sandro Botticelli.

If Botticellis depiction elevates the senses to a state of spiritual transcendence, Dals art is marked by the spirit of irreverence that reduces the nativity scene to the mundaneness of everyday life.

The surrealists looked down upon high art as a form of bourgeois individualism. They focused on the everydayness of existence even as they deployed a stylised technique which was divorced from rationality and logic. In choosing their imagery, the focus remained firmly on, what Andr Breton in his 1924 Surrealist manifesto calls, psychic automatism, which is to be exercised in the absence of any control exercised by reason, exempt from any aesthetic concerns. This free play of images, with the objective of giving an unbridled reign to the unconscious, was supposed to produce images which lacked logical explanations and causal connections, resulting in a sense of shock and awe.

The forced juxtaposition of images produced this effect even in surrealist poetry. For example, in Bretons Free Union (1931), he writes: My wife with her figure of an otter between the tigers teethMy wife with temples the slate of a hothouse roof/With eyebrows the edge of a swallows nestMy wife with wooden eyes always under the axe

This penchant for using images to produce a sense of shock was also a hallmark of the Dadaist movement which many believe sowed the seeds of surrealism. A notorious moment that became a high point of the movement was in 1917 when Marcel Duchamp submitted a mens urinalplayfully signed R. Muttand titled Fountainfor the New York Society of Independent Artists exhibition.

Much like his other paintings, Dals art for the Christmas cards was considered too obtuse and outrageous during his time. For all his obsession with ants and molten clocks, his art was subsumed by the metaphoric potential of images.

American artist Andy Warhol drew a series of blotted line Christmas cards in the 1950s. The pope of pop, as he came to be known, designed some of these for Tiffanys and even featured in a couple of Christmas card catalogues for the Museum of Modern Art.

But these are among his least remembered works. Unimpressed with his efforts, one of his clients in the 1950s reportedly remarked: He gave us a whole series of little funny drawings for Christmasthey were his original drawings, little sketches of an angel, or a cat all bright redbut hardly anything was suitable for Christmas. They werent very appealing.

But among the works that brought him fame were Warhols paintings with Christian imagery. He drew the Monalisa series in 1963 by using silkscreena stenciling technique for surface printing which was developed in the 1900sto duplicate Leonardo da Vincis famous painting. This was followed by the Jackie series which rendered Jackie Kennedy as a figure out of a piet modelled after Michelangelos creation.

In the 1980s, Warhol spent time working on his Modern Madonna series for which he asked mothers to sit while they nursed their babies. He was subsequently offered a million dollars by art dealer Alexander Iolas to produce his Last Supper series.

Despite the overtly Christian imagery in this series, through his art he also tried to send out a message to fundamentalist Protestant evangelists and Roman Catholic bishops who denounced gay life. Warhol, who lived openly as a gay man, through his works in the series, particularly Be a Somebody with a Body, tried to address the homophobic biases and controversies surrounding AIDS which were dominating headlines at that time.

Long before the quirky experimentation by the modernists, the Victorians taste for the macabre played out in the form of weird artwork on their Christmas cards. This was an age when Santa Claus had not been commercialised and Hallmark was not yet established.

It was only in 1881 that cartoonist Thomas Nast (Baghsaw) represented Santa Claus in a form which we would recognise today. The representation in Harpers Weekly went on to become a recurring concept on Christmas cards.

Before that, animals, flowers and foliage along with seasonal greetings were very common. But using bizarre representations, which by modern standards could be considered inappropriate for the purpose of cheering up spirits, were also in vogue. Among the disturbing Christmas cards which were popular back then are the ones with images of dead birds, murderous frogs and children being boiled.

A wide range of animals and birds were used in the artwork but there was a common recurring theme of death. Many experts have attributed this to the low life expectancy and high mortality rate during harsh winters in the Victorian era.

Many of the images were nightmarish. Coloured sketches of rosy-faced children spreading cheer would be tempered with a turnip wearing a hat, dead robins, glum-faced animals and sinister food items leaping out. Amid the spirit of Christmas cheer, there was a ubiquitous and omnipresent feeling of dark foreboding and death.

At the same time, the practice of using Christmas imagery in the form of Jesus Christ, angels, crosses, sheep and carols on Christmas cards was extremely popular. T.H.S. Escott in Social Transformations of the Victorian Age writes: The Victorian age is in fact above all others an age of religious revival. Historians like Owen Chadwick note that the clergy became more zealous from the middle of the 1850s as they conducted worship more reverently, knew their people better, understood a little more theology, said more prayers, celebrated sacraments more frequently, studied the Bible, preached shorter sermons.

The propensity to experiment with the bizarre, often perhaps to explore the redemptive and radical potential of art, has endured the test of time. Centuries after the Victorians used images of dead birds and long after the headless angel of Dal, the most recent Christmas cards to have provoked curiosity and condemnation in equal measure are by street artist Banksy.

Among the controversial Christmas graffiti by Banksy is a representation of the nativity scene in which Joseph and Mary are blocked from reaching Bethlehem by the Israeli West Bank barrier. The painting has been around till 2005 but had gone viral on social media recently following a renewed escalation of the Israel-Palestine conflict.

A few years ago, Birmingham residents discovered a reindeer wall graffiti which was widely considered to be the work of Banksy. Subsequently, the artist himself shared on Instagram the video of a homeless man lying down on a bench behind which the graffiti is visible on the wall. As Ill Be Home for Christmas played on in the background, Banksys subversion of the figure of Santaimagined here not as a deliverer but a common man rendered powerless by the forces of global capitalis both poignant and powerful.

In 2020, a Banksy Christmas card, which showed Raymond Briggss famous snowman bending over another while smoking a fag, sold for nearly 4,000 in London.

Many of Banksys Christmas cards had been first exhibited at popup galleries in the early 2000s. These exhibitions at centres around London and once in Palestine were usually sold out affairs.

As a popular anecdote goes, the street artist had once just entered one of his exhibitions at a Santas Ghetto in London in 2003 only to find the police asking a staff member if Banksy was there. Im sorry I cant help. I dont know who Banksy is, the staff member reportedly lied. And Banksy, while looking at the paintings just like any other connoisseur of art, calmly walked out.

Andr Breton, Manifestoes of Surrealism, Translated by Helen R. Lane and Richard Seaver (Michigan: University of Michigan Press, 1972)

David Hopkins, Dada and Surrealism: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 2004)

Salvador Dal, The Secret Life of Salvador Dal, Translated by Haakon M Chevalier (New York: Dover Publications, INC., 1993)

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From headless angels to boiled children: A brief history of macabre Christmas cards by the worlds greatest artists - The Indian Express

This engaging memoir recounting tales from a career as a technical advisor put me in mind of a long night at a wine-soaked dinner party at an expat compound, the type of evening the author herself recounts as having savoured many times.

There are well-turned yarns, droll reflections, thought-provoking asides and sometimes the most deliciously indiscreet observations.

But mysterious loneliness hangs over proceedings too, with unanswered questions about why guests have chosen to pursue such unsettled and professionally unsatisfying lives.

Mary Venner was a Canberra public servant who craved more thrills than a brisk constitutional around the lake during her lunchbreak.

She wanted to get into overseas work and become an aid worker, but didnt hanker to be the kind who looks after starving children or puts up tents for refugees. Instead, her stock in trade is in constructing something that cannot readily be seen: institutional capacity.

The book recounts her stints working as a public financial management adviser in positions where, as she puts it drily, my main qualification was simply my willingness to get on a plane at short notice and travel halfway around the world to a place I knew nothing about.

Venners life felt very familiar to me. I, too, frequently fended off the question of where are you this time as a jobbing consultant travelling around the world preparing similar products of administrative rationalism.

We were in some of the same places at around the same time.

We might well have revelled at the same bacchanals in Pristina and Kabul. The book is divided into three sections which follow each other chronologically.

The first section is devoted to Venners account of working to build new institutions from scratch in UN administered Kosovo at the turn of the millennium.

She is perceptive about the showy folly of many of the priorities that guided international priorities oodles of funding for media development and less for agriculture and education.

She deftly captures how the politics that animated donors and Kosovars alike stood in sharp contrast to the apolitical, bureaucratic-driven vision of government that the type of projects she was working on officially promoted.

Small wonder so many foundered. Her Balkan contracts at an end, Venner heads to Kabul working off a terms of reference copy and pasted from Kosovo.

When she arrives, budgets are still being managed via gigantic ledger books and an accounting schema introduced in the 1960s by some of Venners consulting predecessors.

She encounters Ashraf Ghani, then finance minister and a future president, who is drawn as a cantankerous and high-handed dreamer, more interested in big donor-funded projects than the ministrys routine work of raising tax revenue and paying the governments bills.

Even in 2002, the Afghan government had a house of cards quality to it.

The last third of the book rattles through tales acquired from other assignments in places as diverse as Libya and the Philippines.

I very much enjoyed her well drawn account of complete governmental resistance to a USAID finance project in kleptocratic Kiev.

A conclusion entitled exit report provides a more spirited defence of technical advisory work than readers of the pages prior might anticipate.

Venners book raises important questions about how technical assistance is conceptualised and delivered.

Although the book doesnt cover the Pacific, a lot of the observations about technical assistance hold currency for the various partnerships in justice, governance, financial management and everything else that the Australian aid program is rolling out presently.

The book constitutes an especially valuable peek into the precarities and uncertainties inherent to the typically out-ofsight world of aid contracting.

Venner has worked for a slew of companies who deliver such programs. Companies run on contracts and the key determinant of success for a project is whether those funding the project deem it a success.

Venner renders well this incentive structure in an acidic pen portrait of Robert a chief of party in the doomed financial management project in Ukraine.

The only issue of concern to him appeared to be what will USAID think, Will I get into trouble and Who can I blame, Venner writes.

Weve all met a few Roberts in our time, along with their jittery alter-egos from aid bureaucracies who lean on the Roberts by making foreboding noises about withholding milestone payments.

Grousing about such people is a common activity of those who work in aid, but we get coy when it comes to mentioning these hidden hierarchies in public. Venner is to be given credit for writing frankly about a ubiquitous but rarely-raised issue.

Throughout her time abroad, Venner lives in an English-speaking bubble, linguistically and culturally cut off from the people she is working with, and rarely sticking around long enough to acquire more than surface familiarity.

The majority of her colleagues are in a similar boat. Along with the books humour and insight Venner is to be commended for painting an honest and sometimes poignant picture of what a forlorn and downright lonely line of work this can be.

My sole kvetch with the book is that we learn little about Venners own internal journey. What motivated her to keep at this work? Did she ever want to say stuff it and go do something else? Did her family (as mine did) ever wonder when shed get a proper job? Did the inconsistencies, hypocrisies and loneliness of this line of work ever get too much to bear? It cant all be wry stories, surely.

Mary Venners Where are you this time? is an important read for anyone hoping to work in development consulting or better understand it.

Read more:

The Fiji Times Where are you this time? - Fiji Times

As is our annual tradition (here was last year's), the University of Chicago Law School has posted a list of books our faculty are reading and recommend this year. Here are the two I highlighted:

The Scout Mindset, by Julia Galef

A book about how and why to be rationalthat is, to try to see the world as it is even if it isn't what we wish. (A "soldier mindset" is committed to fighting back against beliefs we don't currently hold; a "scout mindset" is committed to learning the truth about what's out there, even if it's bad news.) The book also demonstrates great sympathy for the emotional urges that make it hard for us to think clearly, using stories and examples ranging from the Dreyfuss Affair to the author's own love life. Important and maybe life-changing.

I tried to write that blurb without using the word "rationalism" for fear that the people who would most benefit from reading it would be put off by the "ism." I trust that isn't as true of Volokh readers.

As for fiction, I picked A Memory Called Empire, by Arkady Martine

A palace intrigue set in an interplanetary empire. The protagonist heads from her far-flung homeworld to the imperial capital armed with the technologically implanted memories of her dead predecessor, a too-tempting love of imperial culture, and yet a stubborn loyalty to her home planet. A page-turning and haunting story ensues. The best science fiction book I've read in a long time, and the sequel (A Desolation Called Peace) is just as good.

There was no question that Julia's book was going to be my non-fiction recommendation for the year (and you can listen to my appearance on her podcast earlier this year if you want to know more about why). But I've read a lot of science fiction and fantasy this year so there was more competition there. I also really enjoyed the Goblin Emperor and its quasi-sequel by Katherine Addison; The Daevabad Trilogy (City of Brass, etc.) by S. A Chakraborty; the newest Penric books by Lois McMaster Bujold; The Scholomance books by Naomi Novik; Hail Mary by Andy Weir; and the Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells.

See the rest here:

This Year's Book Recommendations - Reason

Admittedly, over much of the time during this cryptocurrency rally, Ive offered philosophical takes regarding this sector, mainly because I believe were entering uncharted territory of speculation. Believe it or not, my priority is to advocate for our readers. Recklessly participating in cryptos invites danger. But when it comes to Sandbox (CCC:SAND-USD), Im much more lucid: if you want to participate, wait.

Source: Ira Lichi / Shutterstock.com

As you know, the crypto market is taking a page out of the equities sector, which suffered a beatdown over concerns about how the Federal Reserve will battle the blisteringly accelerative inflation rate. Logically, if the Fed decides to take away the punch bowl of monetary support, thats not going to appeal for risk-on assets. This category of course includes cryptos like Sandbox and the entire digital asset complex.

Its not so much that higher rates are negative for growth stocks and other sentiment-fueled publicly traded opportunities. Rather, investors under the principle of economic rationalism will park their money toward sectors that feature an ideal risk-reward profile. Much of the reason why investors clamored for growth names and cryptos during the new normal is to hedge against the inflation that everyones worried about now.

Nevertheless, if you have a long-term framework with Sandbox and related projects, the coronavirus pandemic and its associated ills will eventually give way. Thus, SAND-USD could represent a viable discount.

Fundamentally, proponents have a solid case. To make a long story short, Sandbox leverages blockchain technology to facilitate an economic ecosystem for the video gaming sector. Through combining blockchain innovations like decentralized autonomous organizations (DAO) and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), Sandbox aims to create an incentivization structure.

Such structures are known as play to earn, enabling both users and content creators to build digital wealth.

Although the concept of decentralized gaming is a groundbreaking one, its groundbreaking for the users not so much as an economic principle. Sure, any endeavor can now be technically decentralized from fiat-currency-issuing government systems. But unless Sandbox or any other platform develops a token with universally recognized value, the narrative (again, the economic component) falls apart.

Cryptos basically run parallel to the Soviet Union, ironically enough. Essentially, the Soviet Union (though a centralized authority) represented for a long time a viable alternative to western-style capitalism. Indeed, the Soviets had their own ruble as currency. It was a legitimate economy until it wasnt. And I would argue that lack of broader integration doomed the grand communist experiment.

I hope that the same fate doesnt befall Sandbox, but thats a different topic for another day.

What I dont like about buying Sandbox at the present juncture is the technical profile. This time, Im referring to technical analysis, not blockchain technology. When I see the chart for SAND, I recognize a familiar pattern.

From late October to late November of this year, Sandbox skyrocketed from under a buck to well over $8. Basically, this token jumped by 10x and some change in one month. But since then, it has sharply given back much of its gains. And I fear more corrections are on the way.

How come? Well, its the same trajectory that Dogecoin (CCC:DOGE-USD) which I own, for full disclosure suffered. DOGE skyrocketed in May 2021, only to sharply correct and then enter a frustrating sideways consolidation channel.

Shiba Inu (CCC:SHIB-USD)? Same thing. Skyrocketed into late October and sharply corrected thereafter. It too appears like its going to enter a consolidation channel.

I dont have a crystal ball, so I want you to take these words with a grain of salt. However, I think its very possible that the two meme coins I mentioned above may eventually form what technical analysts call a rounding bottom or saucer pattern.

To provide a succinct description, the assets in question absorb all negativity. Once the bears have exhausted themselves, the badly bruised bulls slowly enter the market, gaining confidence as the underlying assets charge higher.

Now, that could be wishful thinking so again, take it with a grain of salt. Nevertheless, given that other cryptos have demonstrated a similar pattern of fierce corrections following a spike rally, I would avoid buying Sandbox right now. Give it some time a few weeks, maybe a few months for clarity before making your move.

On the date of publication, Josh Enomotoheld a LONG position inDOGE.The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.comPublishing Guidelines.

A former senior business analyst for Sony Electronics, Josh Enomoto has helped broker major contracts with Fortune Global 500 companies. Over the past several years, he has delivered unique, critical insights for the investment markets, as well as various other industries including legal, construction management, and healthcare.

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If You Want to Play in the Sandbox, Just Wait for a Few Weeks - InvestorPlace

Tuesday 14 December 2021 7:00 am

Who would have thought that just five years after the Brexit referendum, Wetherspoon boss Tim Martin and the CBI would be back on the same side. Truly, Covid-19 has made for the strangest of bedfellows.

Both have railed, reasonably, against the new Plan B restrictions which are well on their way to being passed into law this afternoon with the help of the Labour party.

Their frustrations are myriad, but chiefly come down to two grievances: one, that Government is creating what CBI boss Tony Danker calls a lockdown mentality, and two, that city centres are being particularly battered by the new restrictions.

They are both right, on both points. One can understand the Governments desire to up the ante on the need for booster jabs.

The round-the-block queues at the nearest walk-in centre to our office, across the river at Guys Hospital in London Bridge, certainly suggested that the pace of the booster rollout is set for a sizable bump.

Putting the fear of God in the British populace with predictions of a million cases a day by the end of the month may be politically expedient, then, but it does not do much for business confidence.

Some rationalism is called for. More than four in 10 Brits over the age of 12 have had the booster jab; within a week that should be comfortably more than half, and by the end of the year so many more than that.

The growing evidence is that this new variant (which will not be the last) is milder than previous strains; ditto, there are growing signs that a booster jab is effective at fighting Omicron.

That is not an argument to let it rip but it is a solid enough evidence base to suggest that come January we may be in a position to relax these new rules and allow us to start 2022 on a brighter note than we are currently set for.

If the Government could do its best not to knife the entire hospitality industry in the process, all the better.

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Some rationality called for amidst the drumbeat to restrictions - City A.M.

In May, 1933, the Nazis burned tens of thousands books at universities across Germany. Works by Einstein, Freud, Heine, Mann, Remarque, London, and Zola, among many others, were consigned to the fires. One of the authors whose books were burned was Franz Boas, the famed Columbia University anthropologist, who had long waged a campaign against racist pseudo-science and Nordic nonsense.

Nicholas Murray Butler, the president of Columbia University from 1902-1945, did not rise to the occasion of speaking out in support of Boas, or academic freedom in Germany. When the Nazis expelled Jewish faculty members and students from universities, Butler stayed silent, continued sending Columbia students to Germany and welcomed Nazi-approved students in exchange.

Butler was one of the most famous university presidents this country has ever seen. He ran for Vice President on the Republican Party ticket in 1912. In 1931, he won a Nobel Peace Prize (shared with Jane Addams) for his promotion of peace and the Kellogg-Briand Pact, in which signatories including Germany, France, and the U.S. agreed not to use war to resolve disputes and conflicts. The New York Times distributed his annual Christmas message to the nation. He also served as president of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

The media gave his comments on international affairs considerable attention, writes scholar Stephen H. Norwood. He was therefore in a position to exert significant influence in shaping American views of Nazi Germany.

Instead, Butlers actions spoke volumes when he welcomed the Nazi ambassador the United States to Columbia, months after the book-burnings; when he refused to appear with a notable German dissident when the latter spoke at the university; and when he repeatedly violated a boycott of German shipping.

Meanwhile, students on campus who protested Nazi barbarism were met with a heavy hand. Faculty members who recognized the necessity of public protest against Nazis were punished as wellButler ended the careers of two of them. Columbias student newspaper noted that the schools reputation suffered because of the remarkable silence of its president about the Hitler government.

Norwood argues that Butlers silence about, and therefore his complicity with, Nazism and Italian fascism until the late 1930s was influenced both by his antisemitism, privately expressed, and his economic conservatism and hostility to trade unionism.

Columbia was, after all, the first American institution of higher learning to establish an anti-Jewish quota. Butler spearheaded what muckraker Upton Sinclair called an academic pogrom during the Teens and Twenties among elite universities to reduce the number of Jewish students. Butler believed he ran a Christian institution and that evaluating students on their character, personality, and general bearing would limit Jewish students.

Norwood writes that Butler failed to grasp the nature and implications of Nazism. Yet Butler was also a longtime admirer of Benito Mussolini, whose Italian Fascist Party was born a century ago this month. Fascism, with its anti-rationalism and anti-intellectualism, hardly seems compatible with education. But fascism had many fans among American elites, who considered it a necessary bulwark against communism (which, in the antisemitic mind, was Jewish in origin).

Butler wasnt alone. No major American university followed the example of Williams College President Tyler Dennett when he stopped academic exchanges with the Nazis in 1936. In 1935, Edward R. Murrow, who worked to rescue more than 300 scholars persecuted by the Nazis before he became a broadcaster, wrote, The thing that really concerns me about the situation over here is the general indifference of the university world and the smug complacency in the face of what has happened to Germany.

Where books are burned, said Heinrich Heine more than a century before his books were burned by the Nazis, in the end people will be burned too.

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By: Stephen H. Norwood

Modern Judaism, Vol. 27, No. 3 (Oct., 2007), pp. 253-283

Oxford University Press

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Silence in the Face of Intellectual Conflagration - JSTOR Daily