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Friday, April 8, 2011
How this:
Jan Sobieski by Jan Matejko
Becomes this:
Result of a Google image search of the word "Yokel." Source.
Imagine this internet conversation:
An author, Bill Levinson, is writing on a widely-read blog. He
praises Jan Sobieski, a Polish king of world historical importance. Sobieski
commanded the victorious troops at the Battle of Vienna. His troops defeated
the Turks, thus halting jihad's millennium-long advance. As prominent Middle
East historian Bernard Lewis puts it, "The Ottoman jihad against
Christendom finally foundered under the walls of Vienna in 1683, and since
then, despite some occasional attempts, no Muslim state has posed a comparable
challenge to Christendom" (Lewis, "The Middle East, a Brief History
of the Past 2000 Years.")
Rephrasing Cesar's famous
quote, "Vini, vidi, vici," "I came, I saw, I conquered,"
Sobieski said, "Vini, vidi, deus vicit." "I came, I saw, God
conquered."
Levinson cannot say enough good things
about the Polish warriors in this decisive battle, the winged hussars:
"The unusual wings had two possible purposes. The first
was to make a hissing or rattling noise that terrified horses that were not
accustomed to it, and the second was to defeat the lariats that were sometimes
used by the Tartars. The leopard or tiger fur also was probably quite menacing
to horses that were unaccustomed to their appearance or odor. The highly
innovative Poles doubtlessly realized that, once they frightened the horse, the
man on its back became irrelevant to any subsequent proceedings."
Levinson cites another famous Pole:
"Henryk
Sienkiewicz won a Nobel Prize in literature, and his Trilogy are among the best
epics that have ever been written."
Levinson reminds
his reader: Sobieski's 1683 victory is very much alive. Islam has been planning
its revenge for centuries, and jihad is again advancing. The Battle of Vienna
took place on September 11 and 12. These dates are not insignificant to the
modern person.
In short, this widely-read blog has
Brought an historical Polish hero to its readers' attention
Praised this hero
Related this hero to
the average citizen's concerns today: terror attacks.
Now
imagine this development in the conversation: the blog's reader responds:
"Q. what is the shortest book ever written?
A. The book of polish War Heroes !
Question:
How do you stop a Polish army on horseback?
Answer: Turn
off the carousel."
How does this blog reader
justify his grotesque Polak jokes?
It's okay to tell
disgusting, racist jokes about Poles, because: "I had Polish relatives killed
by poles in one of their thousands of pogroms against Jews. Why do you think
most of the concentration camps were built in Poland? My ex in laws, viewed the
Poles far worse than the Nazis. They came from Poland The worlds largest Jewish
graveyard … you are a real mongrel. How about Poland returning the billions of
dollars of Jewish communal property back to the Jewish community or
compensation?"
"What about all of the private
Jewish property stolen from the Jews by the Poles, Government and the Church?
Jewish unclaimed art, Bank accounts, unclaimed insurance policies etc.
Restitution , admitting their part in history of murdering Jews, would be a
good start in normalizing relations."
"after a
thousand years of taking crap from poles why should I shed a tear or a kind
thought for what they might have suffered under the commies. Yesh din veh yesh
dayan!! there is judgment and there is a judge!!! "
Anyone who challenges this racist smear of any and all Poles as essential
haters is a monster who disrespects Holocaust victims, and a liar who has a
personal "agenda.": "I have no idea why you choose to be an
apologist for the poles then and now? I think you have an agenda here somewhere
maybe even a polish personal interest."
The poster of
the above racist jokes, exaggerated historical rewrites, and hijacking of a
blog post about Jan Sobieski to smear all Poles cites scholarship to support
his hatred of Poles.
He quotes a review of Jan Tomasz
Gross' work. "Gross describes how Warsaw's onlookers watched young Jewish
fighters throw themselves from burning windows during the pathetic yet glorious
ghetto uprising in 1943, then applauded when German soldiers set upon them
below … Gross's reader is suddenly thrust into the Middle Ages. In Krakow and
in Kielce, those thirsting for Jewish blood didn't hesitate to maim or murder. "
You don't have to imagine this conversation. It happens
everyday.
Someone mentions Poland, maybe even a Polish
hero like Jan Sobieski. Or it could just be the word "Poland." That's
enough.
Someone else tells a Polak joke.
The Polak joke is defended because Poles are essential haters
and any rejection of racist hatred of Poles is the result of a "personal
agenda" and a monstrous disrespect toward Holocaust victims.
As this previous entries in this blog have demonstrated, this
conversation occurs everyday in university classrooms, university press books,
films shown at museums, bestselling novels, when considering applicants to
graduate schools, popular films, and in the mainstream press.
The above-described redaction of the conversation is from the Israpundit
blog. Link below.
In response, Poles and those concerned
by stereotyping and historical revisionism have used this strategy.
1.) Say that Poles
are heroic and noble.
2.) Say that Poles
have suffered.
3.) Say that Poles
are heroic and that Poles have suffered.
That
strategy has not worked. That's because it is the wrong strategy.
Yes, many Poles are heroic and noble and have suffered, and
all the books and films linked above are good books and films.
They are not, though, the answer to the Brute Polak
stereotype. It's as if someone had asked, "What time is it?" and
someone else answered, "Toyota Prius." Good car. But not the answer
to the question at hand.
Poles and others who reject the
Brute Polak stereotype do not have the microphone.
People
who disseminate the Brute Polak stereotype have the microphone, and they are
winning. Even Jan Sobieski becomes a character in the Brute Polak scenario.
Those who reject the Brute Polak stereotype need to change
their strategy. They need to do what Saul Alinsky recommended in "Rules
for Radicals." They need to "Pick the target,
freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it."
"Bieganski"
does exactly that. People interested in defeating the brute Polak stereotype
will benefit from this book.
Israpundt redaction of the
endless Bieganski-Brute-Polak conversation.
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