Some comments upon viewing a video of a pro-Palestinian "demonstration" against Birthright Israel.
The video http://mondoweiss.net/2011/11/occupy-the-occupiers-disrupts-birthright-israel-event.html
"Four legs good, two legs bad."
Just how disturbing is this video? I tried to think why I was distraught or confounded. From where cometh this hostility welling up inside me that brought to mind a remote and buried association? It was the bleating. Yes. There was something grating about that chorus of bleating repetition. Eureka! Animal Farm! George Orwell's unforgettable satire against totalitarian socialism!
"The birds did not understand Snowball's long words, but they accepted his
explanation, and all the humbler animals set to work to learn the new
maxim by heart. FOUR LEGS GOOD, TWO LEGS BAD, was inscribed on the end
wall of the barn, above the Seven Commandments and in bigger letters. When
they had once got it by heart, the sheep developed a great liking for this
maxim, and often as they lay in the field they would all start bleating
"Four legs good, two legs bad! Four legs good, two legs bad!" and keep it
up for hours on end, never growing tired of it."
Ch. 3 George Orwell Animal Farm
And again:
"At the Meetings Snowball often won over the majority by his
brilliant speeches, but Napoleon was better at canvassing support for
himself in between times. He was especially successful with the sheep. Of
late the sheep had taken to bleating "Four legs good, two legs bad" both
in and out of season, and they often interrupted the Meeting with this. It
was noticed that they were especially liable to break into "Four legs
good, two legs bad" at crucial moments in Snowball's speeches."
Ch. 5 George Orwell Animal Farm
And so dear friends, in our efforts to relieve ourselves of this oppressive documentary at that Birthright meeting let us stretch the metaphor by adding Orwell's closing depiction:
"Twelve voices were shouting in anger, and they were all alike. No question, now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which."
Ch. 10 George Orwell Animal Farm
The video http://mondoweiss.net/2011/11/occupy-the-occupiers-disrupts-birthright-israel-event.html
"Four legs good, two legs bad."
Just how disturbing is this video? I tried to think why I was distraught or confounded. From where cometh this hostility welling up inside me that brought to mind a remote and buried association? It was the bleating. Yes. There was something grating about that chorus of bleating repetition. Eureka! Animal Farm! George Orwell's unforgettable satire against totalitarian socialism!
"The birds did not understand Snowball's long words, but they accepted his
explanation, and all the humbler animals set to work to learn the new
maxim by heart. FOUR LEGS GOOD, TWO LEGS BAD, was inscribed on the end
wall of the barn, above the Seven Commandments and in bigger letters. When
they had once got it by heart, the sheep developed a great liking for this
maxim, and often as they lay in the field they would all start bleating
"Four legs good, two legs bad! Four legs good, two legs bad!" and keep it
up for hours on end, never growing tired of it."
Ch. 3 George Orwell Animal Farm
And again:
"At the Meetings Snowball often won over the majority by his
brilliant speeches, but Napoleon was better at canvassing support for
himself in between times. He was especially successful with the sheep. Of
late the sheep had taken to bleating "Four legs good, two legs bad" both
in and out of season, and they often interrupted the Meeting with this. It
was noticed that they were especially liable to break into "Four legs
good, two legs bad" at crucial moments in Snowball's speeches."
Ch. 5 George Orwell Animal Farm
And so dear friends, in our efforts to relieve ourselves of this oppressive documentary at that Birthright meeting let us stretch the metaphor by adding Orwell's closing depiction:
"Twelve voices were shouting in anger, and they were all alike. No question, now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which."
Ch. 10 George Orwell Animal Farm