Wednesday, February 28, 2007

"Korean comic author: Jews rule U.S."

"... and fish rule the heavens."
(Image from Wikipedia)

Looks like this story is going to go on and on.

From the CNN report "Korean comic author: Jews rule U.S." (February 26, 2007), Rhie Won-bok, aka Lee Won-bok (aka "Rhie-Lee Won-bok"?), seems to be digging himself an even deeper hole:
The author of a best-selling comic book series [-- i.e., Far Countries, Near Countries (먼나라 이웃나라, which CNN transliterates as Meon Nara, Yiwoot Nara) --] intended to teach children about other countries said Monday he would change a chapter on Jews that has been called anti-Semitic and similar to Nazi propaganda.

Rhie Won-bok maintained, however, that his depiction of Jewish control of American media and politics was based on fact and "commonly believed."

"The Jews are the invisible force that controls the U.S.," Rhie, a professor of visual arts at Duksung Women's University in Seoul, told The Associated Press. "I wrote the chapter to let people know that you can't understand the U.S. without knowing the Jewish community."
This calls for a Pynchonesque analysis, so let's recall "Proverb 5" from Gravity's Rainbow:
"Paranoids are not paranoids (Proverb 5) because they're paranoid, but because they keep putting themselves, f**king idiots, deliberately into paranoid situations." (Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow, Penguin, 2000, page 297)
Really, Won-bok seems to be putting himself deliberately into a paranoid situation by positioning himself in the hurricane's eye of publicity. The storm of criticism that he'll see gusting about him will likely confirm him in his views on the Jews. Since he believes that "The Jews are the invisible force that controls the U.S.," then he'll also believe that the Jews are manipulating the bad press that he's currently getting.

Really, Won-bok will begin to see conspiracies everywhere, much like the anonymous commenter -- quoted in yesterday's blog entry -- who imagined that I must be Jewish or married to a Jewish woman because of my blog entries on this issue. Only someone belonging to the Great Jewish Conspiracy would criticize antisemitism, right? Any anti-antisemite must therefore be a Semite, right? To criticize antisemitism is thus to reveal one's "true identity" -- especially if Douglas Adams gets dragged fishibly across the trail of identity like a red herring.

Hat-tip that red herring all the way to Marmot's Hole for more on the issue...

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6 Comments:

At 2:30 PM, Blogger jj mollo said...

That is the most beautiful herring I have ever seen.

 
At 3:31 PM, Blogger Horace Jeffery Hodges said...

Ja, er ist herrlich!

Jeffery Hodges

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At 6:27 AM, Blogger Dorian Gray said...

Antisemitism is every where lately.
I research it in Europe and I am amazed to see that they could not care less than last week Neo Nazis put Swastikas on a Jewish kinder graden in Berlin. Yesterday, a Jewish cemetery was ruined in Bavaria. The Israli song is about the be banned from the Eurovision Song contexts(not a big deal, but why?). And the maniac who rules Iran is threathning to destroy Israel and the world ois silent.
But Korea? What did we do to them?
I am so fed up with everything lately.I wanna scream "leave me alone".

Aus Hamburg, Danke.

 
At 6:42 AM, Blogger Horace Jeffery Hodges said...

Thanks, Dorian. Antisemitism does seem to be everywhere these days ... even in Korea.

I think that Korean antisemitism is riding on the back of anti-Americanism, so antisemitism might not be as deep-rooted here in Korea as in Europe.

Interesting that you mention Eurovision. I've just blogged on that. Sort of...

Jeffery Hodges

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At 10:32 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks for you post. Unfortunately, the topic of "invisible Jewish hand" controlling the world is not new. There is an old Russian-Jewish joke that goes like that:
"An old Jew comes up to a prominent anti-Semite and says: 'Is it true that that Jews sold all of Russia?'
'Yes, of course it is true, you so and so' - boasted the man.
'Well, I just want to know where can I get my portion of the proceeds?'"

 
At 11:04 AM, Blogger Horace Jeffery Hodges said...

Anonymous, thanks for the comment with humor.

I actually have several posts on this issue, and a handful of anonymous comments have been rather unfriendly remarks from antisemites, so I'm always a bit worried when I see an anonymous one.

I was glad to get yours, though.

Jeffery Hodges

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