[click image, video, Norman Finkelstein on innocence of means and innocence of ends]I always listen as closely as I can to Norman Finkelstein. I have on my sidebar here a button leading to all his lectures and interviews I've posted. Just scroll down to his picture amid the links there and click on his face any time... or click on his name at the footer of this post, and find it all. So you will see I'm not ignorant about who he is and what he does. I am actually darn up to date with him, and he has taught me much about many things, especially about the Israel/Palestine mess.
So I was taken aback by the news that he quit his own march, the breaking of the siege he has been so avid about... but also instantly comfortable in the knowledge that there could not possibly be any unworthy or selfish motive for such a drastic step. It's just flat out not reasonable to assume that this man could do that at this point in his career, at this point in his life, not after all the brilliant books, all the brilliant lectures, all the brilliant work he does to make those books and lectures ever more supportive of positive manifestation of humane intent. There just is no question about that.
You might have questions.
They cannot be based on anything having to do with Norman Finkelstein. They will be based on your own ideas, your own feelings, your own prejudices, your own mental conditioning... they will be based on the content of your own mind, NOT on what is abundantly evident about Norman Finkelstein.
You will want to say, yes, yes, he's done all kinds of good work, yadda, yadda, but this is a betrayal of the Palestinian people! Or he's a prima donna. Or he's a white guy who wants to dictate to brown guys. Whutever.
He wanted to study up on the possibilities of non-violent civil disobedience for the liberation of Palestine. He went to Gandhi himself... to his volumes and volumes and volumes of journal entries, notes, the works. I've listened to him speak about quite a lot of what he's taken away from what he's seen so far.
The kernel of this is that the siege of Gaza can be broken only if the "innocence of means" in the nonviolent action are matched with an "innocence of ends". It cannot succeed unless the rightness of the ends can't be disputed by most people... oh, just listen to him at the image link....
He, of course, is dealing with a lot of professional activists and many, many, many academics from all over. The old saw about herding cats applies. Not enough of these people have the knowledge, wits or emotional resources to cut to the kernel and execute an action that fills the bill... cuts to the heart of the problem and SOLVES it. At least as many have the hubris to assume that remaining faithful to what Dogen meant when he said, "Stop doing and perform!" is some sort of insult to decency, a betrayal of the cause, arrogance, a power play... whutever... sound and fury signifying less than zero, the hoof marks on the barn door from jackasses kicking.
He means to use his energy and his vitality in performance, not waste it in mere busy-ness that only calls itself "action".
What action there is to it will cause the appropriate effect. That's the travesty.
You should have listened to Norman.
Some seem mystified by his lack of detailed explanation of his reason for pulling his endorsement of this action as well as his personal involvement. Someone who is serious about the relief of suffering will not endorse what increases it. Someone whose greatest wish it is to shine a light on the way for you will not participate in folly to appease your ire or to win a popularity contest. This isn't a game. This isn't an abstraction. This is just about as blood and guts as it ever gets. EVERYTHING is on the line for Palestine, and the one out of us all who has not lost sight of that is Norman Finkelstein.
Do you think bullying debating tactics can change that?
Really?
What word can encompass the size of the ignorance that engages in such ugly futility?
[The stupidest part of all this controversy and confusion is that he stated this very clearly both before and after his resignation from this endeavor. Perfectly clearly, omitting nothing, and yet there are all these scandalized and angry and sightless gripes flying around Blogistan. Just disgraceful.]
[Luckily for everybody, I got fed up with the scrolling involved to argue with the horse's asses pissing and hissing at me over at PULSE, and then my computer died, or I would have subjected each of those bitching about my hero worship to this... and we'd've had to go into this long Zen Lesson about it all... and it would have been headachesville.]
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