Mixed metaphors: Arendt on anti- semitism and imperialism

1. Mixed metaphors:Arendt on anti-semitism and imperialism March 11, 2009 Presentation for Humanities 6132, Prof. Patrick Taylor by gurbir singh jolly

2. Metaphors of identity:Metonymy /synecdoche Synecdoche: a type of metaphor/metonymy in which either: A part is used to represent the whole. Example: How many hands do we have to help? : Bless your heart. A whole is being used to represent the part. Example: Canada defeated the United States in professional ping-pong. :York is refusing to negotiate. What does the Indian think about this? Mixed Metaphors: Ardent on Anti-Semitism and Imperialism Presentation for Humanities 6132

3. Identity as synecdoche, examples from Arendt 22: ...they even became a kind of symbol of the common interest of the European nations. 25: each class of society which came into a conflict with the state as such became anti-Semitic because the only social group which seemed to represent the state were the Jews. 26: ...this one family became a symbol of the working reality of Jewish internationalism . . .[the Rothchilds] virtually represented the whole economic and political significance of the Jewish people. 48: [in post WWI France] foreign Jews became the stereotypes for all foreigners. Mixed Metaphors: Ardent on Anti-Semitism and Imperialism Presentation for Humanities 6132

4. Synecdoche and belonging:Pariah and Parvenu 57: Jews were educated enough not to behave like ordinary Jews, but they were, on the other hand, accepted only because they were Jews, because of their foreign, exotic appeal. . . 57: Eager to stress the basic unity of mankind, they wanted to show the origins of the Jewish people as more alien, and hence more exotic, than they actually were, so that the demonstration of humanity as a universal principle might be more effective. 61:..each one of them had to prove although he was a Jew, yet he was not a Jew. . .one had to stand out—as an individual who could be congratulated on being an exception– from “the Jew,” and thus from the people as a whole. 67:...”a man in the street and a Jew at home”. . . It was by no means easy not to resemble the “Jew in general” and yet remain a Jew. Mixed Metaphors: Ardent on Anti-Semitism and Imperialism Presentation for Humanities 6132

5. Synecdoche and belonging:Colonial pARALLELS 56: The defenders of emancipation tended to present the problem as one of “education,” a concept which originally applied to Jews as well as non-Jews. I feel with them, that it is impossible for us, with our limited means, to attempt to educate the body of the people. We must at present do our best to form a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern; a class of persons, Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect. To that class we may leave it to refine the vernacular dialects of the country, to enrich those dialects with terms of science borrowed from the Western nomenclature, and to render them by degrees fit vehicles for conveying knowledge to the great mass of the population.  - MACAULAY'S MINUTE ON INDIAN EDUCATION (1835) Mixed Metaphors: Ardent on Anti-Semitism and Imperialism Presentation for Humanities 6132

6. Synecdoche and belonging:Benjamin Disraeli • 72: When Disraeli “summoned up a pride of race to confront a pride of caste,” he knew that the social status of Jews...depended solely on the fact of birth and not on achievement. • 73: Disraeli...was the only one who produced a full-blown race doctrine out of this empty concept of a historic mission. • 78: Since he knew the nobility of his time far better than he ever came to the Jewish people, it is not surprising that he modeled the race concept after the aristocratic caste concept. • Led Parliament to bestow title “Empress of India” upon Queen Mixed Metaphors: Ardent on Anti-Semitism and Imperialism Presentation for Humanities 6132

7. Synecdoche and Imperial Expansion 124: “I would annex the planets if I could.” [Cecil Rhodes] 128: ...the English colonists settled on newly won territory in the four corners of the world and remained members of the same British nation. 129: [the French] wanted to incorporate overseas possessions into the national body by treating the conquered peoples as “both. . . Brothers and subjects – brothers in the fraternity of a common French civilization, and subjects in that they are disciples of French light and followers of French leading.” 130: But [empire building] has strengthened tremendously the new imperialist consciousness of a fundamental, and not just temporary, superiority of man over man, of the “higher” over the “lower breeds.” 137: The state-employed administrators of violence soon formed a new class within the nations and, although their field of activity was far from the mother country, wielded an important influence on the body politic at home. Mixed Metaphors: Ardent on Anti-Semitism and Imperialism Presentation for Humanities 6132

8. Synecdoche and Imperial Expansion 124: “I would annex the planets if I could.” [Cecil Rhodes] 128: ...the English colonists settled on newly won territory in the four corners of the world and remained members of the same British nation. 129: [the French] wanted to incorporate overseas possessions into the national body by treating the conquered peoples as “both. . . Brothers and subjects – brothers in the fraternity of a common French civilization, and subjects in that they are disciples of French light and followers of French leading.” 130: But [empire building] has strengthened tremendously the new imperialist consciousness of a fundamental, and not just temporary, superiority of man over man, of the “higher” over the “lower breeds.” 137: The state-employed administrators of violence soon formed a new class within the nations and, although their field of activity was far from the mother country, wielded an important influence on the body politic at home. Mixed Metaphors: Ardent on Anti-Semitism and Imperialism Presentation for Humanities 6132