Comments on a Complex Catastrophe

Posted on November 18, 2023 by leslie

Herzl, the founder of political Zionism, in 1901, credit Wikipedia

Comments on a Complex Catastrophe,
by Wade Smith

Will this, the latest war in the Middle East become a major regional military conflict? [1] And what will be its economic consequences? In his statement to the nation of 28th October, Benjamin Netanyahu upped the ante, linking the war in Gaza to the Holocaust. He stated,

Our heroic soldiers have one supreme goal; to destroy the murderous enemy and ensure our existence in our land. We have always said “Never again”. “Never again” is now.

Historical facts are open to revisionist research [2], while their interpretations and memories, whatever their objective veracity, play a persistent part in traditional desires and political ideals. This is evident in the clash between Zionists and Islamists, with consequences far beyond their particular communities. Truth is a casualty not only during warfare but in its preparation and subsequent record. Atrocity stories are nowadays aggravated by cyberspace disinformation and blogger anarchy.

“The enemies of Israel are the enemies of reason and civilisation, and of our tradition of criticism,” writes philosopher Brett Hall, adding that defenders of reason are duty-bound to “speak out” at the present time, “one of the darkest” in modern history [3]. Let us oblige him, even if less reasonable readers dismiss the following brief critique as “Anti-Semitism” or “Islamophobia”, or both – subjects too sensitive, complicated and semantically fluid for substantial examination here. “Israel is a Jewish state, a state that exists to protect Jews,” Hall avers. “This is required because there have been systematic attempts over thousands of years to exterminate Jews,” who first “populated the land where Israel is today in around 2,000 BCE” and “continuously populated” it for “close to 4,000 years”. It is not our intention here to discuss these specific assertions, nor to engage with Palestine/Israel partisanship [4], but instead to emphasise past mistakes that led to the current crisis, and which require consideration if any future resolution is feasible.

Although hostility towards Jews has existed from antiquity [5], it dates among Arabs from “early medieval” conversion to Islam and has persisted ever since [6]. To introduce, consolidate and extend an expressly Jewish sovereign state among them was a gamble, albeit unintentionally provocative. The Salafists of Hamas regard Palestine to be an inalienable Waqf for recovery, and Muslims generally oppose the surrender to infidels of consecrated land. [7]

Several alternative territories had been proposed by friend and foe alike, from “Uganda” to Madagascar, potentially to accommodate up to 10-million Jews. Given ceremonial attachments to Jerusalem before 135 CE, it was hardly surprising that the 1905 Zionist Congress rejected fertile living-space in East Africa after the death of Theodor Herzl, a secularist despite his diarised paradoxical hope to reach Euphrates as scripture promised. [8]

Three decades after the conditional “national home” declaration from Balfour, the titanic defeat of Hitler ended the worst calamity. “But tragedy overwhelmed the Jews of Moslem lands, where a revived nationalism and sympathy for fellow-Moslems defeated by Israel aroused the populations against the Jews who had for many centuries lived in their midst”. [9]

“The foundation of the state of Israel was believed by Zionists to be the only solution to anti-Semitism, but as a result of the Arab-Israeli conflict, Muslim anti-Semitism is even more virulent than its Christian counterpart” [10]. After welcoming German, Russian and other refugees, while nevertheless losing thousands through emigration, how can the Knesset now guarantee permanent protection for its own multi-ethnic citizenry and Diaspora olim? According to Emeritus Professor of Judaism Rabbi Dan Cohn-Sherbok, “the Zionist aspiration to solve the problem of anti-Semitism by creating a Jewish state in the Middle East has proved an illusion…. As humanity’s most persistent hatred, anti-Semitism continues to flourish…. In a world now faced with the very real threat of mass destruction, the flames of such hostility continue to burn bright, with the threat of Jewish extermination as great as ever” [11].

The passage of the Israeli Law of Return for all Jews (but not displaced Arabs) coincided with the start of escalating Muslim emigration, both legal and “undocumented”, from successive regions and for various motives. Today, the estimated Muslim population of Western Europe is more than 6% and is rising rapidly. In Britain it could exceed 17% by 2050 [12]. Even those who have sought asylum because of barbarity in their original homelands are disturbed by allegations of oppression and brutal incidents under Israeli jurisdiction, which predated the horrific Hamas incursion. Direct Palestinian fatalities since 1948 may seem trifling compared other conflicts around the world during the same period, but events in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank will multiply the death-toll. There is also anger over UK military co-operation with Israel and participation in warfare against Islamic states, from Egypt (1956) to Libya (2011).  During the New Labour period, huge civilian losses in Iraq were “matched” numerically by the influx of foreign families. As recent demonstrations have shown, the Muslim demographic can feed unrest and even violence, especially against Jews. Islamic terrorists remain a major threat. Yet Siren voices from different directions urge that survivors expelled from Gaza should find refuge in Britain.

Internally, we contend with two political follies, not one. The first was the import of many thousands of immigrants already ill-disposed towards Jews. The second is that our supposedly beneficial alliance with Israel has enflamed that hostility and is cynically exploited by anti-religious and anti-nationalist revolutionaries like the Socialist Workers Party. Civic tranquillity, not just free speech, needs to be prioritised. Externally, the ultimate folly would be a geostrategic contest between expansionary Islamism and obdurate Zionism drawing in the major powers, and eventually risking a nuclear Armageddon.

Editorial note; Wade Smith is a pseudonym. Publication of this essay in QR does not constitute endorsement of its contents.

ENDNOTES

[1] RUSI, Global Security Briefing 62, 1 November 2023, online; Thomas Fazi, “Will Israel-Hamas cause a world war?” UnHerd, 1 November 2023; Mark Almond, “The savagery displayed by Hamas…” Mail Online, 10 October 2023; Wikipedia, “Samson Option,” online
[2] See e.g.: Margaret MacMillan, The Uses & Abuses of History (2010), 47,88-89, 105-109 & 137 on Israel.  Other examples include Gulag mortality estimates over four decades from 1.2 million (Adam Augustyn) to 60 million (Avraham Shifrin), Guernica and Dresden, the Armenian massacres; and positive re-assessments of Genghis Khan, Shaka Zulu & Neville Chamberlain.
[3] “Antisemitism: The sinister pattern,” Quillette, 1 November 2023, online
[4] Comparese Edward Said, David Gilmour, Rashid Khalidi, Norman Finkelstein, Jonathan Cook & Nur Masahla with David Pryce-Jones, Elie Kedourie, Robert Wistrich, Ben-Dror Yemini, Rick Richman & Jake Wallis Simons, amid a vast literature.
[5] Peter Schaefer, Judeophobia (1998); Jerome Chanes, Antisemitism (2004); David Nirenberg, Anti-Judaism (2018)
[6] “Islam: References to Jews in the Koran,” Jewish Virtual Library, online; Andrew Bostom, The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism (2020); Yehoshafat Harkabi, Arab Attitudes to Israel (2017); Thomas Kiernan, The Arabs (1991), 120f
[7] John Jenkins, “The Iran Trap,” The New Statesman, 10 November 2023; David Bukay, Islam & the Infidels (2020); Patrick Sookhdeo, Faith, Power & Territory (2008); Dr Ahmad Abu Halabiya: “Have no mercy on the Jews, no matter where they are…. Kill those Jews and those Americans who are like them and those who stand by them…because they established Israel here in the beating heart of the Arab world” (Palestinian Authority TV, 13 October 2000/MEMRI)
[8] Gen. 15.18, Deut. 1.7-8 & 11.24, Josh. 1.4, 2 Sam. 8.3. Cf. Daniel Pipes, “Imperial Israel,” Middle East Quarterly (March 1994), note 11.  This biblical basis has been refuted by the non-observant Jew Jerome Slater; and by the evangelical Christian Stephen Sizer [IVP 2007] and ex-communist Muslim Roger Garaudy [SFI 1997], both consequently penalised for “antisemitism”.
[9] Solomon Grayzel, A History of the Jews (1968), 723
[10] John Bowker (ed), The Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (1997), 76
[11] Anti-Semitism: A History (2002 ed), 341-342
[12] Olan McEvoy, Statista, 28 February 2023, online; Guilio Meotti, “Great Britain: Multiculturalism & Islam turn it upside down,” Gatestone Institute, 18 December 2022, online; Douglas Murray, The Strange Death of Europe (2018 ed), 336-7

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Brave New Suburbs

Posted on November 15, 2023 by leslie

The back road from Middleton Tyas to Barton, North Yorkshire, credit Wikimedia Commons

Brave New Suburbs,
by Bill Hartley

The urge to live in the country has led to considerable infilling and expansion of North Yorkshire villages in recent years. Across the county there has been a range of new developments some of which impose designs better suited to suburbia than a largely rural county. Arguably one of the worst offenders has been bungalows, whose uniformity makes the approach to some villages more like entering the outskirts of a town. However, this sort of development is far less popular now than it once was, although not because of changing tastes in design. A recent BBC report, citing a housing expert, pointed out that there is far more value to be had from building a two or three storey property on the same plot. Builders, accordingly, have adopted a different approach to selling the rural dream.

Nostalgia is one of the reasons for urban to rural migration, witness a plethora TV shows and lifestyle magazines such as Country Life, together with a whole swathe of imitators devoted to particular English counties. Of course, there are only so many period properties available. These days the suburban bungalow in a rural setting has been superseded by designs meant to fit in with an imagined vernacular. Many villages in North Yorkshire now have a development grafted on which fits this description, though in terms of an actual connection to the broader surroundings, they are little better than bungalows. The result is a sterile exclave; in the village but not exactly of it. Design and the need to make a profit don’t always make for a harmonious outcome.

Villages tend to evolve and grow in a piecemeal fashion. Often this is what enhances their appeal and makes them so attractive. A mixture of housing styles down the years may reflect economic activity past and present, together with social gradations. There has of course always been infilling. For example, some villages come with a collection of council houses. These were built between the wars during a time of agricultural depression, when farmers were evicting labourers from their tied cottages. Uniform in appearance when they were built, many have since been sold off to their former tenants and have acquired some individuality, as the owners have invested in new windows and other external features.

Promoting the rural idyll means that the latest developments come with more than just a sales office on the construction site. Websites show aerial shots of the countryside just beyond the village. The emphasis is on a lifestyle that the homeowner may buy into, even though aerial views seem to emphasise the separateness of what is being built. The reason is because the design of the development means it fails to dovetail with the actual village.

The use of nostalgia as a marketing tool has been revealed by researchers at the University of Southampton. They note that an atmosphere of nostalgia has a capacity ‘to weaken consumers’ grasp on their money’. A challenge for the designer is that villages are rarely uniform in appearance, since they have grown organically down the years. A way round this is to go for a melange of styles ranging from Georgian to Victorian, sometimes with more than one on the same property. For example, windows can vary from gothic to oriel. The American publication Old House Journal describes this trend as ‘remuddling’. On a single property the effect isn’t necessarily unpleasing but used in an entire development the impression is baffling. It suggests that whoever was responsible lacked the confidence to come up with something original and instead raided the past to create a pastiche of what houses in a village are ‘meant’ to look like. Even with the passage of time it seems unlikely they will ever really fit in, the disharmony of the whole acting as a barrier.

Not all of this is to do with the actual houses. It seems that local authorities who sign off on these developments insist they should be open plan. In theory this is a nice idea and certainly looks good on the sales brochures. Presumably there are covenants in place which prevent buyers from erecting fences, growing hedges, or other barriers above a certain height. The intention is to move away from a regimented layout into a sweeping, flowing arrangement of buildings and roads. In an urban area this would probably work but villages generally aren’t like that, hence the difference is accentuated.

There is a proverb: ‘good fences make good neighbours’ and sometimes the question ‘who owns what’ can arise. A website called Boundary Problems advises on this and provides an insight into how small strips of land where no fixed boundary exists can become the source of disputes. Furthermore, open plan devoid of hedges and walls is rather lifeless and removes any sense of welcome and homeliness.

In the 1970s, architect Oscar Newman came up with ‘defensible space theory’. Admittedly he was considering town planning from the perspective of creating safer neighbourhoods, which hardly has the same significance in rural North Yorkshire. However this is a good starting point to consider what these developments end up looking like. Newman’s idea was of a socio physical development which creates a sense of territoriality. If there is a barrier separating the homeowner from the outside world, then they are far more likely to take an active interest in what is going on in their neighbourhood. When one cannot impose individuality on the exterior due to restrictive covenants, then the result is bland and runs contrary to the idea of what the developers were originally promoting: a niche in a cosy village.  In such places there seldom seems to be anyone about. It is as if every home is a show home and the lack of boundaries creates a feeling of exposure and a desire not to linger. In a village proper there are signs of actual occupancy: children’s toys perhaps, or other personal items in the front garden. Some are pristine, some are neglected but whatever the case they create a sense of vibrancy.

Adding to this separateness, such developments are usually in a cul de sac. The aim is to avoid through traffic, though in a village this is unlikely to be a problem. Not only is it insulated from traffic but also from people passing through. This is the pièce de resistance which ensures that though sharing the same postcode, these exercises in nostalgia will remain cloistered and separate.

William Hartley is a Social Historian

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Endnotes, November 2023

Posted on November 7, 2023 by leslie

Arthur in the Barge, credit Wikipedia

Endnotes, November 2023

In this edition: seasonal music by Bax, Medtner in England, reviewed by Stuart Millson

Sibelius once remarked that the English composer, Arnold Bax, was “his son in music”. Readers who are familiar with the early-to-mid 20th-century Finnish symphonist’s dark works which evoke landscape (such as Tapiola, dedicated to an ancient spirit of the forests) will immediately grasp the significance of the quotation: Sibelius’s nature-worship and the intense, ‘dark-brown’ orchestration of so many of his works, providing ~ if not a template ~ but a lodestar for British music’s custodians of twilight Celtic romanticism.

Bax (1883-1953) was at his best, perhaps, in the medium of the orchestral tone-poem ~ his Arthurian fantasy, Tintagel being the best-known example. Mythical oceanscapes were also conjured in the dreamy horizons of The Garden of Fand ~ but the composer firmly rooted himself in mossy thickets and tree-shadows in The Happy Forest; and in the longer, majestic and mystical November Woods, conceived in the later years of the Great War (at about the same time as Tintagel).

November Woods evokes the gloom of a late-autumn, early-winter day; a cold breeze causing the branches of bare-boned trees to shiver in the dying light of the ever-shorter days. Mahler-lovers might also sense some of the atmosphere of the movement, ‘The Lonely One in Autumn’, from Das Lied Von der Erde, in Bax’s brilliantly effective painting of nature and the elements in his score. Yet the work is really a musical memoir of a love-affair, conducted by the composer in the landscape of the Chiltern Hills with musician, Harriet Cohen.

Bax wrote:

‘It may be taken as an impression of the dank and stormy music of nature in late autumn, but the whole piece and its origins are connected with certain rather troublous experiences I was going through myself at the time, and the mood of the Buckinghamshire wood, where the idea of this work came, seemed to sound a similar chord as it were… The middle part may be taken as a dream of happier days, such as sometimes come in the intervals of stress either physical or mental.’

Two particular recordings of November Woods stand out: the first, a classic reading by Sir Adrian Boult and the London Philharmonic Orchestra, in the rich, analogue sound associated with the Lyrita label in its 1960s-‘70s period; the second, a live recording from the 2003 Proms, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra (the flagship orchestra, founded by Boult in 1930) under the baton of Sir Andrew Davis ~ now himself a ‘grand old man’ of English music. In the Royal Albert Hall acoustic, Bax’s music seems to have that extra dimension of air and reverberation, thus adding to Bax’s winter daydream. Devotees, though, of Boult’s conducting style will sense a more ‘four-square’ approach to the music ~ perhaps leading to a less ‘impressionistic’ feel; a version that would fit well with Boult’s Elgar and Vaughan Williams discography. Whatever version you choose, November Woods is the perfect piece for this time of year.

Finally, to a new release of chamber music on the SOMM label, dedicated to the lesser-known Russian emigre, Nikolai Medtner ~ a figure who, like Rachmaninov, experienced the patriotic pain of exile from his beloved Russian heartland. Unable to cope with the barbarism of Bolshevism, Medtner and his wife took their homeland in their hearts, to distant shores and freedom.

On a CD entitled Medtner in England, SOMM brings together Natalia Lomeiko (violin), Alexander Karpeyev (piano) and Theodore Platt (baritone) for the Violin Sonata No. 3, the Sonata-Idylle in G major, and Eight Songs, Op. 61 ~ a splendid, representative sample of Medtner’s essentially romantic, but clearly intense 20th-century idiom. Francis Pott’s sleeve-notes bring Medtner to life, presenting much useful biographical information; pointing to the composer as a very private, sensitive but ‘lofty’ soul ~ with a strong attachment to Germanic culture (through a Teutonic strain in his ancestry). A photograph, taken in Warwickshire in the 1940s, reproduced on page 6 of the booklet, shows the composer in generally avuncular mood, holding a panama hat; smiling, yet with an expression hinting (perhaps) at a mind preoccupied with the emotions of an exile’s loss ~ as may be found in his Eichendorff setting in Eight Songs:

‘The path may take me where it will,
the sky is now my roof;
the sun appears with each new day,
the stars they keep their watch.’

Serenity and ‘a valedictory late-summer haze’ can be found in the music on this inspiring and intriguing CD, as well as dynamic scherzo passages, and ~ in the Violin Sonata ~ the satisfying momentum of an Allegro Molto finale in which Natalia Lomeiko and Alexander Karpeyev convince us that Medtner deserves to be far better known. The venue for the recording, the Wyastone Concert Hall, Monmouthshire, seems the perfect choice: clarity of sound, warmth, detail are all there for our complete enjoyment.

Stuart Millson is the Classical Music Editor of The Quarterly Review.

CD details:

Bax, Tone Poems, Boult/LPO, Lyrita, SRCD231.

Bax, November Woods (with works by Elgar, Britten and Walton), BBC SO/Davis, Warner Classics 2564 61550-2.

Medtner in England, SOMMCD 0674.

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Traitor King

Posted on November 3, 2023 by leslie

King Edward VIII and Mrs Simpson on holiday in Yugoslavia, 1936, credit Wikipedia

Traitor King,
Andrew Lownie,
Blink Publishing Bonnier books, 2021,
isbn 978-1-78870-487-8, reviewed by Monty Skew

Before his death in 1972, Edward, Duke of Windsor, mindful of history and his inglorious role therein, gave an interview in which he boasted of his ‘love for Britain’ and how he wished it well. This interview was welcomed by diehard fans of the Duke and of his wife, Wallis Simpson. Any remaining fans should reconsider their views after reading this book.

Prior to the Norman conquest there was in some parts of England an Anglo-Saxon system for choosing or replacing a king known as Witemagot. The Accession Council is the nearest equivalent. Under Witemagot, Edward would not have been chosen as king and indeed might have been removed. Much has been written about the prevalence and dangers of royal inbreeding. All dynasties have methods of ridding themselves of an obvious encumbrance. Sultan Ibrahim, the mad Ottoman sultan, was a Canute-like figure. He ordered hot coal to be shovelled into the sea to keep it warm. He was removed by a plot involving his generals and bureaucrats. His own mother consented to his execution by strangulation. They could not countenance a monarch who was deranged while the country was at war.

Edward ascended the throne in 1936 on the death of his father George V, a strict disciplinarian, evidently exasperated by his weak son. He wanted his younger son George to succeed him (which he did eventually). Edward did not last long. He formed a liaison with twice divorced Wallis Simpson while head of the church. This was not acceptable to public opinion which turned against him. King Edward abdicated because he was forced to. He may even have been blackmailed into it because of youthful indiscretions. He was kept under constant surveillance as he could not be trusted. Wallis herself had a colourful and chequered past. It was not only that she was divorced. In her laughable hagiography of Simpson, Diana Mosley (wife of Oswald) suggests that Simpson added to her income by her ‘winnings at poker’ in Shanghai. There are many unsavoury activities associated with casinos. Let’s just say she swallowed more than her pride during her Shanghai days. Although the British press kept quiet, Windsor and Wallis were featured in the continental tabloid press. It was in fact concerned Britons abroad sending cuttings to No 10 which activated the proceedings.

The scheming adventuress Wallis desperately wanted to be Queen Consort but the abdication shattered her dreams. She never forgave Edward and the rest of their lives were spent pretending to have had a great love affair. Lownie takes up the story post-abdication. The control that she exerted over Windsor continued. There is absolutely no doubt about Windsor’s sympathies. He did not feel British. He even boasted about his lack of British blood. He spoke fluent German and once proclaimed “I am German”. Like many unconfident and sexually repressed men, he had fascist/Nazi sympathies. The sham of his ‘love of the century’ was slow to be exposed as so many journalists and publicists etc invested in the myth. Their livelihood depended on continually re-cycling this fictional love story. The Windsors, tied together and dependent on each other, were tabloid fodder.

Churchill was a strong supporter of Windsor during the abdication crisis. Like Windsor, he had extravagant tastes and many of his bills were settled by supporters. But at least Churchill did not mix with undesirable elements in casinos and nightclubs. Edward was a well-trained sponger who lived off those who wanted to rub shoulders with royalty. Both Windsor and Simpson, though rich, were grasping and exploitative. He has been accused of shady dealings and of defrauding insurance companies after the theft of her jewellery which later turned up in their possession. There are parallels here with former king of Spain, Juan Carlos, who stood down under a cloud of allegations of money-grabbing. Wallis Simpson sometimes sent for her own chef to cook at a meal to which she had been invited. Her love of luxury, at a time when Britain was at war and suffering privations, was unseemly. So was her constant craving for attention. She wanted to be addressed as HRH with continual curtsying. Royalty deserves respect but not obsequiousness.

Certain archives remain locked. Some have been embargoed for the next 80 years. Robert Vickers in his hagiography discusses this but avoids the contentious issue of whether Windsor was a traitor. His appointment as ‘Governor of Bahamas’ in 1940 ensured that he could be kept under observation by the secret service. Churchill, now PM, gave Windsor a coded warning of a possible court-martial for refusing to obey military orders. The evidence of his treason is over-whelming and any jury would have found him guilty. There is more than circumstantial evidence that he either deliberately informed the Germans of certain secret plans or was indiscreet about them. His version was ‘seeking peace’. Simpson was also close to German connected sources and some of her staff may have been placed by the Germans.

In the event of a German occupation, Edward would have regained his throne and served as figurehead Quisling. Much of this is detailed by Sybil Oldfield in The Black Book, the Gestapo’s well-developed plan for utilising members of the elite in occupied Britain. There is no doubt that Edward was a traitor. This book proves it. Baldwin was a divisive figure but in getting rid of Windsor he was perhaps the last PM, outside of wartime, to put country before party.

Future historians will doubtless refer to Traitor King, which includes interviews and private correspondence. Readers will find the bibliography useful, including the list of the trashy novels written about Windsor. Meticulously annotated throughout, this book may well become the definitive account of Edward, Duke of Windsor, after his abdication.

Der Herzog von Windsor auf der Ordensburg Crössinsee in Pommern am 13.10.37. Der Herzog schreitet die Front der SS im Burghof ab.

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Hayek, A Life, 1899-1950

Posted on October 26, 2023 by leslie

 

Gustav Klimt, Philosophy, Ceiling Panel for the Great Hall of Vienna University, credit Wikipedia

Hayek A Life, 1899-1950, Bruce Caldwell & Hansjoerg Klausinger, University of Chicago Press, Chicago & London, 2022, 840pp, HB, reviewed by Leslie Jones

Introduction.

Friedrich August Hayek’s family was conservative, “culturally German” but only nominally Christian. Both parents belonged to the Viennese lower nobility or “second society”. His father August (1871-1928) was a district physician. August’s grandfather Heinrich had squandered the family fortune. The upshot was that August’s academic ambitions (his “passion was botany”) were thwarted, although he was awarded an extraordinary professorship in 1916, albeit unpaid. Friedrich (henceforth Hayek) evidently owed his love of German literature and of the theatre to his father – ditto his interest in natural science. He became a convinced Darwinian in his middle teens. His mother Felicitas von Juraschek was the daughter of a wealthy university professor and civil servant. Her inherited wealth helped pay for the servants, private schooling etc considered obligatory in these circles.

Hayek was intellectually precocious. Easily bored, his performance at school was dismal. Like other members of the Viennese bourgeoisie, he attended a gymnasium. At the Franz-Joseph Real Gymnasium, where he was enrolled from 1909-1911, scientific subjects were emphasised. Ancient Greek and Latin had been replaced by modern foreign languages.

In November 1918, Hayek enrolled in the faculty of law at the University of Vienna. He eschewed both racist nationalism (the race war) but also Marxism (the class war). With his close friend Herbert Fürth, he helped organise the German Democratic Student’s Union (DDHV). Jewish students were active therein. Hayek, then, was aligned with the progressive/liberal elements in the Viennese bourgeoise. In this context, his involvement in an informal discussion group in the early 1920’s, nicknamed the Geistkreis (‘circle of the spirits’) was pivotal. Its members “belonged mostly to the best type of Jewish intelligentsia…” (Hayek, quoted C & K, p152).

The growth of fin de siècle anti-Semitism in Austria-Hungary, facilitated by the extension of the franchise leading to the rise of mass parties, is a prominent theme in Hayek a Life. Georg von Schönerer’s pan-German party excluded those of Jewish descent, as did Karl Lueger’s Christian Social Party. Anti-Semitism, supposedly now scientific, was rife in Austrian universities. Indeed, August Hayek was a founder member of a section of the Verein deutscher Ärzte in Österreich (Association of Doctors). The Verein’s Aryan paragraph restricted membership to those of “German lineage”. Caldwell and Klausinger (henceforth C & K) acknowledge the anti-Semitism at the heart of Hayek’s family but they magnanimously conclude that August was not irredeemably tainted. Note, however, that both Hayek’s mother and his brother Heinz subsequently supported Hitler. Even Hayek himself was not entirely immune to anti-Semitism. Interviewed in 1983 by W. W. Bartley 111, in preparation for a prospective biography of Hayek, the latter described his onetime psychology lecturer Siegmund Kornfeld as “…a rather comic Jewish figure…” (C and K, p. 130). In similar vein, in 1939, Hayek wrote to Beveridge, the former Director of the LSE, on behalf of economist Karl Forchheimer, dismissed from his position in the Austrian Ministry of Social Affairs, stating that although Forchheimer was “I understand, fully Jewish, he is not pronouncedly so and I should have hardly known he was a Jew” (C & K, p. 396).

Hayek turns to economics.

Appropriately enough, Hayek A Life was showcased at the Adam Smith Institute on 26 April 2023. On August 1, 1932, Hayek became Tooke Professor of Economic Science and Statistics in the University of London. In his inaugural lecture delivered at the LSE on March 1, 1933, Hayek lauded Adam Smith for identifying “a mechanism that coordinates economic activity” but which arose spontaneously. This was the so-called “invisible hand”, referred to just once in Wealth of Nations (vol II, restraints upon importation). Carl Menger, appointed Professor of Political Economy at Vienna in 1879, was the founder of Austrian School of Economics and a critic of the Historical School of Economics. In his Grundsätze or Principles of Economics (1871) Menger elaborated an idea analogous to the “invisible hand”, to wit, the “spontaneous generation of institutions”. Hayek read the Grundsätze in 1921 and said that the conception of the “spontaneous generation of institutions is worked out more beautifully there than in any other book I know” (quoted C & K, p138).

In his Observer review of Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom (1944), George Orwell pithily opined, “Capitalism leads to dole queues, the scramble for markets, and war. Collectivism leads to concentration camps, leader worship, and war”. C & K’s contention, however, is that Hayek sought a middle way between these extremes. For them, The Road was ultimately a defence of the beleaguered liberal values which he shared with his mentor, Ludwig von Mises – notably reason and tolerance – rather than a celebration of laissez-faire per se. Given that “scarcity will always be with us” (the economic problem) whose needs are to be satisfied and what is a just wage for any given occupation? Thus, the economic problem is also a social and political problem. For Hayek, socialism, whether of the left or right, cannot be combined with freedom because it has dispensed with “decentralisation plus automatic coordination”. Socialism must eventually impose as arbitrary set of values in order to address the economic problem.

“Toutes les familles heureuses se ressemblent”. C & K understandably hesitated to deal with Hayek’s acrimonious divorce of his wife Hella, the mother of his two children, and his subsequent marriage to Linerl, his first love. Volume 1 of Hayek, a Life concludes with this episode, painful for all concerned, but nonetheless a compelling read.

Alumni of the London School of Economics will enjoy the depiction of the Senior Common Room in the 1930’s. Professor Lionel Robbins, for one, recalls in his autobiography the “friendly badinage between Tawney and Gregory on the merits and demerits of the free-enterprise system…” . Anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski and historian Elie Halévy, likewise,  occupied what Hayek called the “Sardonic Corner”, expatiating on “the folkways of English academics”. When the planned second volume is complete, this will become, as the authors intended, “the definitive full biography of F A Hayek”.

Klimt, Medicine, Hygieia, credit Wikipedia

Dr Leslie Jones, PhD LSE, is the Editor of Quarterly Review.

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Commissar Order

Posted on October 12, 2023 by leslie

Russian Political Commissar, at Soviet-German military parade in Brest-Litovsk, 1939, credit Wikipedia

Commissar Order,
by Bill Hartley

Commissars can be traced back to the Commissaire politique of the Revolutionary Army during the French Revolution. Armies are something of a blunt instrument, a necessary arm of the state but in some countries notoriously unreliable. Having people in the ranks to keep them onside has been considered necessary by various political groups. For example, they were introduced into the Red Army by Leon Trotsky, who was tasked with ensuring that the party could rely on the loyalty of the military.

Commissars served alongside commanding officers exerting ideological control over and being closely involved in command decisions, with the power of veto. Even the Nazi’s were not above taking a leaf from the Soviet book. In the latter stages of the Second World War, when doubts arose about the loyalty of elements of the Wehrmacht, they appointed National Socialist leadership officers.

An article in American Thinker in March of this  year wondered what the difference is between a Soviet political commissar and a diversity officer. The article described the diversity officer as being tasked with enforcing ‘leftist policies in corporations, universities and government agencies’. Although definitions vary somewhat, diversity claims to eradicate prejudice and discrimination.

The Americans had the advantage of an early start in this field. The UK isn’t that far behind though, and for this we have the unintended consequences of the Equalities Act (2010). A piece of legislation which ought to be within the remit of a corporate Human Resources department to manage has become the building block for an exciting new field of employment. Some organisations and businesses seem to have convinced themselves that the only way to avoid criticism or worse is to get with the programme and employ diversity equality and inclusion officers to ensure ideological conformity. Of course, when it’s public money the decision is easier and the NHS isn’t short of diversity officers.

Just what does a diversity officer do? There’s no shortage of information for anyone contemplating a career in this field. He or she starts the day by checking social media to find the latest views and trends. Meetings feature prominently in the working day; diversity officers tend to be in close proximity to people who actually do the work, presumably just like any commissar, to ensure ideological conformity.

Prior to getting into this field of ‘work’, preliminary training is considered important. Some diversity practitioners recommend ‘unconscious bias’ training in order to ‘unpick core beliefs’. The job itself is all about ‘promoting positive attitudes’ and ‘reviewing policies’. Diversity people like finding things to do. One example is the diversity and inclusion survey, to discover how employees ‘feel’ by delving into their comments to gain a deeper perspective. There are organisations which can do this for a company. One advertises this as a way to ‘spark change with actionable diversity and inclusion surveys.’ Another is able advise how to ‘overcome barriers and create a safe space’. Rather dubiously it has been claimed by one source that adopting a diverse and inclusive culture resulted in a ‘19% higher innovation revenue than companies with below average diversity’. This rather obscure term is defined as a way of increasing competitiveness or organisational effectiveness, by listening to employees. Quite how it was measured isn’t stated.

Interestingly one critic from an ethnic minority commented that when it comes to diversity you can never say anything bad about it. He noted that the vocabulary is constantly changing and suggested that this leads to a culture where people are too afraid to say anything. Inclusively has its limits though. Although religion is a protected characteristic under the Act, it is often avoided, since practising Christians may have socially conservative views. This is something surveys steer clear of.

In the relentless drive for diversity, training videos are available. Some of these are both inept and unintentionally funny. One example involves a white middle-aged male (naturally) ‘helping’ a female select a team leader for a project for which she has oversight. The woman proposes a name and the man immediately dismisses him as being too introverted. The individual referred to works in IT and has an Asian name. Inference: racial stereotyping, even though he does elaborate on his view. In contrast, the woman says nothing. She makes no attempt to explain why this individual might be a good choice. As the conversation continues the man insists on talking over the woman, who adopts an expression of saintly fortitude. Another name arises and the man emphasises his familiarity with this individual by using his nickname. He suggests this man is a good candidate, the sort who can quickly get the project underway and enthuse people. Bad manners apart, he at least makes a good case for the candidate, unlike the woman who simply endures his clumsy attempts to help.

Pursuing a career as a diversity practitioner entails coming up with appropriate answers to interview questions. However, help is at hand. One question someone might be asked at an interview is, ‘what would you do if you overhead someone making an inappropriate remark?’ The correct answer is, publicly confront the person immediately and tell them you do not wish to hear that remark again. An alternative answer might be, ‘I need more diversity training so that I can accept people with opinions that diverge from my own’. It calls to mind an imaginary painting in the Socialist Realism style entitled, ‘Challenging the Inappropriate Comment’, featuring a group of people sitting around a conference table, one pointing accusingly at another.

Curiously all of this training seems designed for the office workplace or for what used to be called white collar employment. Manual work doesn’t seem to feature much in the world of diversity training. Challenging an inappropriate remark among, say, a group of scaffolders, would likely be beyond the capacity of even the most dedicated diversity officer.

If blue collar workers aren’t the best choice for expansion then catching them young seems to be the alternative. One organisation tells parents, ‘your child belongs in our circle’ and ‘we commit them for the next step at school and beyond’. Older children should be ‘involved in conversations about fairness and equality’. There are even ‘anti-bias’ lessons available for pre-schoolers.

Diversity is a big business. The afore-mentioned article in American Thinker reported that the average American university now has more than 45 people devoted to promoting diversity on campus, which is a more generous allocation of commissars than a regiment in the Red Army used to receive. A whole career structure has sprung up supported by training and qualifications. Yet it has its critics who will point out that such training isn’t effective. In ‘Diversity Inc.’ subtitled ‘the failed promise of a billion-dollar business’, Pamela Newkirk points out that in the US, whilst diversity targeting is flourishing, diversity is not. She considers it a feel- good exercise and maintains that such initiatives can ironically make matters worse by triggering resentment. Furthermore, organisations who wish to put in place the symbolic structures of diversity don’t bother to test their efficacy. In other words, the diversity apparatus doesn’t have to work it just has to exist. Newkirk concludes that such training can be counterproductive by making stereotypes more prominent and reinforcing them. For companies it may be little more than a box-ticking exercise, helping people answer survey questions in the way that they ‘should’. Even those tasked with managing these training programmes recognise them as ineffective, although in the public sector it would be unwise to voice criticism. Just as soldiers in the Red Army disdained but feared political commissars, today’s employees view them as useless pen pushers but wisely elect to say nothing.

 William Hartley is a Social Historian

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Six Poems, Concerning An Affair

Posted on October 7, 2023 by leslie

Woman’s Head, Picasso, credit Wikipedia

Six Poems Concerning An Affair

Near Waterloo Bridge

I’m not sure why I did it.
She’d said something self-deprecating
This young girl; semi-star-struck, smitten;
Who’d taken me to some hippy pub in Lower Marsh.
Theatrical props, psychedelic paintings,
All wrapped-up in Victorian brick.
I put my arm around her
And kissed her on the top of the head
And in that moment I felt every muscle
In her body relax,
Every anxiety evaporate
Like Jasmine steam from an evening bath.
Fallow-blonde hairs against my chaffed March lips
Seemed to sink down, like a blanket
Onto the safety of a warm bed.
In that dim-lit cellar
Life itself seemed as psychedelic as the paintings,
But as certain as the Empire brick.

 A Nose for History

As they gathered at St Mary the Virgin
That crisp Harvest Festival evening
Just for an hour or so
It was 1662.
The language, the rituals, even the must
Were the same
And like those Civil War re-enactors
With real ale fetishes
And far too many folk music CDs
They were one with their ancestors;
A hundred hands reaching back to the Restoration.

Which brings me to your nose.
In the Old Alresford of 1662
I can hear some burring yeoman
Leaving his acres at dusk
Even he’d see it: “I suppose
“Your knows ‘er nose is your nose!
“That’s why you likes it so!
“It says in Song o’ Songs:
‘Your nose is like the Tower of Lebanon
‘Lookin’ towards Damascus.’
“Even they know’d the allure
Of a nice, sharp nose!”

It’s also his nose. And his wife’s.
And with that nose
Like the re-enactors now imbibing at The Bell Inn
Or the Hampshire worshippers receiving bread and wine
We connect with our ancestors
An unbroken proboscis-al line
Whispering: “Keep it going!
“It’s your duty to us!
“Keep it going, little organism!
“Keep it going!
Continue reading →

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Endnotes, October 2023

Posted on October 4, 2023 by leslie

Paul Nash; Landscape of the Moon’s Last Phase; Walker Art Gallery; credit Wikipedia

Endnotes, October 2023; in this edition, premiere recordings of British piano concertos from the Lyrita label, reviewed by Stuart Millson

Aside from the thoughtfully-chosen, sometimes recondite musical material, Lyrita enhances the latter with evocative artwork, lengthy and detailed sleeve notes, containing insightful biographies of the conductors and soloists who have created the Lyrita sound. For this new CD of recordings of British piano concertos, the booklet cover is Cumulus Head, a 1944 painting by Paul Nash, evoking an English downland landscape.

Herewith three piano concertos, by composers John Addison, Gordon Jacob, and Edmund Rubra respectively. Addison’s Variations for Piano and Orchestra of 1948 is an at times quirky, at times impassioned score, designed to test any soloist and draw in an inquisitive audience. In short, a superior ‘divertissement’. Addison was best known for his film music, such as his scores for Reach for the Sky (1956) and Alfred Hitchcock’s Torn Curtain. But he was also an accomplished composer of classical music, as his Concertante for Oboe, Clarinet, and Orchestra (1948) attests.

Gordon Jacob’s Piano Concerto (1957) has a similar style to that of Vaughan Williams. The work begins with an emphatic allegro passage. But in contrast to ‘RVW’s Piano Concerto in C, premiered in February 1933 and conducted by Sir Adrian Boult, Jacob’s concerto does not conclude in peace and seclusion. Now a largely forgotten figure, Jacob was a great teacher and a prolific composer. The concerto is informed by distinct elements of nostalgia. Under the baton of Stephen Bell, the National Orchestra of Wales do justice to Jacob’s bold argument and big sound.

Of the three composers featured in this CD, Edmund Rubra, a devout Roman Catholic, is unquestionably the more mystical and introspective. He composed a large cycle of symphonies. Those familiar with Vernon Handley’s recording for Lyrita of Rubra’s Festival Overture will understand why connoisseurs of British music maintain that Rubra’s oeuvre should be given a more prominent place in our concert and Radio 3 schedules. George Vass, a champion of contemporary British repertoire, exercises admirable control over Rubbra’s concerto, notably in the intensely spiritual opening on woodwind, followed by a violin solo. And credit to pianist Simon Callaghan, whose performances at the English Music Festival have made such a profound impression.

CD details; British Piano Concertos, Addison/Jacob/Rubbra. BBC National Orchestra of Wales, conductors Stephen Bell and George Vass. Lyrita SRCD.416

 Stuart Millson is Classical Music Editor of QR

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Advertisement;

Coming this October, a new performing edition of J.S. Bach, the Well Tempered Clavier by Vladimir Feltsman. The release will consist of two books each containing 24 Preludes and Fugues, alongside the release of all 48 separate scores. The scores are unaltered and are the edition published in 1886 by the Bach-Gesellschaft. However performing suggestions have been “added in light grey and are based around Baroque performing traditions, modern practices, and the editor’s experience of studying, performing, recording and teaching” (Vladimir Feltsman).

To accompany the release of the scores there will be a number of videos of each Prelude and Fugue available to help aid in the learning of the music. 41 of these are performance videos, 6 are a mix of videos and scrolling scores and one has just a scrolling score to follow.

Book 1 and 2 will be available to purchase from £19.99 and the individual scores from £2.99

For those interested in a film of Vladimir Feltsman performing J.S. Bach The Well-Clavier, you can find this available on the Nimbus records website for £19.99.

 

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Monteverdi 1610 Vespers

Posted on October 2, 2023 by leslie

Fra Angelico, The Annunciation, credit Wikipedia

Monteverdi 1610 Vespers, I Fagiolini, plus English Cornett & Sackbut Ensemble, directed/conducted by Robert Hollingworth, Kings Place, Sound Unwrapped, Friday 29th September 2023, reviewed by Leslie Jones

In 1610, Claudio Monteverdi, maestro cappella at the court of Duke Gonzaga in Mantua, felt underpaid and was looking for new employment. At an audience in Rome with Pope Paul V, he presented a manuscript dedicated to the latter, containing a disparate collection of texts, both sacred and profane, including the main elements of what we now call the Vespers of 1610. This MS must constitute the most extensive self-advertisement in music history (see ‘Vespers (1610) – Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643)’, by Barry Creasy, Chairman, Collegium Musicum London).

In his informative programme notes, Robert Hollingworth, the founder and director of I Fagiolini, contends that ‘a big resonant space’ such as St Mark’s Venice, ‘inevitably smudges most of the detail for most of the congregation/audience’. The ‘clear’ acoustics of King’s Place, in contrast, provide, in his judgement, an opportunity to ‘untangle and clarify a little more of Monteverdi’s sumptuous detail…’ But some commentators, including this one, prefer what Hollingworth calls ‘the great wash of sound that is sonically glorious’. It was noticeable that when the performers moved up to the balcony, the sound became immediately richer. As Fatima Dabbah observes, when the Vespers are performed in a stone church as opposed to an ordinary concert hall, the ‘reverberation’ in the latter is ‘indescribable’ (‘All important acoustics, 9 things to know about Monteverdi’s Vespers, wfmt, October 14th, 2022). 

Observing I Fagiolini from close up reveals just how much their singing depends on unspoken communication within the ensemble. On this occasion, they were clearly enjoying themselves (at times, seemingly sharing a private joke) notwithstanding the immense mental and physical demands being made upon them. Indefatigable tenor Nicholas Mulroy evidently played a key role in tying things together.

Music, according to the philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, ‘stands alone’ as its effect is ‘more powerful and penetrating…than the other arts’. Metaphysics aside, we concur.

Dr Leslie Jones is Editor of Quarterly Review

 

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Tales of Ancient Kings

Posted on September 28, 2023 by leslie

 

Caracalla & Geta, Bearfight in the Colosseum, L Alma-Tadema, credit Wikipedia

Tales of Ancient Kings

Historia Augusta trans. by David Magie; revised by David Rohrbacher. 3 vols. Harvard University Press, 2022. $30.00. Vol. I: pp. i-liii, 1-471; Vol. II: pp.1-463; Vol. III: 1-562, reviewed by Darrell Sutton

Wading through the mound of scholarly matter on ancient Latin texts is a daunting task. Numerous opinions need to be considered. Historia Augusta (HA), so-called presently because communis opinio presumes it to be a work authored by only one writer, was handed down to modern readers in manuscripts dating from the Caroline revival to the Renaissance era. For a long time none of the texts were accurately reported. Within the MSS, notations and emendations by various hands are noticeable; but identifying the emendators is harder still. The HA remains crucial to studies of the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD.

From the inception of research on HA, it was thought that the MSS contained the lettering of six writers who composed biographies of various rulers;
I: Aelius Spartianus (Hadrian, Aelius, Didius Iulianus, Septimius Severus, Pescennius Niger, Caracalla, Geta); II: Iulius Capitolinus (Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius, Verus, Pertinax, Clodius Albinus, Opilius Macrinus, Maximini duo, the Gordiani, Maximus et Balbinus; III: Vulcacius Gallicanus (Avidius Cassius); IV: Aelius Lampridius (Commodus, Diadumenus, Heliogabalus, Alexander Severus), V: Trebellius Pollio (Valerianus, Gallienus, Thirty Tyrants, Claudius Gothicus); and VI: Flavius Vopiscus Syracusanus (Aurelianus, Tacitus, Probus, Four Tyrants, Carus, Carinus and Numerian).

The period covered ranges from AD117-284. Each memoir purportedly was written during the reigns of Diocletian and Constantine I. Numerous documents and items of public record and recollection are used to support the profiles. Disagreement abounds. All the sketches do not exhibit the same literary qualities. Therefore debates on HA’s authorship teem with all sorts of claims. Scientific discussion of the texts originate in 1889 with Hermann Dessau’s paper, Über Zeit und Persönlichkeït der Scriptores historiae Augustae (Hermes Vol. 24, No.3). Dessau (1856-1931) was a pupil of Mommsen and an able text critic. His prosopographic research informed his theories regarding the HA. He rejected nearly all of what was commonly believed about it, eschewing popular beliefs of the day.  Continue reading →

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