Spoiler Alert — If you haven’t watched Blood and Gold on Netflix, I spoil one scene here.
Blood & Gold, and the Bright Line of Morality
A Nazi gets pushed out of the window of a bell tower by a guy with down syndrome and it’s marvelous.
I loved watching that. This young, sweet and compassionate young man is tormented by Nazis who thought “his kind” was already extinct in the “Fatherland” by means of extermination. He gets his revenge right before the Nazis hang him out of a bell tower as a sort of gross spectacle. Young Paule shoves one right out of the tower, screaming to his death, and then uses an automatic rifle to shred his partner. What sweet revenge. How more solid and bright could the line between good and evil be?
On one side, you have a henchman for the evil Nazis, looking to exterminate the “morons”, and on the other side, you have the innocent young man who suffers from nothing but unlucky chromosomes. He was so happy to do it too. The zeal and joy with which he pushed that Nazi out of the window was met with me cheering and laughing.
It’s a fun movie to watch if you like revenge type flicks. The scenes, music, and artwork felt like it was a German Tarantino production. And how easy is it to cheer on that shadow within us all that wants violence committed against evil. Even easier is to do so when the lines between good and evil are as clear and bright as Jews, innocent citizens, and Nazis. Easy-peezy.
Those lines today, for many of us in the West, seem to be blurred.
The Rhythm of History
There is one scene in particular that made me stop and think about the idea that history doesn’t exactly repeat itself, but it rhymes.
There is a flashback to the little town where the movie takes place that depicts the mobbing of the only Jewish family in the town, right before they burn down their house. The husband is in shock at how quickly his friends and neighbors have turned on him. They are outside of his house, with torches, throwing whatever they can get their hands on at him and his wife. He yells at the ringleader, who is the town mayor, “How can you do this? I helped you build this town?!!” or something like that. This particular rhythm and rhyme of history goes all the way back to Egypt and Exodus.
“Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph.” — Exodus 1:8
The pharaoh who started the whole tirade against the Jews in Egypt was said to have not remembered or knew of Joseph. Joseph was a Jew in Egypt who helped them survive a famine. The story is much deeper and interesting than just that, but for these purposes, just know that Joseph saved their butts.
But many generations passed, and the new pharaoh didn’t know this. It’s not unusual for Egyptian history to write of itself as if they never had anything but wins. So of course the new pharaoh wondered why this race of people on his land deserved anything but the pleasure of being his slaves. And as their numbers increased, he became afraid. His fear leads to resentment and persecution which ultimately leads to the Exodus, which comes with a lot of Egyptian illness and death.
Leading majority populations accepting Jews, using them for their ability to provide what is needed at the time, and then persecuting them when they need or want a scapegoat, is the rhythm of the last 4,000 years of Jewish history. Blood and Gold captures that perfectly in the house burning scene. They forgot who helped build their town.
It’s the reason why so many traditional Jewish occupations are highly mobile and transferrable. They’ve been constantly scapegoated out of their homes so they had to develop means of moving quickly and taking their talents with them. The Spanish inquisition was in large part an expelling of Jews from Spain, and Spain has yet to recover. It’s one of the poorest countries in Western Europe.
Not only did many Jews come to the New World, but they helped to start the industries which accelerated the financial success of countries from Brazil, to Jamaica, and into what is now the United States. In a country that sought not to persecute people for varied religious beliefs, they were able to ease into some security. Yes, there still was much reticence from many corners of Christian society, but like Thomas Sowell always likes to ask, “As compared to what?” Even with the ongoing skepticism of Jews from Christians, America as compared to Europe was miles ahead of the tolerance curve.
Our Founders understood this. They knew that much of the political theory and contemporary success came from Jewish thought and industry.
“At the public feast given in Philadelphia in 1789 to celebrate the new constitution, there was a special table where the food conformed to Jewish dietary laws.” — A History of the Jews, Paul Johnson
Remembering Joseph
So when I look at the current conflict in Gaza, and the events that lead up to it, I’m not only thinking about counting deaths on either side. I’m also thinking about the societies in conflict and their views on humanity. I’m also remembering why me, the son of a black immigrant, can live in happiness and do whatever the hell I want to do, within reason. It’s not just luck.
I see the conflict as a sort of proxy war for Western Civilization being fought in popular opinion. It’s being fought between those who know Western Civilization, and those who take their privileges for granted. Or maybe they just don’t understand why these privileges exist.
The line between good and evil isn’t as clear as it was watching Blood and Gold. But it is there. There is no clean way forward. There is no choice that doesn’t involve human suffering. There never is.
But I’m afraid of what happens to us if we forget Joseph.