When Oxford-based poet and professional bore Tom Paulin advocated the shooting of West Bank Jewish settlers he probably expected nothing more than the appreciative plaudits of his academic colleagues. But I daresay he had not even heard of the blogosphere. If he had, he might have kept his mouth shut. As it is, he was catapulted overnight from obscurity to ‘Global Moron’ status and assigned a transatlantic reputation as a virulent anti-semite. Paulin got a maulin’
Personally, I don’t think Mr.Paulin is an anti-semite. More likely he was caught up in the wave of anti-Israel sentiment that has swept right through the academic and media classes; a sort of fashion-induced rush of blood to the head. However, the details barely seem to matter now because, judging from his response in the Guardian the whole affair has unhinged him:
“The first answer is Beckett’s
in another context – to “Mr Beckett
they say that you are English?”
he answered “au contraire”
– he didn’t say “I am not dot dot”
which plays their game
– in this case the ones who play the a-s card –
of death threats hate mail talking tough
the usual cynical Goebbels stuff
so I say the same
and say that peace it must be talked
re Palestine and re Iraq
– Israel has got the bomb
but that’s not why
no one in their right mind
says Israel should be swept into the sea…”
Hey daddy-o it’s, like, so far-out, man. In fact, it’s so far-out I can’t see it. I can, though, imagine one of the Guardian’s editor’s accompanying him on the bongos while he read it.
I think I shall compose a response in similar poetic vain. Ahem…(clears throat):
“First Michael Moore,
Now Tom Paulin,
One by one,
The idiots are fallin’.
Thank you. Thank you.
Apart from the usual message: Europe is violent and has tended to attack anyone different for a thousand years, this effort confirms Paulin’s one-sided view of morality.
In his Dead White European view of the world, Europeans or the US are guilty of all the misery we see around us and oppressed, fighting Palestinians (insert poor third world group) are incapable of moral expression.
Notice how Paulin always writes about such groups to promote his message but never articulates their actual voice, culture or morality.
He’s a patronising bore.
I applied myself to the gruelling task of reading the whole thing on the Graun site.
As someone who likes and writes poetry, I found it somewhat lacking in this department. It appeared to be random jottings randomly broken into short lines. E J Thribb came to mind.
Methinks “academia” is vastly over-rated these days, so any emissions from any orifice are suspect.