Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Orlok, Shylock and Blankfein

Michael Kinsley asked the question out loud: Is Criticism Of Goldman Really Anti-Semitism?
Then there is this oft-quoted passage ... in Rolling Stone: "The world's most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money." This sentence, many have charged, goes beyond stereotypes about Jews and money, touches other classic anti-Semitic themes about Jews as foreign or inhuman elements poisoning humanity and society... 
Taibbi claims to have been utterly blindsided by accusations that his article was anti-Semitic...  His critics find this impossible to believe. Could such a sophisticated writer... not know about the stereotypes and ancient lies that this passage echoes...  It may be possible to call Goldman Sachs a bloodsucker without being an anti-Semite. But is it possible to call Goldman Sachs a bloodsucker and then be surprised when you're called an anti-Semite?
Kinsley's analysis, seems to me, simply correct. There are plenty of reasons to criticize Goldman having nothing to do with antisemitism. There are also plenty of memes historically entwined with antisemitism whether or not applied to Goldman.

The current cover of New York Magazine, asks the same question, perhaps less innocently.  It doctors an image of Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein in a manner that seems to me plainly inspired-by/drawing-on Shylock and Count Orlok -- the most classical of all classical anti-semitic imagery.

Take a look and decide for yourself:

(from left to right: Al Pacino as Shylock, Max Shreck as Count Orlok, the first two images morphed using MorphThing, the New York Magazine stylized Blankfein, Blankfein un-doctored)

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