Tea at Trianon: What is a Semite?

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Thursday, December 21, 2023

What is a Semite?

From The History Desk:

Are the Jews the only Semites?

No. The semitic people are spread out from Mesopotamia, to Egypt, and the border with Iran.

Is there a genotype to indicate someone is a Semite?

No. It’s a family of languages that includes people who are Arabic, and Hebrew. Plus others. Ergo, it would be rational to say, if you are “anti-semitic” you are against both Arabs and Jews. Nonetheless, rarely do folks think of Arabs as Semites. Arabs get to be Arabs, and Jews get to be Semites.

When it comes to the Middle East, folks in the West can be a little thick. Why aren’t Westerners more savvy, when so much happens in the Middle East that affects the world? We never ignore their wars. We don’t want to ignore them. But what if we did? What if we let their problems be their problems?

The analogy is to ask the proverbial question: If a tree falls in the woods, and no one is around, does it still make a sound?

Sound is something animals can hear, and react to, so yes, it still makes a sound. Carrying that forward, what if only the surrounding countries, those that can hear the sound along the Mediterranean Coast, Turkey and India, if those countries paid attention to those wars, would they bother to get themselves involved if we didn’t? After all, it is in their back yard. We know Iran is involved. They sort of play the same card America plays in the Ukraine-Russia war: throw in money and toys, but no soldiers allowed in.

Europeans have delved into the Levant and Mesopotamia for thousands of years. Because the Persians and Phoenicians introduced themselves to the Mediterranean countries, the Greeks, and then the Romans, returned the favor. The Middle East adopted many of the Grecian ways, including their language. The Greek language remained, even after the Romans took control. Note that the New Testament was written largely in Greek, because it was the lingua franca of that era. Not Latin.

Before there was an Israel and a Judea, the Semitic languages flourished. The Canaanites, Phoenicians and the Akkadians spoke a Semitic language. Even some Ethiopians spoke a Semite language. Well, there are Jews among the Ethiopians.

Where did the Semites originate from?

Migration is the MO of the Earth’s people. Not only Sapiens, but Homo erectus, Neanderthals, Denisovans, and others, left their comfort zone to see what else the planet had to offer. Sapiens and Neanderthals mixed it up a bit, so that we still have Neanderthal DNA in many people alive today. The rest? They dwindled away. And no, white Europeans did not kill them off. At about 30,000 years ago, Sapiens were the only game in town. It was our ancestors who set up budding villages that turned into towns that turned into cities. Nevertheless, migrations continued. (Read more.)