understanding-forgiving-Rahel look, and in your elder-sister tone you’re remarking to yourself that I haven’t been concerned about Boaz but, as usual, about myself. After all, ever since we were children you were always the one to save me from my crazes. “My dramas,” to use your term. And you’ll start feeding me a stew of that applied psychology you picked up from your child-care course. Until I go out of my mind and scream: Leave me alone! And then you’ll smile at me sadly, refrain as usual from taking offense, keep quiet, and let me reach by myself the realization that my outbursts only exemplify what you have been wise enough to diagnose already. That tolerant, pedantic wisdom of yours—which has infuriated me all these years, until I almost choke with rage and explode and insult you, thus giving you a perfect opportunity to forgive and also reinforcing your constant anxiety about my condition. Aren’t we a perfect team, the two of us? You see, I only meant to write you a couple of lines to thank you—you and Yoash—for being willing to drop everything and come to Jerusalem to help. And look what came out. Forgive me. Even though if it weren’t for my dramas, what connection would there be between the two of us? And where would you send your salvos of crushing kindness?
As you know, Boaz is okay. And I am trying hard to calm down. Alec’s lawyer hired some investigators, who discovered that he was working on some sort of tourist boat on the Sinai coast and didn’t need any of us. I managed to persuade Michel not to go to him in the meantime. You see, I accepted your advice to leave him alone. As for your other advice, to forget Alec for good and to refuse his money, don’t be angry if I tell you you don’t understand a thing. Give my regards and thanks to Yoash and kisses to the children.
Your intolerable
Ilana
Best wishes to all of you from Michel. He is starting to extend the flat with the money we got from Alec. He’s already got permission to add two rooms on the back, into the yard. Next summer you’ll be able to come and stay with us for a break, and I’ll be on my best behavior.
***
From world-wide press reviews of
The Desperate Violence: A Study in Comparative Fanaticism
by Alexander A. Gideon (1976).
“This monumental work by an Israeli scholar sheds new light—or, rather, deep shade—on the psychopathology of various faiths and ideologies from the Middle Ages to the present day. . . .”
Times Literary Supplement
“A must . . . an ice-cold analysis of the phenomenon of messianic fervor in both its religious and its secular guise . . .”
New York Times
“Fascinating reading . . . vital for an understanding of the movements that have shaken and still shake our century . . . Professor Gideon describes the phenomenon of faith . . . any faith . . . not as a source of morality but as its precise opposite. . . .”
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
“The Israeli scholar maintains that all world-reformers since the dawn of history have actually sold their souls to the devil of fanaticism. . . . The fanatic’s latent desire to die a martyr’s death on the altar of his idea is, in the author’s view, what enables him to sacrifice the lives of others, sometimes of millions, without batting an eyelid. . . . In the fanatic’s soul, violence, salvation and death are fused into a single mass. . . . Professor Gideon bases this conclusion not on psychological speculations but on a precise linguistic analysis of the vocabulary which is characteristic of all fanatics of all ages and of all positions in the religious and ideological spectrum. . . . This is one of those rare books that force the reader to re-examine himself and all his views fundamentally and to seek within himself and his surroundings manifestations of latent sickness. . . .”
New Statesman
“Ruthlessly lays bare the true face of feudalism and capitalism. . . . With
As you know, Boaz is okay. And I am trying hard to calm down. Alec’s lawyer hired some investigators, who discovered that he was working on some sort of tourist boat on the Sinai coast and didn’t need any of us. I managed to persuade Michel not to go to him in the meantime. You see, I accepted your advice to leave him alone. As for your other advice, to forget Alec for good and to refuse his money, don’t be angry if I tell you you don’t understand a thing. Give my regards and thanks to Yoash and kisses to the children.
Your intolerable
Ilana
Best wishes to all of you from Michel. He is starting to extend the flat with the money we got from Alec. He’s already got permission to add two rooms on the back, into the yard. Next summer you’ll be able to come and stay with us for a break, and I’ll be on my best behavior.
***
From world-wide press reviews of
The Desperate Violence: A Study in Comparative Fanaticism
by Alexander A. Gideon (1976).
“This monumental work by an Israeli scholar sheds new light—or, rather, deep shade—on the psychopathology of various faiths and ideologies from the Middle Ages to the present day. . . .”
Times Literary Supplement
“A must . . . an ice-cold analysis of the phenomenon of messianic fervor in both its religious and its secular guise . . .”
New York Times
“Fascinating reading . . . vital for an understanding of the movements that have shaken and still shake our century . . . Professor Gideon describes the phenomenon of faith . . . any faith . . . not as a source of morality but as its precise opposite. . . .”
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
“The Israeli scholar maintains that all world-reformers since the dawn of history have actually sold their souls to the devil of fanaticism. . . . The fanatic’s latent desire to die a martyr’s death on the altar of his idea is, in the author’s view, what enables him to sacrifice the lives of others, sometimes of millions, without batting an eyelid. . . . In the fanatic’s soul, violence, salvation and death are fused into a single mass. . . . Professor Gideon bases this conclusion not on psychological speculations but on a precise linguistic analysis of the vocabulary which is characteristic of all fanatics of all ages and of all positions in the religious and ideological spectrum. . . . This is one of those rare books that force the reader to re-examine himself and all his views fundamentally and to seek within himself and his surroundings manifestations of latent sickness. . . .”
New Statesman
“Ruthlessly lays bare the true face of feudalism and capitalism. . . . With
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