We’re halfway through Fear & Loathing in the New Jerusalem, the history of Zionism and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. (If you haven’t listened to the first two episodes, you might want to do that for background, but this episode is an exploratory aside that can stand on its own as well.) I decided to throw something together to answer a few questions and get down in the weeds to talk about Arab tribal dynamics, honor culture, religion, and the mutual incomprehension that helped construct the Middle Eastern mousetrap a century ago, and remains an obstacle to progress in the region today.

#3 - Fear & Loathing in the New Jerusalem - Nostalgia and Naivety in Honor Culture

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Hi everybody. This is a short Easter message I put together a year or two ago. It's been up on the Martyr Made Substack (https://martyrmade.substack.com/) - which you should all go subscribe to at your earliest convenience - but I thought I'd release it here for everyone. I hope everyone had a blessed week, and that you have a blessed day. Happy Easter.

Easter Message

Hi everyone. Here is a talk I gave about Nietzsche and Dostoevsky at the first inaugural Novitate Conference (https://novitateconference.org/) in Washington, DC. Novitate was created by Luke Burgis (https://read.lukeburgis.com/) to explore and celebrate the work of French scholar René Girard. Luke is the author of Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life (https://www.amazon.com/Wanting-Power-Mimetic-Desire-Everyday/dp/1250262488).Please support the podcast by subscribing to the Martyr Made Substack (https://martyrmade.substack.com/) for just $5 p/month, or $50 p/year. For that, you get access to tons of exclusive essays (w/audio versions for those who prefer to listen), podcasts, interviews, and AMAs, as well as a discount on all MartyrMade gear. This is a 100% listener-supported operation, and I'm only able to do this because of you guys.Link to the Martyr Made Substack: https://martyrmade.substack.com/

The Prodigal Sons - Nietzsche and Dostoevsky (Novitate Conference, Nov 2023)

Hi everybody. This is the audio version of a six-part essay series called Blacks and Jews. I wrote it for my Substack a while back, so if it sounds like I’m reading instead of speaking naturally, it’s because in this case I am. I decided to release this to everyone on the main feed because, in light of the recent uproar and brewing Democratic Party civil war over the Israel-Palestine conflict, it’s suddenly become quite timely. Black and Jewish Americans were uniquely united until the late 1960s, when the civil rights movement was subsumed by a Third Worldist outlook that caused the Black Panthers and other activists to turn on the State of Israel, and then on American Jews. It precipitated a split in the so-called Black-Jewish alliance which had been the backbone of the civil rights movement during its glory years, and led to some of the worst outbursts of public antisemitism in American history. The intra-left wing conflict over the current conflict in Gaza is not a new story, and in fact is an example of scabs being torn off old wounds that had barely begun to heal. I wrote this series as I was preparing the most recent episode of Whose America, Inner City Blues, so those of you who’ve heard that will be familiar with some of the material, but there’s also a lot of material that wasn’t in that episode.As I said, this was previously released on my Substack (https://martyrmade.substack.com/), so if you enjoy this kind of content maybe you’ll show a little holiday cheer and help support the podcast by becoming a subscriber for just $5 p/month or $50 p/year. This is a 100% listener-funded show, I don’t have sponsors or any other kind of funding except what you guys contribute, so your generosity is greatly appreciated.

Blacks and Jews (Complete Series)

I'm re-uploading all the podcasts from a new hosting service, so I thought I'd go ahead and put the full Epstein series up while I was at it.

This series deals with some very dark material. It is not for listening with kids in the car or where other people can hear it at work.

If you appreciate this podcast, please consider helping to support it by subscribing to the MartyrMade Substack for $5 p/month or $50 p/year. The Substack includes subscribers-only essays, and a subscribers-only podcast feed w/exclusive episodes and audio versions of all Substack essays. This is a 100% listener-funded show, so your support is greatly appreciated.

It’s available on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
*Correction* A few people have informed me that my description of how a hedge fund manager calculates his cut is off in Part 1. I meant to correct it in the show, but I forgot. The general point remains, however: there is no way Jeffrey Epstein made the kind of money he was showing by managing one guy’s account over the years.

The Complete Jeffrey Epstein Series

This episode will cover the period from 1948 - the year of Israeli independence and the Palestinian Nakba - to the Lebanon War of 1982. It is not meant to be a thorough history of that period, as Fear & Loathing was of the pre-1948 period - to do that justice would require another ten episodes, not just one. This one has a narrower focus. The story we’re gonna hear today is not about every figure, and event, and motivation relevant to the conflict, but is specifically about how the level of savagery escalated over the years, the steps by which those escalations occurred, to bring us up to the where we are now, with virtually unrestrained violence completely normalized on both sides. It’s not a pretty story, and several sections of this podcast are not going to be for the faint of heart.

Please consider subscribing to the MartyrMade Substack page. The show is 100% listener supported, and Substack subscribers is the only way I'm able to keep doing this. Thanks for everything.

#3 - Fear & Loathing in the New Jerusalem - Nostalgia and Naivety in Honor Culture

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