Antisemitism is rising. Time to summon a 10-foot-tall crisis monster.

September 27, 2023 1:32 PM

Again and again, we search for the moderate streak in the extremist, tell ourselves we can find common ground with people who are explicit in their desire to do us harm.
posted by bq (21 comments total)

I find "get a golem" to be an...interesting...choice here...not sure how that's going to work?

In college, I knew someone who had a very useful "how to make a golem in your own home" webpage, which I was going to post here, but now all I can find are iron golem references for Minecraft :P
posted by jenfullmoon at 1:45 PM on September 27, 2023

jenfullmoon, would it be this website?
posted by Numenius at 2:00 PM on September 27, 2023 [11 favorites]

Hahah, yes, that's it! Surprised it's still up and was found :) Thank you!
posted by jenfullmoon at 2:15 PM on September 27, 2023 [1 favorite]

The Golem by Avram Davidson.
posted by y2karl at 2:18 PM on September 27, 2023 [4 favorites]

Does anyone else recall the Metafilter comment about dating that slowly reveals that they’re actually creating a Golem?
posted by leotrotsky at 3:22 PM on September 27, 2023 [4 favorites]

Is there a wayback or non-paywalled link to the article?
posted by LeRoienJaune at 3:26 PM on September 27, 2023

Here's a gift link.
posted by box at 3:39 PM on September 27, 2023 [5 favorites]

So.... I want to like this, and my reductive conclusion here is that in a world where antisemitism exists, I should be my own golem. But I struggled to really follow the argument. My basic summary would be "antisemitism is back/never went away and by the way did you know about the Golem?"
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 4:22 PM on September 27, 2023 [3 favorites]

I have an adorable little golem from a kitschy tourist stand in Prague. Because Prague.
posted by atomicstone at 4:30 PM on September 27, 2023 [2 favorites]

I_am_joe's_spleen, apparently Mansbach wrote that column to promote this.
posted by dannyboybell at 5:09 PM on September 27, 2023

Thanks, that context helps a lot!
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 5:14 PM on September 27, 2023 [1 favorite]

Thanks box! I don’t know, I’m kind of on Team Golem at this point. I mean, it kind of seems like the only thing we haven’t tried?
posted by corb at 5:37 PM on September 27, 2023 [4 favorites]

I don't know, Darmok, Leslie Neilson at Tanagra Altair Four comes to mind.
posted by y2karl at 6:10 PM on September 27, 2023 [4 favorites]

Why not build an army of golems and keep it forever active? Because this solution would cost us too much of our humanity.

Wise words.
posted by doctornemo at 7:26 PM on September 27, 2023

The far-right loves claiming that whenever their enemies hit back, THEY'RE the REAL FASCISTS.

The difference they won't tell you about is that when you punch up, it5's hard. And if you win, afterward, you won't want to do it again if you can help it. But punching down (and convincing yourself that you're actually punching up)? That's EASY. And it's something else too: addictive. Inevitable, fascists will search for more easy targets, and eventually, end up targeting each other.

Sorry, Mrs. Obama, but an attitude of 'they go low, we go high' is how fascism wins.
posted by BiggerJ at 3:15 AM on September 28, 2023 [11 favorites]

To me, the problem with golem narratives as anything other than entertainment - and it seems to me that they’ve become really popular in the last couple decades or so - is that as monsters go, golems tend to seem pretty cuddly. Most of that comes from the modern writers themselves (and may spring from some subconscious discomfort with associating too closely with old-world religiosity in a time where current religiosity is polarizing enough?) but whatever the reason, I can’t remember seeing a golem story that was truly frightening. But I can name a bunch of them where they’re funny, or sweet, or childlike. Some of that comes from the fact that they’re essentially automatons, so writers who give them a voice or a personality want to infuse them with a soul, and they’re protective by nature so on some level it makes sense for it to be an inherently gentle or neutral soul. But at the end of the day, a golem should be a terrifying killer robot, and instead it’s Uncle Tevye with a big killin’ club who also helps do odd jobs.

Which is fine, and fun, until you compare it to the classic anti-Semitic monster made just for us, vampires. Who we’re still being compared to (bloodsucking, stealthy, pretending to be human), and that are still, as monsters go, terrifying.

Golems can’t save us, even if they did exist, because we don’t know how to build them as monstrous as the people we’re desperate not to be perceived as. We can’t win. It’s not a fair fight.
posted by Mchelly at 4:59 AM on September 28, 2023 [8 favorites]

I'm still confused about the Agents of SHIELD slgolem situation, utni may have just stopped paying attention.
posted by atomicstone at 1:38 PM on September 28, 2023

Leotrotsky! I found it!
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 2:51 PM on September 28, 2023 [6 favorites]

I have zero nice things to say about nazis and the only good ones are deceased.
posted by nofundy at 3:06 PM on September 28, 2023

“Polarization And Strife,” A. R. Moxon, The Reframe, 22 December 2022
posted by ob1quixote at 3:42 PM on September 28, 2023

an attitude of 'they go low, we go high'

maybe a space laser really is the only way to be sure
posted by snuffleupagus at 6:07 PM on September 28, 2023