Borat - an alternative discourse analysis

[Guest]

orignal with linked text is at http://www.redress.btinternet.co.uk/gatzmon25.htm

Thinkpiece
Borat - an alternative discourse analysis
Some things to keep in mind while watching Borat
By Gilad Atzmon*

11 November 2006


Gilad Atzmon explores the meaning of the comical character Borat and wonders whether Borat might resemble his creator, Sacha Baron Cohen, more closely than the people he caricatures

There is no doubt that Borat is a funny man. A Kazakh misogynist and a racist buffoon, a primitive, vulgar clown as well as a loud anti-Semite.

A quick glance at Borat makes it absolutely clear that the man is totally fictional; he just can't be real. Hence, there is no offence in Borat to women, Jews, Kazakhs, black people or anyone else. Yet, there are some things we better keep in mind while watching Borat and laughing our heads off.
"Khaled Abu Aziz test"

Borat and his creator, Sacha Baron Cohen, present a challenge to the liberal British discourse as well as the deeply deceptive image of multiculturalism. Yet, I would suggest the application of the "Khaled Abu Aziz test". Khaled Abu Aziz is an imaginary character. He is merely a test case that should be put into play each time the issues of multiculturalism and racial equality are under scrutiny. The appropriate question to ask is whether Khaled Abu Aziz, a British Muslim comedian from Birmingham, would get away with performing Borat's crude anti-Semitism. Would Khaled Abu Aziz get away with performing Ali G's retarded black celebrity? I don't think so. Would Khaled Abu Aziz receive the support of British television and the entire UK media for acting like a buffoon, for being a Jew hater? Not really.

Let's face it, Khaled Abu Aziz may become an award winning celebrity for performing an anti-Muslim caricature as long as he means it for real. Clearly, Borat, aka Sacha Baron Cohen, a Golders Green Jew, enjoys certain freedoms Khaled Abu Aziz lacks. This is obviously far from being Sacha Baron Cohen's fault. This is rather an alarming concern that hits at the very heart of British Society. If anything, we should thank Baron Cohen for exposing it.
Son of an immigrant

Clearly, the British people do not meet Kazakhs on a daily basis. But they meet many Albanians, Romanians, Poles, Czechs, Kurds, Turks, Afghans and other people who search for a new future in the prosperous West. Worryingly enough, Borat is made to look very much like an amalgam of an asylum seeker to the UK or any other European country. It is rather interesting that Sacha Baron Cohen, himself the son of a Jewish immigrant to Great Britain, invested so much energy portraying such a low image of Western Europe's newcomers.
Who is the misogynist?

While pissing yourself watching Borat's articulate misogynist performance, I suggest that you bear in mind that Ali G, aka Borat aka Sacha Baron Cohen, is himself a practising reactionary misogynist. Seemingly, Sacha Baron Borat Cohen has put back his wedding to former "Home and Away" star Isla Fisher due to some deep tribal considerations and religious reasons. "The couple," so I learn, "have postponed the big day so Isla can study the Bible in Israel before converting to Sacha's religion of Judaism."

Although Borat, sorry - Sacha Baron Cohen - has the every right to demand religious uniformity and conformity within his own family cell, one would expect Baron Cohen, a critical voice of reactionary conservatism and backward thinking, to transcend himself beyond the obvious clannish considerations and religious boundaries. Seemingly, Sacha Baron Cohen is not that different from Borat. Apparently, he imposes a tribal conformity upon his woman. This is not a criticism. On the contrary, the similarity between Borat and Baron Cohen is just something to bear in mind. If anything, it makes Borat into an authentic expression of Baron Cohen's worldview. In fact, it makes Borat and Baron Cohen far more interesting characters.
Giving a bad name to anti-Semitism

With the help of Borat, Sacha Baron Cohen gives a bad name to anti-Semitism. This is obviously more than legitimate. Borat, the stereotypical anti-Semite, is indeed a primitive, vulgar creature. He eloquently brings to life the full scope of medieval anti-Jewish stereotypes as well as superstitions. In an old TV clip Borat manages to draw in a bunch of cowboys to join him shouting "throw the Jew down the well". In the film, it is an old Jewish couple that happens to be transformed into cockroaches and money suckers. Yet, it shouldn't take one by surprise that Cohen, a man who spends his holidays in Israel, would portray anti-Semitism as a primitive medieval adventure.

However, after last summer's Israeli extravaganza of brutality in Lebanon and the seemingly endless and daily flood of Palestinian blood made to spill by the Israeli army in Gaza and the West Bank, anti-Jewish feelings seem to be fuelled by Zionist crimes. Moreover, nowadays, when the Jewish state's influence within the American administration is an established fact, when the support for neo-conservatism that has led to genocide in Iraq is largely endorsed by the Zionist intellectual and ideological voice, some forms of anger against the "Jew" should be comprehended as a political criticism rather than merely a primitive, irrational outburst. This is not ,of course, a justification for "throwing Jews down the well" but, rather, and attempt to explain the origins of contemporary anti-Jewish feelings.

Borat is set to present anti-Semitism as a backward, reactionary tendency. By doing so Baron Cohen and his team are there to block or even to shutter any form of criticism of global Zionism in general and of Israel in particular. This is, indeed, a non-violent legitimate political agenda, yet something to keep in the back of your mind while having an evening out at the cinema.

I will allow myself to guess that, when the last echoes of laughter fade away, we may be left with a deeper understanding of the American Zio-centric cultural colonial agenda. If I am, indeed, correct here, then Baron Cohen will have served the emerging Palestinian discourse of resistance. Shukran ya Borat or, rather, Dzienkuje Herr Cohen.

* *Gilad Atzmon is an Israeli-born musician and writer, and a proponent of a secular and democratic one-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in which the two peoples live in one state as citizens with equal rights and responsibilities.

[Kropotkitten]

Thanks for posting this,
I too have seen clips of Borat and felt uncomfortable with his portrayal of a character who seems like another simplistic smorgasbord of the same stereotypes about a large part of the world being uncivilized misogynist jew-haters. People tell me its okay for him to go on about jews because he is a jew, but its the fact that few people question what kind of impact Borat has on our ideas about Kazakhstan that creeps me out. Hmmm....

[GelliantGutfright]

That's it.

Now I'm definitely going to watch Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.

As I do so, I will ponder why anyone would waste their time writing such a humourless, poorly-researched (Ali G is not a "retarded black celebrity", he is a British Asian wannabe Black gangsta, based on Tim Westwood) pointless and weak article as Gilad Atzmon's.

And how can someone with a name as clever as Kropotkitten miss the point so badly?

I always had faith in the audience that they would realize that this was a fictitious country and the mere purpose of it was to allow people to bring out their own prejudices. And the reason we chose Kazakhstan was because it was a country that no one had heard anything about, so we could essentially play on stereotypes they might have about this ex-Soviet backwater. The joke is not on Kazakhstan. I think the joke is on people who can believe that the Kazakhstan that I describe can exist -- who believe that there's a country where homosexuals wear blue hats and the women live in cages and they drink fermented horse urine and the age of consent has been raised to nine years old.

[asterix]

Sacha Baron Cohen is one of the funniest contemporary British comedians.

His humour is esentially embarassing. It is embarassing to see the way he mocks his voctims with impunity, mainly because his victims are too inane to realise that they are being mocked. This is highly sardonic.

So Baron Cohen is a Jew. So what. Portraying him as an antisemite is patently ridiculous, the author's point itself becoming ludicrous.

If anything, there is a case to be made about Cohen manipulating unsuspecting people into providing cheap laughs at their expense.

I say fuck the mindless idiots who were prepared to voice anti-semitic, racist and homphoboc sentiments. Fuck Israel, fuck the Palestine. Long live anarchy!

[Gonzo Joker]

I say fuck the mindless idiots who were prepared to voice anti-semitic, racist and homphoboc sentiments. Fuck Israel, fuck the Palestine. Long live anarchy!

Exactly! Borat and Idiocracy are the two best new films I saw this year. It is a shame that Idiocracy was made for a megacorporate studio that tried to kill it once it saw the final cut, but at least Borat received the wide distribution it deserved.

Despite the humourless agents of the PC police who are defaming Borat, there is at least one Kazakh nominating Cohen for an award:

Kazakh Says Borat Creator Deserves Prize
Nov 24, 7:29 PM (ET)
By MANSUR MIROVALEV

ALMATY, Kazakhstan (AP) - A leading Kazakh writer has nominated actor Sacha Baron Cohen for a national award for popularizing Kazakhstan. Novelist Sapabek Asip-uly called on the Kazakh Club of Art Patrons to give Baron Cohen its annual award, according to a letter published by the Vremya newspaper Thursday.

Baron Cohen's fictional character Borat "has managed to spark an immense interest of the whole world in Kazakhstan, something our authorities could not do during the years of independence," said Asip-uly.

Government officials in the former Soviet republic have been enraged by Borat's unflattering portrayal of Kazakh life in the spoof documentary, "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan."

"If state officials completely lack a sense of humor, their country becomes a laughing stock," Asip-uly said.

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev said earlier this week that Borat has helped to make Kazakhstan better known in the West and he invited Baron Cohen to visit the Central Asian state.

The film, which follows Borat on a trip across the U.S. to report back to his homeland on American culture and lifestyle, has become a runaway hit while generating controversy for scenes depicting misogyny and racism.

"I truly hope my initiative will be supported for the benefit of the glorious nation of Kazakhstan," Asip-uly said.

Asip-uly is known for several novels describing the Russian colonization of Kazakh lands and the Stalinist purges against Kazakhstan's political and cultural elite in the 1930s.

[Guest]

.

So Baron Cohen is a Jew. So what. Portraying him as an antisemite is patently ridiculous, the author's point itself becoming ludicrous.

that does not seem to be the point of the article. cohen isnt simply jewish, he's a right-wing zionist. according to the article, the anti-jewish ("anti-semitism" is a misnomer) nature of his character isn't meant to inspire more anti-jewishness - it's meant to paint anything anti-jewish as the domain of backwater racists. and as anti-zionism is often (wrongly) equated with anti-jewishness, we arrive at the true purpose for the "joke."

further, i have never understood how anyone cannot be repulsed by this idea that an actor can call himself khazak but then pose in front of bulgarians. the movie simply begs for a xenophobic audience.

i do see and realize the humor that's inherent in turning things around on people, but honestly i think it's a secondary part of the movie. the ali g movie relied on anal sex jokes rather than the (much more funny) tactic of turning famous people ("my name is boutros butros galli" for example) into hiphop mouthpieces ("put down the guns and listen to bob marley").

[Pomegranate]

.

So Baron Cohen is a Jew. So what. Portraying him as an antisemite is patently ridiculous, the author's point itself becoming ludicrous.

that does not seem to be the point of the article. cohen isnt simply jewish, he's a right-wing zionist. according to the article, the anti-jewish ("anti-semitism" is a misnomer) nature of his character isn't meant to inspire more anti-jewishness - it's meant to paint anything anti-jewish as the domain of backwater racists. and as anti-zionism is often (wrongly) equated with anti-jewishness, we arrive at the true purpose for the "joke."

is he right-wing zionist? i've never read anything to give me that impression. i do know that he did his upper level graduate work on a topic roughly equating to jewish involvement in the u.s. workers movement.

goading americans into racist and homophobic remarks is about as tough as putting the l.a. police on trial for racist comments i think.

[Lucifer]

Sacha Cohen (aka Ali-G, Borat etc.) has been around over here in the UK for years; the US is just discovering him.

Frankly I find him to be hilarious, but many of those he interviews I find to be disturbing, but I think that seems to be his point.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blnduEgwBH0
Ali-G and Pat Buchanan (who seems not to know the difference between a BLT and a WMD).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqZKW1WEVlM
Ali G on drugs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-m-vDgz0A0o
Ali G interviews the FBI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8kifHPPjno&mode=related&search=
Borat's guide to American politics.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKnHf-qy1_A&mode=related&search=
Borat gets an American audience to happily sing along with: 'Throw the Jew down the Well.'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMtMAxWbJ2I
Ali G: Dangerous weapons

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIStqMJsimg
Sacha Cohen as 'Gay Bruno' attempts to convert an anti-Gay Christian pastor.

______________________


Satire is not just comedy; it is the art of ridiculing one's political enemies.

Satire is probably the comedians equivalnet of 'Anarchy,' in the sense that it ridicules and questions all established authority.

Borat is set to present anti-Semitism as a backward, reactionary tendency. By doing so Baron Cohen and his team are there to block or even to shutter any form of criticism of global Zionism in general and of Israel in particular

The author of the anti-Cohen essay has a point there. By ridiculing anti-Semites, Cohen is not attacking anti-Semities at all, since he equates the term 'Semite' with 'Jew.'

Choen is 'not a Semite (though he defines himself and other Jews as such), and frankly most of the Jews in Occupied Palestine (aka Israel) are not Semites; they are Europeans, Russians, Khazars, etc., whose ancestors converted to Judaism.

A minority of the population of Israel 'are' Semites and these are the native Palestinians and the Ethiopian Jews for example, however they are treated with racial contempt by much of the population.

Frankly Israel is probably 'the' most anti-Semitic nation on the earth, without any exception that I can think of.

If Cohen wanted to satirise anti-Semitism, he only need dress up as a rabbi and interview Israeli soldiers and the Israeli religious right with regards to their racial opinons on the 'Arabs (who are Semites)'

It is almost as if the Klu Klux Klan defined themselves as 'Africans' and defined black Americans as whites, and then started complaining about discrimination against Africans (i.e., the whites) and claiming that they hated whites (i.e., the black Americans).

Frankly I don't think that Cohen or even most Europeans and Americans could accurately define the terms Semite and Non-Semite.

See my essay on this:
Who are the Semites? What is Anti-Semitism. Who are the Israelites? http://flag.blackened.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=74027&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=15

Language is a lie. Words are weapons.

[Guest]

.

So Baron Cohen is a Jew. So what. Portraying him as an antisemite is patently ridiculous, the author's point itself becoming ludicrous.

that does not seem to be the point of the article. cohen isnt simply jewish, he's a right-wing zionist. according to the article, the anti-jewish ("anti-semitism" is a misnomer) nature of his character isn't meant to inspire more anti-jewishness - it's meant to paint anything anti-jewish as the domain of backwater racists. and as anti-zionism is often (wrongly) equated with anti-jewishness, we arrive at the true purpose for the "joke."

is he right-wing zionist? i've never read anything to give me that impression. i do know that he did his upper level graduate work on a topic roughly equating to jewish involvement in the u.s. workers movement.

goading americans into racist and homophobic remarks is about as tough as putting the l.a. police on trial for racist comments i think.

pardon my mistake. he's a left-wing zionist not a right-wing zionist.

as if there's a difference....

membership in zionist organization... http://film.guardian.co.uk/features/fea ... 02,00.html

description of that organization... http://film.guardian.co.uk/features/fea ... 02,00.html

also trying to track down an article about the school he sends his kids to...sounds kinda hardcore...

[Autonomi]

Thanks for posting this,
I too have seen clips of Borat and felt uncomfortable with his portrayal of a character who seems like another simplistic smorgasbord of the same stereotypes about a large part of the world being uncivilized misogynist jew-haters. People tell me its okay for him to go on about jews because he is a jew, but its the fact that few people question what kind of impact Borat has on our ideas about Kazakhstan that creeps me out. Hmmm....

The point is entirely about "our" ideas about "Kazakhstan," or wherever. That anyone could believe such an absurd place as the country Borat makes out could exist exposes our ignorance of the world: that's the point. I sincerely doubt people are going to walk away from a movie about a clearly fictional character with any more xenophobic ideas. If anything, they'll see the stupidity in many of the misconceptions people often have about "backwards" countries.

[Guest]

i remember a long time ago when i went to go see 'natural born killers' and i walked out thinking 'wow, that movie was boringly obvious in it's theme of violence as inherently american. whoever made it must think we're idiots.'

then i heard a group talking about the movie thusly "WOW THAT SCENE WHERE SHE BLOWS AWAY THE BLAH BLAH BLAH WAS AWESOME ... WHAT A COOL PRISON RIOT!!!!"

cohen can hide behind the whole exposing-people's-attitudes thing, but it's indeed difficult to trust a zionist's portrayal of a (supposed) muslim - would anyone question a david duke portrayal of an african american?

no groups are more villfied by hollywood than the arab, persian, or central asian and the muslim but that isnt a subject for exposure...

[Lucifer]

Zion

'By the rivers of Babylon, we sat down and wept as we remembered Zion'

The term 'Zion' is ancient whereas the modern Zionist movement attributed to Theodor Herzl is a very recent development since the 19th century.

Language is a lie and a weapon of mass hypnosis.

Just as many non-Semitic (and in fact anti-Semitic) Jews of European descent have hijacked the term Semite for their own use, so too have the supporters of Israeli state terrorism hijacked the terms 'Israel (Heb. 'God has saved')' and 'Zion,' just as today's Capitalists, and state terrorists have hijacked the term 'democracy (Gr. demos: people. A Greek term referring to a voting system 'without' any elected representatives who vote on behalf of the 'demos,').'

Zion: the promised land. A land where the liberated Egyptian slaves could settle and be free.

The Africans who were enslaved by the Christian slavemasters related their own suffering to the story of the descendents of the liberated slaves of Moses' Egyptian slave revolution and also used this Hebrew word to refer to a homeland where they could be free from their slavemasters / tyrants etc (i.e., Heaven on Earth). Rastafarians also, for example, although having no genetic link to Ethiopian Jews, are also Zionists, but they do not refer to Occupied Palestine as Zion, but rather the future liberated Ethiopia / Africa.

The state of Israel is hardly a land free of tyranny and of the economic slavemasters and religious hypocrties. It is not Zion. It is not Israel.

The Israelites.

The 'Israelites' were the African slaves liberated by Moses; the supporters of the terrorist state of Israel are hardly concerned with the liberation of Arfican and Semitic slaves; on the contrary, they are predominately anti-Semitic racists who would rather sell the Africans Uzzis and see them kill each other off to make way for their golf courses, holiday resorts and flower farms, and who consider most Arabs (who are Semites) to be 'untermensche' living on their future 'Lebensraum.'

Shame.

Lucifer
For the Israelites. For Zion. For slave revolution.
_________________

Jewish anti-Zionism (by state terrorist definiton)
See for example

http://www.thewe.cc/weplanet/news/middle_east/palestine/because_we_are_jews.htm

http://nkuk.org

[Guest]

indeed, by 'zionist' i mean the herzl definition (which, by the way is also the dictionary definition). the generic idea of a people having/finding a utopian homeland could have - at one time - been called zionism, but that hardly makes sense now...

[Lucifer]

Language Science 101. Anarchism and Linguistics.

indeed, by 'zionist' i mean the herzl definition (which, by the way is also the dictionary definition). the generic idea of a people having/finding a utopian homeland could have - at one time - been called zionism, but that hardly makes sense now...

I disagree for a very important reason, and this is the defence of the definitions of language.

In Orwell's 1984 'Newspeak' is not a new language; on the contrary it is the English language where definitions are tightly controlled and defined only by the state terrorists (tyrants). For example, terms such as 'Freedom' and 'liberation' are terms used by state propagandists which refer to being enslaved by the state. Newspeak also has a 'dictionary;' the words are the same as our words, but the defintions are not.

Chomsky, for example, in his lectures often refers to the use of the word 'democracy' by the propagandists of state terrorism. He asks his audience to do some simple research on the term 'democracy as understood by 'political scientists' and 'historians.'

Chomsky being probably one of the most important linguists in our time, has access to the same 'dictionaries' as you, I and George Bush have, but if you dispute the meaning of the term 'democracy' with him by stating that his defintion is not the 'dictionary' defintion, or the way that George Bush uses the term democracy, then it would not make any difference to the way he defines the term.

Zion.

Similarly with a dictionary defintion of the term 'Zion;' it really depends upon the 'authority' who writes the dictionary, and on who gets the most press in recent history by using the term as a political matra.

Jesus.

Similarly with the name 'Jesus;' the rich and the religious hypocrites have long used the name of that Judaic anti-propertyist to defend their evil, so much so that many students of the history of mass religion (mass hypnosis) such as myself have mostly become evangelical anti-Christians; whereas Christian Anarchists continue to challenge the use of the term 'Christian' by the rich and the religious hypocrites, since they consider Jesus to have been an anti-propertyist (Communist) martyr, however that is not the dictionary defintion of the term 'Christian.'

A person who is 'contrary to authority (Anarchos)' is obliged to challenge the defintions of language of the establishment (i.e., to challenge Newspeak).

Democracy.

Democracy is a Greek term where the Athenian citizens all gathered together and voted on the issues of the day. Issues such as 'do we need a larger Navy?' would be debated publicly and at the end of the debate, each citizen had a shard of pottery and would place the shard in either one of two large pots, one representing yes and one representing no. Democracy is anti-monarchy, anti-tyranny and anti-republican. However this is not the current Newspeak defintion as used by Bush, Blair and other state terrorists.

Republic.

A republic is where a select group of usually wealthy citizens vote in their own interests and allegedly on behalf of the demos. America is an elected republic with an elected military dictator who, like Blair over here in the Uk can wage war without consulting his senators (as it would be in a republic), and without the vote of the people (as it would be in a democracy without a dictator or a republic of senators).

British and American democracy.

America and Britain are 'not' a democracies; even the 'Democratic Party' are Republicans by strict political science definition. However Bush, Blair and other dictators use the term 'democracy' to define such a system. This is simply Orwellian Newspeak and the control of definitions of the English (or 'Greek' in this case) language which must be challenged.

Anarchy in New Orleans.

For example the mass media reported that Anarchy broke out in New Orleans after the recent disaster (i.e. rape, murder, looting, chaos). If Anarchy had really broken out in New Orleans it would be a place full of independent Communist collectives sharing resources and co-operating with each other; in fact what occurred was the effects of chaos in a Capitalist city.

Anarchism in Newspeak = the tyranny of individual selfishness and chaos.

Prior to the age of the Sex Pistols and the punk rock movement Anarchism was an anti-authoritarian Communist political philosophy, but it has now been defined in Newspeak as the chaos and selfishness that occurs after Capitalism breaks down.

The defence of language against Orwelian Newspeak (state controlled definitions) is important.

The language terms 'Israel' and 'Zion' must be defended.

Language is a lie. Words are weapons. Propaganda is the first stage of War.

Free the slaves.

’Let my people go’

Lucifer.
For Israel. For Zion.
For the liberation of Africa and the children of the Third World.
For nuclear war against Capitalism and global slave revolution.

[Guest]

i agree with you that the word has been hijacked. i'm just saying that the hijacking was successful - if you look in the dictionary only the fake-jewish (ashkenazim)-gotta-have-the-land-of-the-palestinians type is discussed.