My Year With Proust - Day 226

   "'By the way,' said Mme de Villeparisis to the Duchess de Guermantes, 'I'm expecting a woman at any moment whom you don't wish to know.  I thought I'd better warn you, to avoid any unpleasantries.  But you needn't be afraid, I shall never have her here again, only I was obliged to let her come to-day.  It's Swann's wife.'

   Mme Swann, seeing the dimensions that the Dreyfus case had begun to assume, and fearing that her husband's racial origin might be used against herself, had besought him never again to allude to the prisoner's innocence.  When he was not present she went farther and professed the most ardent nationalism; in doing which she was only following the example of Mme Verdurin, in whom a latent bourgeois anti-semitism had awakened and grown to a positive fury.  Mme Swann had won by this attitude the privilege of membership in several of the anti-semitic leagues of society women that were beginning to be formed and had succeeded in establishing relations with various members of the aristocracy.  It may seem strange that, so far from following their example, the Duchesse de Guermantesse, so close a friend to Swann, had on the contrary always resisted the desire which he had not concealed from her to introduce his wife to her.  but we shall see in due course that this was an effect of the peculiar character of the Duchess, who held that she was not 'bound to' do such and such a thing, and laid down her despotic force what had been decided by her social 'free will,' which was extremely arbitrary.

   'Thank you for warning me,' said the Duchedss.  'It would indeed be most disagreeable.  But as I know her by sight I shall be able to get away in time.'

   'I assure you, Oriane, she is really quite nice; an excellent woman,' said Mme de Marsantes.

   "I have no doubt she is, but I feel no need to assure myself of it in person.'

   'Have you been invited to Lady Israel's' Mme de Villeparisis asked the Duchess, to change the subject.

   'Why, thank heaven, I don't know the woman,' replied Mme de Guermantes.  'You must ask Marie-Aynard.  She knows her.  I know could make out why.'

   'I did indeed know her at one time,' said Mme de Marsantes.  'I confess my sins.  But I have decided not to know her any more.  It seems she's one of the very worst of them, and makes no attempt to conceal it. Besides, we have all been too trusting, too hospitable.  I shall never go near anyone of that race again.  While we closed our doors to old country cousins, people of our own flesh and blood, we threw them open to Jews.  And now we see what thanks we get from them. . . '"

Marcel Proust, The Guermantes Way, pp. 260-261

It is essential to keep in mind that the Dreyfus Affair was raging during the period covered in the novel and pretty virulent anti-Semitism is never too far from the surface.  Proust meets so many people who have an opinion on Dreyfus, very few of them positive.  The comments traded here between the society ladies sound like the increasingly angry and dangerous trashing of Muslims in polite, or increasingly hostile, society here in the US more than a century later.  Mme de Marsantes, who suddenly doesn't seem like "the perfect Christian" anymore, says, "I confess my sins.  But I have decided not to know her any more.  It seems she's one of the very worst of them, and makes no attempt to conceal it. Besides, we have all been too trusting, too hospitable.  I shall never go near anyone of that race again.  While we closed our doors to old country cousins, people of our own flesh and blood, we threw them open to Jews.  And now we see what thanks we get from them. . . "

However, it's more than just the Muslims who feel the brunt of hatred from racists emboldened by the Trump campaign.  Anyone who watched the recently completed GOP Convention, and has heard any of Trump's speeches, has suffered through enough racist dog whistles.  It's amazing and sad and sobering how often it just rotates back to anti-Semitism.  On the first day of the GOP Convention you could follow the speeches live on YouTube.  Ex-Hawaii Governor Linda Lingle gave a speech proposing that America's Jewish population should really vote Republican, but very quickly the ability to post comments during her talk was shut down because of the stream of anti-Semitic statements posted by Trump's many rabidly racist followers.  This RawStory piece screen captured many of the comments, including those from sincerely offended and horrified Republicans pleading to have the discussion forum shut down.

The period at the end of the 19th century and leading up to World War I is sometimes referred to as the Age of Anxiety.  I wonder if we're living through out own Age of Anxiety now?  And in times like this it is all too common to pick out groups, blameless and inevitably defenseless, to blame for all of our problems.  History does seem to teach us nothing, except how at the end of the madness to compare atrocities, but never how to avoid them.