Art, it wasn't my intent to cause you or anyone else any pain. I was sticking up for my thesis that the prima facie case that Joseph Campbell had an anti-Jewish streak in his personality is at least as strong as the case that Pat Buchanan has such a flaw.

If you want to keep Campbell on a pedestal, it might be logically possible. I believe there are Jungian web sites which try to defend Campbell against the claim that he was anti-Jewish. I have not seen these web sites, so I can't be sure. I think you can find them by doing a simultaneous web search for the names "Brendan Gill" and "Joseph Campbell" or for the name "Joseph Campbell" and the phrase "anti-semitism."

Whether Campbell had a mean streak, and whether this aspect of his personality influenced his scholarship, are two separate questions. If it can be shown, say, that Campbell mentioned the Hebrew Scriptures in a negative light rather than a positive one, whenever he had a "choice of lighting", or if it can be shown that he took pleasure in the pain he knew he would cause those who revere those scriptures when he spoke of them in ways he knew might shock or offend, then I would say that his private flaw did detract from his public work. But this, as I said, is a separate question from whether he had the private flaw to begin with.

T.