Rights, autonomy, and what civil society owes its members.
Dear fellow men,
Free advice for you.
Whatever your proposal is –
Whatever your event is –
Whatever your organization is –
Whatever your startup is –
Whatever your new religion is –
Whatever your messianic eschatological vision is –
Does it include women?
It should include women.
👍
Signed,
A Man Living in the 21st (58th) Century
People (especially those from a certain North American country) are obsessed with politics, especially partisan politics.
Everything must be explainable by reference to your political ideology or better yet, your party affiliation.
My concern for the welfare of the poor, of immigrants, of queer people, of Palestinians, of strangers within my community and outside its borders, does not derive from a political ideology or party line.
I am concerned with the welfare of these people because I am a Religious person.
Note that I don’t say, “because I am a Jewish person,” although my Judaism, from the days of Abraham abinu until our own, has had a lot to say about such concern.
Note that I don’t say, “because I believe in God,” although my belief in the divine image of humanity, the human ikon of God, is entirely aligned with such concern.
But because I am a Religious person – I am a vulnerable, imperfect man trying to grow past my failures and limitations in the process of actualizing my full human potential, under the same cosmic conditions shared by every other human being who seeks to live between birth and death, and in existential harmony with whom I seek to create a better world – I am concerned with justice and welfare and inclusion and equity and diversity.
Even my political beliefs – Zionism, Libertarian Socialism – ultimately flow from and around my core religious experience and conviction.
Don’t get it twisted.
Politics and parties may have their place, but the foundation of civilization is Religion.
Evening Musing:
The American relationship with history is very peculiar.
American society insulates itself with a certain willful amnesia, an official disinterest in the critical study of the past.
People seem to prefer myth and legend over fact and evidence. The civil religion requires a certain uncritical ahistoricity. Skeptics are unpatriotic, revisionists are heretics.
And let’s be clear: that goes for American partisans of either flavor. Leftists and right-wingers alike seem conditioned by this peculiar relationship with history.
I wonder if James Comey regrets putting the investigation of Clinton’s email server in the national spotlight right before the 2016 election.
One of the people who objected to my desecration of a murdered man’s memory assumed that I was not interested in “listening without trying to make a counter-argument.”
Since he and I rarely interact, and he demonstrated little familiarity with the way I think, I take this in line with a common Conservative complaint – that they are unheard and misunderstood, and if they were only listened to – all would be accepted.
My friends, as a former Conservative – as someone who grew up in a family of moralizing Republican-voting right-wing small government free market capitalists with a passion for Israel, who spent his “rebellious” teenage years doing Conservative and pro-Israel activism – I have listened to you for 38 years.
I have listened to you ask.
I have listened to you answer.
I have listened to you educate.
I have listened to you preach.
I have listened to you condemn.
I have listened to you justify.
I have listened to you inspire.
I have listened to you complain.
I have listened to you explain.
I have listened to what you say about yourselves and about your opponents.
I have said many of the same things.
I have heard your theories and your dreams, I have seen the world from your eyes.
I understand what animates you and attracts you. I understand what you fear and what you desire. I understand what kind of society you want and why you want it.
i understand, because I shared those fears and desires and goals.
I was one of you, until I began leaving the confines of your orbit. Until experiences led to questions that what I heard and what I repeated and what I argued, could not answer. Until I continued my journey through life to broader views and more rational opinions.
But I have not stopped listening to you. I still maintain relationships with Conservatives, right-wingers, Republicans, amongst family, friends, and acquaintances, even those that have come to support and promote what I believe to be outright fascism. I still read your words and I still think about what the world’s like in your shoes, with your views.
I understand your non-negotiable need for security and stability, to be safe and have your other basic needs taken care of. (A need you share with most other people, by the way.) I understand why your interpretation of that need, in the context of your interpretation of your social environment, has led you to certain conclusions that I once shared, but no longer entertain.
Not all your conclusions, mind you – I’ve integrated the best of what I learned and thought as a Conservative into whatever type of political animal you want to classify me as now. My opinions are complex, if your frame of reference is American Partisan Politics. My positions are natural, if your frame of reference is the practice of Torah. But I bring the ideas of classical liberalism, individual responsibility, free exchange, and continuity of tradition, with me from my roots, into the ideas I share with you today.
But some conclusions – many conclusions – I no longer accept. Not just because I believe they derive from bad arguments based on false premises – but because I came to realize that, ironically, they contradict the moral values and political principles with which I was raised, as a Conservative.
Furthermore, over my decades of study and discussion, it’s only natural that I would learn more about the ideas and ideologies that are verboten in Conservative circles. As a rational, growing person, it was equally natural that I would integrate many of the perspectives, questions, and even conclusions associated with those ideas, into my own take on economics, politics, society, and culture.
That doesn’t mean Conservatives need to become Progressives – if the right-wing is wrong or insufficient, it doesn’t make the left-wing right or the answer.
It means, first of all, that a bird needs to learn how to use both wings together in order to fly.
And it means, second of all, that my desecration of the memory of a man whom you happened to admire for his debate skills, but who also supported fascism, trafficked in antisemitism, defended Israel for all the wrong reasons, and promoted violence against academics and minorities – and, at the time of this writing, was most likely murdered by a member of a rival White Christian Nationalist faction – is not a desecration of what you actually believe and hold dear. The man in question did not truly stand for the best of American Conservatism, he stood for the worst. And despite your admiration for him, rejecting him is not rejecting you.
As I’ve said before, I believe that social media technology radicalizes people, skewing their perspective, relationships with people, and emotional landscape. I don’t think there’s ever been a point in the past 38 years when people were more susceptible to polarizing propaganda.
And as I’ve learned on my journey, it pays to become aware of your own triggers, biases, and background.
Stay Frosty Friends 😎
I wasn’t planning on writing multiple posts about this man’s murder, but Jewish individuals I know are more outraged by me calling Charlie Kirk a supporter of fascism, trafficker in antisemitic conspiracies, defender of the worst Israeli prime minister in history, and peddler in calls for violence, than they are by the fact that Charlie Kirk supported the militarized merger of state and corporate power along ethno-religious lines; pushed the Great Replacement theory and other antisemitic lies, accusations, and tropes; aggressively defended Bibi’s government as a bastion of right-wing ethno-nationalism besieged by “Leftists” and Muslims, no matter the cost to Israel’s security, economy, or diplomatic standing; and advocated for unrestrained state violence against minorities of all kinds.
You have gulped down that koolaid, guys.
You have picked a side in America’s culture war and it has warped both your perception and your compass.
It’s possible (and advisable) to BOTH be against murder, full stop, AND not pretend that a wicked, hateful man was actually a saint of enlightened civil discourse.
It’s interesting how the FB algorithm incites outrage and sows division. It won’t show the right-wing people I know any of my poems, essays, or posts they might align with, but will quickly show them a post criticizing a wicked person they happened to like even though it doesn’t even mention him by name. 🤷
And on the flip-side, people let themselves be played by the algorithm.
Don’t let yourselves be radicalized by a computer program.
Stay Frosty Friends 😎
Apparently a supporter of fascism who trafficked in inflammatory antisemitic conspiracy theories, on the one hand, and was a staunch defender of one of the worst Israeli prime ministers in history, on the other hand, was shot at a public event where he was given a free platform to peddle his calls for violence against minorities.
The government says they have the shooter in custody but I don’t trust the American government anymore 🤷
So who knows who shot this man and why, or how his death will be weaponized against American dissidents.
But yes, murder is bad, guys.
The wicked should repent and live, not die in their wickedness.
Surely open firing on bus passengers will free Palestine 🙄
Vengeance is the Lord’s. I want law and order, with all violent gangs arrested and tried.
It occurred to me why I may prefer preaching to progressives more than conservatives. Progressives generally don’t view tradition as obliging or a source of authority. Convincing them of the value of our traditional institutions and ways is comparatively harder; and when they are convinced, their appreciation for the beauty and benefit of our traditional institutions and ways is comparatively deeper.
It’s one thing to accept tradition because that’s your default position – it’s another to accept your place in tradition because you see the value, benefit, and beauty in it.