The Jews were special in that they were the vehicle for the introduction of the idea of universalism, evident especially in Isaiah but peeping out at various points of the OT. The paradox is that once that universalism took hold, the special role of the Jews became redundant. An example perhaps of what Hegel called the cunning of history.
Louis, you're such an Hegelian! The Jews are not simply vehicles for the self-realisation of the universal spirit, they didn't lie down and accept the fact that their world-historical mission had passed to others and they were now redundant. They are human beings, with all the vices of human beings, especially the vice of pride, which is what destroyed Lucifer, funnily enough. How could the representatives of a great people accept such a demotion? Being first chosen by God, then, after they've gone and crucified His only son, being unchosen, God turns his back on them and lavishes every favour on the Goy (whom they despise), who, by such divine grace, go on to create the greatest civilisation in the history of the world, and you, left to fester, forgotten and abandoned in your filthy Shtetls? I can understand how they feel. If I were a Jew I'd be bitter. And 2,000 years is too long a time mulling it over, haunted by the thought that, maybe we did kill the Messiah, maybe we are now the deadly enemies of the Almighty? Come to think of it, it's a perfect replay of God vs Lucifer, played out over 2,000 years
The Jews were not exactly "forgotten and abandoned" in their Shtetls, they were driven into them and only with great difficulty got out of them again, via mass emigration to Western Europe and the US. And when they were able to integrate into the mainstream of society, from the 19th century onward, their contribution was on balance a strongly positive and constructive one.
Every people bears the mark of its history, and every people has its side of light and its shadow, just as individuals do. From its inception the State of Israel seemed well designed to bring out the shadow side of the Jewish character, and currently it's doing so more than ever. But as I'm sure you'll have noticed, these strange times we're living through are inclined to bring out the worst - passively for the most part, actively in some instances - of most nations and peoples. Which makes the challenge of bringing out the light all the greater, and more pressing.
I meant they were forgotten and abandoned by God. Hardly surprising, given what they did.
You are magnanimous in your judgements of them, and I suppose that is to be admired. But I cannot agree that they went bad with the foundation of Israel. That's a pervasive and leftist view, which is really a condemnation of 'white colonialism and imperialism', while conveniently letting them off the hook. Oh yeah, they were lovely people until they took up European practices. So creative. Yeah, sure!
How can you declare with such confidence that "they were forgotten and abandoned by God"? Do you have a hotline to On High? Would you let me in on it if you do?
An illuminating read, Louis; I hadn't thought about the disproportionate Israeli reaction to Oct 7th in these very obvious biblical terms! An eye for an eye, indeed - or in Netanyahu's reading: a whole geographical region for a pop concert venue.
Throughout this conflict (massacre) I've been amazed at the moral gibberish of previously intelligent social commentators, Douglas Murray, Jordan Peterson, etc, who profess to see nothing wrong with Israel effectively destroying a whole region and its people in retaliation for 7/10. The only conclusion I can draw is that prejudice is an infinitely powerful force capable of blinding anyone to the truth at any given time.
Like many of us (I suspect), I hold no banner for Islam. Whatever wisdom it may possess when applied at a personal level, I dislike Islam as an organised religion - and I have even less time for its immigrant proponents telling us what to do in our own (European) countries. Nevertheless it is still clear to me that the Palestinians are being butchered by the state of Israel, which has been given the 'all-clear' by the West to do what it likes, when it likes. Indeed, even to protest against Israel is to find oneself beyond the moral pale - such is Jewish influence on the West's current worldview. In this context the payback for The Holocaust seems unlimited.
Such, it seems to me, are history's infinitely long cycles: we are stuck in them and though we may be on the right side of history they grind good and evil to dust all the same. Our tragedy is strange indeed.
What is tragically clear is that the West is now so comprehensively bankrupt in any meaningful moral sense that our career towards involvement in a greater conflict now seems inevitable.
Good points James. Personally I'm not so surprised at the likes of Murray and Peterson. As John Waters has pointed out on more than one occasion, they and others like them kept their heads well down during Covid, and even in its aftermath are not particularly inclined to talk about it, which for me places a major question mark over their moral integrity.
What has surprised me more (but I'm sure it shouldn't have done) is the way the Gaza massacre has split people fairly reliably along a Left/Right axis. It's what I call "bundling", by analogy with the IT term: support for Israel comes "bundled" with being right-wing, and conversely for the Palestinians. It's a striking instance - as if we needed another - of people's inability to think for themselves, or what is probably worse, to feel for themselves. Or worse again, to "feel" selectively, as in the case of those who wring their hands interminably over 7 October while the massacre continues in Gaza on a daily and hourly basis.
Yes, history's infinitely long cycles - much more to be said about them. I only hope you're wrong in your conclusion about the inevitability of greater conflict. Not at all unlikely, given the way things are going, but hopefully we can still pull back from the brink...
Good points, Louis, though I still remain (naively) surprised that Peterson and Murray think themselves immune from criticism over their Gaza, Ukraine and Covid stances. But then in that they're not unlike the herd 'on our side' who blindly continue to support them. It's as if we (they) can speak out against climate alarmism, feminism - even the alphabet people to a certain extent.... BUT some subjects are just too hot to handle and will be thrown down the memory hole as a result - as if they never happened.
Peterson and Murray (et al) have been brave at times, I don't think one can deny them this. But then they made a sh*tload of money, were thus let into the establishment as 'controlled opposition' and the rest is (tragic) history.
As for the 'bundling' you very articulately condemn: yes, very true - though with one observation: on Gaza the usual political boundaries have been over-run and left and 'dissident right' find themselves on the same side! Strange bedfellows indeed. Thanks again for your insightful piece.
Yes, it's funny how you can end up on the same side with people one would normally detest, like in this instance the Wokeists. It's one of the features of the present times, so seemingly divided along a particular axis and then before you know it you're playing ideological musical chairs. Not even our patterns of instability are stable...
As we're quoting the Torah, we might also reflect on the famous passage from Deuteronomy (28:1): And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth... Only God can fix this problem now. He chose them. It was He told them they were better than everyone else
The Jews were special in that they were the vehicle for the introduction of the idea of universalism, evident especially in Isaiah but peeping out at various points of the OT. The paradox is that once that universalism took hold, the special role of the Jews became redundant. An example perhaps of what Hegel called the cunning of history.
Louis, you're such an Hegelian! The Jews are not simply vehicles for the self-realisation of the universal spirit, they didn't lie down and accept the fact that their world-historical mission had passed to others and they were now redundant. They are human beings, with all the vices of human beings, especially the vice of pride, which is what destroyed Lucifer, funnily enough. How could the representatives of a great people accept such a demotion? Being first chosen by God, then, after they've gone and crucified His only son, being unchosen, God turns his back on them and lavishes every favour on the Goy (whom they despise), who, by such divine grace, go on to create the greatest civilisation in the history of the world, and you, left to fester, forgotten and abandoned in your filthy Shtetls? I can understand how they feel. If I were a Jew I'd be bitter. And 2,000 years is too long a time mulling it over, haunted by the thought that, maybe we did kill the Messiah, maybe we are now the deadly enemies of the Almighty? Come to think of it, it's a perfect replay of God vs Lucifer, played out over 2,000 years
The Jews were not exactly "forgotten and abandoned" in their Shtetls, they were driven into them and only with great difficulty got out of them again, via mass emigration to Western Europe and the US. And when they were able to integrate into the mainstream of society, from the 19th century onward, their contribution was on balance a strongly positive and constructive one.
Every people bears the mark of its history, and every people has its side of light and its shadow, just as individuals do. From its inception the State of Israel seemed well designed to bring out the shadow side of the Jewish character, and currently it's doing so more than ever. But as I'm sure you'll have noticed, these strange times we're living through are inclined to bring out the worst - passively for the most part, actively in some instances - of most nations and peoples. Which makes the challenge of bringing out the light all the greater, and more pressing.
I meant they were forgotten and abandoned by God. Hardly surprising, given what they did.
You are magnanimous in your judgements of them, and I suppose that is to be admired. But I cannot agree that they went bad with the foundation of Israel. That's a pervasive and leftist view, which is really a condemnation of 'white colonialism and imperialism', while conveniently letting them off the hook. Oh yeah, they were lovely people until they took up European practices. So creative. Yeah, sure!
How can you declare with such confidence that "they were forgotten and abandoned by God"? Do you have a hotline to On High? Would you let me in on it if you do?
Leave it with me. I'll see if I can set something up ;)
An illuminating read, Louis; I hadn't thought about the disproportionate Israeli reaction to Oct 7th in these very obvious biblical terms! An eye for an eye, indeed - or in Netanyahu's reading: a whole geographical region for a pop concert venue.
Throughout this conflict (massacre) I've been amazed at the moral gibberish of previously intelligent social commentators, Douglas Murray, Jordan Peterson, etc, who profess to see nothing wrong with Israel effectively destroying a whole region and its people in retaliation for 7/10. The only conclusion I can draw is that prejudice is an infinitely powerful force capable of blinding anyone to the truth at any given time.
Like many of us (I suspect), I hold no banner for Islam. Whatever wisdom it may possess when applied at a personal level, I dislike Islam as an organised religion - and I have even less time for its immigrant proponents telling us what to do in our own (European) countries. Nevertheless it is still clear to me that the Palestinians are being butchered by the state of Israel, which has been given the 'all-clear' by the West to do what it likes, when it likes. Indeed, even to protest against Israel is to find oneself beyond the moral pale - such is Jewish influence on the West's current worldview. In this context the payback for The Holocaust seems unlimited.
Such, it seems to me, are history's infinitely long cycles: we are stuck in them and though we may be on the right side of history they grind good and evil to dust all the same. Our tragedy is strange indeed.
What is tragically clear is that the West is now so comprehensively bankrupt in any meaningful moral sense that our career towards involvement in a greater conflict now seems inevitable.
Good points James. Personally I'm not so surprised at the likes of Murray and Peterson. As John Waters has pointed out on more than one occasion, they and others like them kept their heads well down during Covid, and even in its aftermath are not particularly inclined to talk about it, which for me places a major question mark over their moral integrity.
What has surprised me more (but I'm sure it shouldn't have done) is the way the Gaza massacre has split people fairly reliably along a Left/Right axis. It's what I call "bundling", by analogy with the IT term: support for Israel comes "bundled" with being right-wing, and conversely for the Palestinians. It's a striking instance - as if we needed another - of people's inability to think for themselves, or what is probably worse, to feel for themselves. Or worse again, to "feel" selectively, as in the case of those who wring their hands interminably over 7 October while the massacre continues in Gaza on a daily and hourly basis.
Yes, history's infinitely long cycles - much more to be said about them. I only hope you're wrong in your conclusion about the inevitability of greater conflict. Not at all unlikely, given the way things are going, but hopefully we can still pull back from the brink...
Good points, Louis, though I still remain (naively) surprised that Peterson and Murray think themselves immune from criticism over their Gaza, Ukraine and Covid stances. But then in that they're not unlike the herd 'on our side' who blindly continue to support them. It's as if we (they) can speak out against climate alarmism, feminism - even the alphabet people to a certain extent.... BUT some subjects are just too hot to handle and will be thrown down the memory hole as a result - as if they never happened.
Peterson and Murray (et al) have been brave at times, I don't think one can deny them this. But then they made a sh*tload of money, were thus let into the establishment as 'controlled opposition' and the rest is (tragic) history.
As for the 'bundling' you very articulately condemn: yes, very true - though with one observation: on Gaza the usual political boundaries have been over-run and left and 'dissident right' find themselves on the same side! Strange bedfellows indeed. Thanks again for your insightful piece.
Yes, it's funny how you can end up on the same side with people one would normally detest, like in this instance the Wokeists. It's one of the features of the present times, so seemingly divided along a particular axis and then before you know it you're playing ideological musical chairs. Not even our patterns of instability are stable...
As we're quoting the Torah, we might also reflect on the famous passage from Deuteronomy (28:1): And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth... Only God can fix this problem now. He chose them. It was He told them they were better than everyone else
It's exactly what they did to Germany