Posted on 09/29/2020 3:58:53 AM PDT by Kaslin
Yesterday was Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. It is meant to be a time of intense self-examination. In light of that, I offer this column.
The question I receive more than any other from non-Jews is: Why are so many Jews on the left?
Before addressing it, I should note that the same question could be asked of Christians and other non-Jews. Why have so many mainstream Protestants and Catholics (up to and including the pope) embraced the left? Why have nearly all blacks, the majority of Hispanics and Asian Americans, the most successful ethnic group in America, embraced the left? And, outside of the United States, why have most Germans, French, Canadians, Australians and others in the West embraced the left?
This question could be asked about almost every group in the world.
Nevertheless, it is valid to ask it about Jews because, if any group should be wary of dismantling a society, especially a decent one, it is the Jews. The moment civilization begins to disintegrate, the Jews are the first victims -- never the only, but always the first. That's why Jews have so often been likened to the proverbial canary in the mine. Miners take canaries down with them because when there are noxious fumes, canaries die, and when the miners see the dead canaries, they know there are toxic fumes they must fight, or they, too, will die.
That's why decent non-Jews who don't fight anti-Semitism are fools. They don't understand that anti-Semitism represents a mortal threat to them. Tens of millions of non-Jews were killed because decent non-Jews ignored Hitler early on, dismissing him and Nazism as a Jewish problem.
It is often asked how the most culturally advanced country in Europe, perhaps in the world, could produce Nazism and the Holocaust. Or, as it is often put, "How did the country that gave us Bach, Beethoven, Heine and Schiller give us Auschwitz?"
One answer is that advanced culture and advanced morality are not the same. The Nazis loved classical music.
The other, more important, answer is that civilization is fragile.
It is fragile because civilization consists of human beings, and human nature is profoundly flawed. Exceptional evil is as common as exceptional good. It takes a great deal of effort and a great deal of time to make a decent society. But it takes little effort and little time to destroy a society.
That most American Jews do not appreciate how extraordinarily decent America is -- compared with other countries, not compared with some childish utopian vision -- only proves the lack of relationship between education and wisdom and between intelligence and wisdom.
The left is tearing down America because the left in America is what the left has been everywhere: a purely destructive force. Conservatives and liberals build everything, and leftists destroy everything: music, art, universities, high schools, elementary schools, economies, late-night comedy (for that matter, all comedy), journalism, sports and, now, the sciences. In addition, everywhere the left gains power it suppresses personal freedom, beginning with the most important freedom, freedom of speech.
Every violent demonstration (also known as "riots") over the past six months has been a left-wing riot.
Why, then, does this left-wing destruction not frighten America's Jews? Do they not know the more power the left has, the less freedom they and all other Americans will have? Do they not know how much Black Lives Matter, antifa and the rest of the left loathe Israel? Or do they not care? (The answer is that, increasingly, many American Jews do not care -- especially young Jews, who have been raised by left-wing teachers and left-wing media.) How do they not recoil when statues of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln are violently removed?
Do American Jews not know that the unique esteem in which they (and Israel since 1948) have been held in American society has been entirely due to the Judeo-Christian roots of America's values and its Judeo-Christian identity? Do they not know that in a post-Christian America, they will be just another minority and that, as the left gains influence, nonleft Jews (specifically religious and pro-Israel Jews) will be singled out for opprobrium? (Just look at how Jewish students who publicly identify as Jews, let alone as pro-Israel Jews, are treated on many American campuses.)
We conservatives know the answer to the question, "How did the country that gave the world Beethoven give the world Nazism?"
The answer: Civilization is fragile.
That was true in Germany, and it is true in America.
This is related. I had a long discussion with an Israeli in my engineering department on the Holocaust. He was outraged that it happened because, he would never have followed any orders to arrest and kill Jews. He was putting himself in the place of ordinary non Jewish Germans. I finally gave up but have since thought a lot about his arguments.
He believes that there is a solid morality that is independent of education and culture. His morality is not dependent on propaganda or how people are raised, the times they live in or the political or economic realties they are exposed to. His morality is a feature of the universe like time or gravity. He was outraged that his morality was breached and the people who breached it are less human than him.
The problem with his morality, other than it doesn’t exist, is that he believes it exists. Therefore, he regularly voted for Democrats who do things his morality found to be wrong. They were largely anti-Israeli. They legalized and funded abortion. He does these things because, in his mind, there is the absolute morality that follows his personal rules and he can ignore everything that does not follow his morality as a temporary blip not worthy of lengthy analysis.
At one time in the near past, we had a wonderful Jewish community here in Baton Rouge. Great families. But I have noticed that there are much fewer now. I think that the young ones have moved to larger, coastal cities where attitudes tend to stink.
They do not give a damn.
I've always said that somewhere, and even most liberals laugh at it. However, this isn't "liberalism"...this is TOTAL, COMPLETE, UTTER AUTHORITARIANISM. If Biden and the Democrats win, look for more bannings, cancelling, people fired, ie, "The Nuremberg Laws".
Don't forget that Hitler didn't start gassing Jews the day after he became chancellor on January 30, 1933.
Go talk to Orthodox (”frum”) Jews, and get a totally different story. The Chabad types are 100% pro-Trump. I know one who has a 3 story pole with a 30-foot TRUMP/MAGA flag lit by lights all around in Upstate NY. Remember it was an Orthodox Jewish MD who started the whole Hydroxy-Chloroquine train.
Although it’s framed in the perspective of (western) art history, there is much to be gleaned from Lord Kenneth Clark’s 1969 BBC series, “Civilisation,” which echoes some of what Prager is saying here. Clark delves into the social psychology that binds a culture together, its strengths, fragility and vulnerabilities. All episodes are available for free on YouTube.
An answer to your co-worker might be https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060995068/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl
on the police called up to support the German’s during WWII, and what they eventually did. This is one of the books, alongside Dostoevsky that Jordan Peterson recommends. I agree with him that few of us really know how we’ll act when confronted with real evil, most probably hope it’s just a quick death, not full cooperation.
Truth. Especially the Sternbergs (of Goudchaux, and later Maison Blanche). I still have a shirt bought at Goudchaux. It's fifty years old and has very minor fraying of the sleeve hems. Great quality stuff in those stores.
He was arguing natural law.
He is both correct and incorrect.
Natural law exists. It is, however, easily overwhelmed.
You can ignore reality, but you cannot ignore the consequences of ignoring reality.
This used to be a profoundly understood, common truth.
After 155 years of peace, abundance, and easy living, a great many take civilization as normal, natural, and the default situation of a society.
It is not, and never has been.
I am an Israeli Jew.
It’s the same old story. When the word and concept of “justice” for all humankind (except the Jews) is adopted by the Jews instead of Torah-based values, they lose touch with what is about to happen.
These types of Jews champion “justice for all”, justice for Polar Bears, Justice for Seagulls, Justice for Grunion Fish mating rites but for their fellow Jew??
These people, the Liberal Jews suffer from TLH (Terminal Liberal Hemorrhoids). It is a disease that starts in the anus area and works it’s way up to the brain. The brain them becomes inundated with (you know what) and that impedes clear, rational thinking until it is to late.
These Jews THINK that they are different in the eyes of the Jewish people’s enemies, but they are not. They think that they are different, more enlightened than “those” Jews who are and will be under attack.
My fellow Jews if you have not yet learned the critical lessons (or EVEN KNOW ABOUT IT) of WWII you will repeat the same mistakes.
Is there such a thing as permanent naivete’?
There is also this great lie that I'm afraid we will never shake that conservatism ultimately leads to fascism and the death camps. I don't know why people don't see that it is extremism on both the left and right that leads to extremely bad situations.
The other great lie that Jews are especially prone to believe is that any type of populism eventually leads to pogroms. Trump raising tariffs = Auschwitz.
This is just amazing the chutzpah
Is he being honest by half?
Or dishonest by half?
Leftist Jews are hardly idle observers or even just fellow travelers of the American far left
They are without question it’s most influential block of leadership and have been for generations
He lacks the courage sadly to truly call out his kinsmen
Before it’s too late
Devouring the host is not new....of course there are always excuses
Cossacks
Pogroms
The Pale
Fascists
Why now....what is it about America that leftist Jews want to destroy
Answer....she’s th flagship of western civilization
That is true
So why do Haredi not fall into the change the world trap or host nation envy so many non religious Jews do?
I think because they are more concerned with their own separate communities and the moral issues cause a divergence for them from secular leftist Jews
Homosexual marriage would be hard for the Rebbe to rationalize I’m imagining
Great stores I grew up with them
Ruebensteins on Canal for Mens suits too
Well you face an existential threat areound you in Israel
Jews in the US don’t yet.
That’s a good motivator to have a realistic perspective
When I worked in Ramat Gan and had Israeli partners I noticed even if they were bohemian social liberal kibbutz raised like so many were then.....that they were realistic about threats and their neighbors and Israel’s existence
American leftist Jews lack that clarity.....as my grandma would have said ...they are “spoilt”
It should be noted that just a couple generations ago powerful Jews in institutions didn’t take such a dim view of American history or values or culture aa so many do today
Hollywood made good films that extolled a way of life these new Jews wanted to celebrate and preserve and they were happy to be here and they were brutal on leftist Jews in their industry
Warner
Goldwyn
Sarnoff
Even most 60s Jewish radicals liked the ideal of America .....
What we have now....leftism Jewish or goyim is a different animal
Racism replaced class struggle for sure
One thing about "Godwin's Law" scenarios is a lot of people don't make the connection between the historical Nazis and the everyday moral decisions we all have to make.
Most of us have never killed anyone at the bidding of some Nazi, but that's not as important as whether we've crossed some invisible lines that would give the Nazis a hook into our soul if we found ourselves in the thick of the War all over again.
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