I like to think myself sophisticated, a man of the world who has done and seen things, possessed of an understanding of the complexity and nuance of reality; but then something happens and I am slapped by my ignorance. This has been happening since the first reports of the attack on Israel began to trickle in.
There are many, many benefits that come with being an American. One of these being that most of the bad things that happen around me can be laid at the feet of human foibles—ignorance, hubris, mental illness, that sort of thing. I can relate to human foibles, having many of my own. When confronted by the sheer evil of the Hamas attack, though, I find no finger hold for a shared humanity. Murdering children? Slaughtering civilians at a concert for peace? Gang rapes, kidnap, slavery? Gunning down families? And I suddenly see that I do not understand evil, real evil, at all.
My mind has trouble grasping the fact that humans did this. Humans planned it, packed their gear, and left in the morning with murder on their minds. They got into their pickups and shrugged on their packs with the plan to attack Israel and to kill as many children, mothers, and defenseless civilians as they possibly could. It’s difficult to believe that those who planned and did this are people, too, with families of their own, presumably with people they love in their lives. Yet, these people, a large number of people apparently, gathered together and discussed this and decided that, yep, slaughtering as many Jewish babies and parents as possible was a very good idea.
Knowing that such atrocities have happened, among every people in every corner of the globe at one time or another throughout history, does not make it any easier to understand. This makes the terrible actions difficult to look at and consider. People can actually get together and bond over their shared hatred, and do unspeakable evil together. The horror of that realization staggers me.
This shock is coupled by the sudden revelation that many of my fellow citizens, who just weeks ago were vocally all about punching Nazis, fighting fascism, and who saw “systemic racism” behind every gripe they had in their seemingly bottomless Bag-O-Gripes, are totally okay with a Holocaust 2.0. It takes some sort of mental gymnastics, moral calculations far beyond my ability to grasp, to simultaneously wring one’s hands over racism and celebrate the slaughter of children because they are Jewish. If it is wrong to make sweeping assumptions about and then marginalize people for traits—the color of their skin, their nation of origin, their religion--(and it is wrong), how can antisemitism be okay? Got me. I have no idea.
Where are the “Jewish Lives Matter” banners? Don’t hold your breath waiting for them to appear.
Gradually, though, as always, humanity lurches back and forth but always toward a better future. Crazy ideas come and go. Maybe this is just one more step toward the day we put Critical Theory in the ground. An ideology like “No Justice, No Peace—except for the Jews!” is too stupid to keep breathing on its own for very long, and puts the lie to modern tribalism and victimhood.
It’s so easy, anyone can play. When anyone moans about systemic racism, agree with them.
“No kidding,” I say. “Can you believe people are actually blaming Israel?”
I’m grumpy about this. I try very hard to see everyone as a miracle, whether they see it or not, but stupidity and double standards offend me to my core.
I’ll try harder.
Peace.
As shocking as the current atrocities are, I am equally comforted by your writings validating my thoughts and the knowledge the majority of people agree with us.
Whether there are truly evil people might be debatable, I suppose there are a few. Unfortunately there are an excessive number of people who are willing to do evil acts based on their misguided beliefs.
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