The banality of trump and musk
Seventy Thoughts on Turning Seventy.
The story goes, when dared by a Roman to tell all of Judaism while standing on one foot, thinking that this would be impossible, Rabbi Hillel replied: "What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow: this is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation; go and learn."
This is what is commonly called "The Golden Rule," and we learned it in school in slightly different words: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."
Rabbi Hillel knew that empathy, the ability to put ourselves in others' places and to feel their pain as if it were our own, was at the core of religion.
We recognize the spark of the divine in all living beings and understand that acknowledging and acting from an understanding of our sacred interconnectedness is the foundation upon which all civilizations are built.
The Jews and Christians who support trump and his minions know better. And if they have forgotten what's at the root of their own faith? It's the responsibility of leaders to remind them and preach that they act accordingly.
For those who are not familiar with Hannah Arendt - she also wrote the highly influential book, "Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil" in which she reported on and analyzed the trial of Adolph Eichmann, one of the architects of the "Final Solution" and the mass murder of millions of Jews, Romani, LGBT people, the disabled and political dissidents.
His "defense" that he was just following orders and "doing his job" displayed a total disconnection from the humanity of those who were murdered by the third reich's genocide machine.
The failure of one group of humans to acknowledge the shared humanity of those from other less powerful groups is the opening through which evil and horrific acts can enter.
trump and musk represent the darkest, basest qualities of greed, dominance and violence.
As far as barbarism? America has never wanted to face our own barbaric history. Genocide of indigenous peoples. Kidnapping people from Africa and enforcing their life long servitude through violence.
Learning about our history is uncomfortable. It flies in the face of American exceptionalism and creates a cognitive dissonance that young people might find disturbing. Those on the right who are now trying to make the teaching of these truths of our history illegal aren't just protecting the "feelings" of the little white children who might be upset learning these things.
It's to keep them unaware of the evil and violent part of our past, to make it easier to do it again.
Insightful. I wonder how technology has exacerbated the loss of societal empathy. Person to person connectivity is often lost because typing out our points of view eliminate nuance and increase polarization.
I also think we (Americans at least) lack the shared sacrifice and goals our parents and grandparents faced. The loss of community.
As for sweeping unpleasant historical events under the rug, maybe our boomer generation is to blame. Did we raise our kids to be empathetic, or did we just raise them to be successful at any cost? Are our current leaders outliers or the norm?
Just some meandering thoughts from the west coast.
Wonderful. As always!