Progressive regressive

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My right to a valid opinion has long been hijacked. I am not entitled to a valid opinion in politics, international relations or my own religion because I am not “one of them”. These are some fields that have been taken over by this “one single thought” tyrannical mass. It is irrelevant whether I hold a PhD in any of these areas. I am not entitled to an opinion if I am not aligned with “them”, to use a Nazi Germany expression.

I call it a tyrannical mass because they have become more furious, more hateful, and more ignorant than any predecessors. They use the word oppressor as something trivial. And they forget that they too oppress. Perhaps, more than anyone else.

The political narrative, the religious discourse, they have all been annihilated by some alleged offer of welfarism that chooses ideology over merits. A system that seeks to please all by saying that we are all equal, while their very leaders and thinkers claim to be different and more deserving. This system that promises that we are all equal, even though each one of us is a unique being made by G’d in His Image, at least considering the last version of the Torah given to Moses and published over millennia!

This is fertile environment to seed fight and hatred. This is where the likes of real haters such as Corbyn, Sanders and Warren survive – while some of my own cheer for them asking for Shoah Round 2. And unfortunately, they manage to carry good people down the drain. Listen, fashionistas, “the appearance of disadvantage is the new black”; this is why this cheap talk of “oh, what a poor guy” is easy to digest. Nobody is a “poor guy” so to speak, G’d forbid. Everyone has and had opportunities. Some people just did not take advantage of them. Some people just wanted it easier. However, some people learned how to walk even though they were born in wheelchairs! People have to do their difficult jobs and fight harder when apparent opportunities are not the same. Think about soccer player Pele, he had fewer opportunities than many other potential players in any sport in the world, but he grabbed his own ones with gusto. Pele did not play the “I’m a poor boy” rubbish, he fought for his place as the best in History. Can you imagine it? Brazilian, poor, black in a time in which black equaled thief or worse in Brazil, lived far from everywhere. He made it. That is in itself a lesson to rethink. Or should we now call Pele “oh, poor boy”?

And curiously – or not, the respective political and religious mobs seem to walk hand in hand.

I am not advocating for the right, the left, the haredim, the reform and everything in between – even though some are worse than others. From experience, however, it is far safer to wear your drag queen attire or a burka to an orthodox synagogue than a shtreimel (something that has actually been in our culture for some time) to a reform “space”. And it is far safer to sing the Socialist International while shaking a hammer and sickle at Marine Le Pen’s Paris home than reading a chapter of a book by – say – Adam Smith at some grocery shop in his very Scotland.

The ludicrous thing about this is that thugs who would ban the shtreimel or Smith, to use these examples, are called progressive, liberal, and all other nice names. Let’s choose, let’s take a poll. Either they are on the side of abusers who want us to feel bad, or they are on the side of bad people, who want us to feel worse. Or they are just useful idiots – this expression sounds bad, but it is not from my or their heart and I did not invent it (unfortunately). We are talking about deceived people and the brainwashing that is more tempting than real life.

I will not disagree that the left is very seductive (and so is Reform Judaism, as applied). Of course it is, it promises something that it cannot deliver, but is beautiful in theory. Nevertheless, to pass on this image, they misrepresent that those on the right spectrum of politics do not like the poor, are racist, are over-religious, hate the environment, and so on and so forth. This is part one of ignorance: a self-contained bunch of ideas that cannot pass the test by itself. It is only good if it assigns blame to someone or something else. Am I hearing , “Hitler invented this first, give him a patent”?

Of course capitalism is not perfect. This is out of the question. But considering all systems that have been put on the table so far, it is certainly the one that most improved the lives of people in need. And, on its side, it does not foster bombing people and places. Respect!

Again, I am not here to defend the right or the orthodoxy or to bash the supposed “poor ones” that hold the power, but pretend they do not. I want to defend ideas, I want to see fellow humans that use the brains God gave us all. This leads me to what is really tough on our people. We are not the people of the Book or the many books. We are the people of the whole library! Reading is not optional for a Jew: when a boy becomes bar mitzvah, he reads in public. And earlier than any of this, our women already did the reading (and it is much more difficult, by the way).

There are few reasons other than unwillingness that could justify a fellow Jew to choose not to read or ask for help with reading before forming an educated opinion and feeling entitled to opine about something. It saddens me that there is a system in place that seeks to make people dumb and there is such a line of volunteers.

Stop now.