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Our American idols are prestige, power, social acceptance, popularity, elite opinion, and the Ivy League—but I repeat myself. Our idols are the coveted board seat. The best tables. Relationships with the pretty people.
We put truth on the altar, as if it were a tithable commodity, to remain insiders, to have bragging rights.
We have been willing to sacrifice what is most precious to us—including our own children—for the sake of it.
Why are we doing this?
We are doing it because we are a tiny minority, and because we feel vulnerable and scared and alone. And because fitting in feels safer than standing apart.
We are doing it because we are human beings and so seek temporary pleasure and ease.
We are doing it because we feel anxious and unsure.
We are doing it because we tell ourselves that accommodation is the best route to safety.
We are doing it because we also live in a culture of idolatry, only this time the materials are pixels and diplomas, adherence to a particular ideology and an emergent social credit system based on likes and retweets.
We are doing it because maybe deep down we don’t believe we are capable of more.
We are doing it because freedom—real, true freedom—is so very hard.
--Bari Weiss
Bari Weiss gave a powerful speech recently at the 92nd Street Y in New York. It was directed at Jews. Many Jews, she believes, have compromised our freedom to indulge ourselves at the feet of idolatry, through our cravings, desires and pursuits of pleasure. And we’ve abandoned our understanding of history, so that when we become complacent as Jews in the community, we set ourselves up to be victims.
Although Bari was speaking about the rise of anti-Semitism against the Jewish community, I believe her words spoke to the decadence and sense of entitlement held by the larger population. Instead of pursuing truth and morality, much of our culture focuses on buying the latest car, a bigger house, putting toxins into our systems to beautify ourselves, and having surgery to rid ourselves of the evidence of our indulgences. Even the people who attend their churches and synagogues may have lost sight of the ethics and practices that are important: pursuing truth, serving the community, being good parents and leaders. Following a life of honor can require sacrifice and make demands of us. It asks us to be bigger than our animal selves, to elevate ourselves to be the kind of people who are respected and appreciated.
And as Bari says, it is so very hard to do.
Discussion (27)
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What rise in anti-Semitism? Do you have any actual evidence of this?
The Jews and their allies regularly make claims about an increase in anti-Semitism. Every time that I've investigated this in the past, those claims turned out to be bogus or, at a minimum, inflated. It was actually a claim about this by Bethany Mandel, several years ago at Ricochet, that led to my first investigation of the empirical evidence on reported anti-Semitic violence, which turned out to be negligible. This was one of the early events that opened my eyes about the propaganda of the Israel lobby.
There is bound to be some hostility toward Jews, at least verbally, at a time when the Jewish State is carrying out an open campaign of mass-murder against Palestinian women and children. As of last week, the reported death toll was about 11,000 children and 8,000 women. I reported this to some Bible study friends over the weekend, and they doubted the figures because, apparently, they think that the Palestinians always lie.
This week, I saw a clip in which our own Secretary of Defense stated, in Congressional testimony, that over 25,000 Palestinian women and children have been killed by Israel since October 7. The latest figure that I've seen from October 7 is 695 Israeli civilians, total, including men. Only 36 were children.
Even assuming all 695 Israeli civilians were women or children, the Israeli kill ratio is around 35:1. For children, in excess of 300:1.
So this is pretty bad. If you openly support it, you're bound to get some criticism.
Responding to such criticism by crying anti-Semitism is an attempt to stifle discussion. I know that this discussion can be difficult. I get very frustrated myself at the spectacle of so many people, generally on my political side, supporting the brutality of the Israeli response.
It's not the sort of thing that's only directed at Jews when Israel does terrible things. We saw a great deal of hostility directed against Russian people after the invasion of Ukraine -- and the Russians haven't been openly slaughtering civilians in huge numbers.
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The more I read and hear from Bari Weiss, the more I like her. I hope her University of Austin project is successful.
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She is a Leftist but a sane one.
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I'll have to listen to the whole speech, if it's available. I find her a very interesting and astute commentator, but if feel like I need more context for this quote. Who exactly is she talking about and how is she defining real freedom?
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