I'm struggling with a bad dream. It's going to ruin my day.
I have a friend who's pretty religious. We don't talk about Israel. We had a Walt and Mearsheimer conversation and he was enraged by them. The Iraq part (neocons/Israel lobby fomented the Iraq war–a nobrainer for me) really upset him. So we don't talk about politics anymore.
Anyway, in the dream, I was at a dinner with him and his wife and the board of his Conservative synagogue. And I had brought my minions to the meeting and we held a vote on the liturgy of the synagogue and basically gutted the liturgy and made it really different. It was completely political on my part. I had completely played my friend. He walked away brooding.
I felt guilty about my behavior even during the rest of the dream, then I woke up feeling even more guilty. Who am I to mess with his Jewish identity? What's my business and what isn't my business? Boy I'm confused.
My question is, why have such friends? I mean, family members who support Israel are another matter. You're stuck with them. But why have friends whose obliviousness to human suffering and injustice is on such blatant display? Because they have been indoctrinated with religious lunacy? That's all the more reason to cut them adrift. To me, a responsibility to human rights obliges us to adopt a zero tolerance policy toward those supporting ethnic cleansing and racist ideology.
RE: " It was completely political on my part. I had completely played my friend. " MY COMMENT: You are so Machiavellian (in your dreams)! RE: "What's my business and what isn't my business? Boy I'm confused." MY COMMENT: Might you be cross-dominant? FROM WIKIPEDIA: Notable cross-dominant people Shigeru Miyamoto – Modern day video game designer for Nintendo (see The Legend Of Zelda, Mario) Leonardo da Vinci – Renaissance artist and scientist Albert Einstein – Scientist Richard Feynman – Scientist Oscar Wilde – Playwriter and poet Nikola Tesla – Inventor Michelangelo – Artist Jimi Hendrix – Guitarist Benjamin Franklin – Scientist Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi – Religious and political leader Ludwig van Beethoven – composer SOURCE – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-dominance
Jeez, Phil, do you dream like this often? I think you need a hobby — something trivial or engaging, but unrelated to all of this…
This guy wants to mess with Jewish Identity. Who is he — and why are the non-Jewish fanatics worried about him? Yet another one that is going to cause trouble behind the scenes?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jul/... I don't see the jewish political elite backing down in any way, shape or form.
"SLIPPERY ROCK UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR BREAKS NEW GROUND ON BEHAVIORAL RAMIFICATIONS OF HANDEDNESS", 07/14/05 (EXCERPT)….Based on studies involving more than 1,000 people, he found those who are ambidextrous seem to modify and update their beliefs on a wide range of topics from religion, politics and homosexuality to their beliefs about their own health. “In each case, ambidextrous people are more likely to embrace the next new thing while those less ambidextrous seem to uphold the status quo,” he said. His research focused on the functions of the brain’s two hemispheres. The left brain forms beliefs about the world, while the right updates and modifies those beliefs. Because ambidextrous people have a larger structure connecting the two sides of the brain, Niebauer said they are more likely to update their beliefs and that this contributes to differences in personality. However, he points out being good at updating beliefs is not always a good thing. “People who are ambidextrous are more likely to be hypochondriacal, that is, they may have a headache and jump to the conclusion they have a brain tumor,” he said. Most people define “handedness” by the hand you write with, but Niebauer used a series of questions to determine level of handedness. For example, which hand is used to throw, open a jar or brush your teeth? Depending on the answers, many people may be more or less ambidextrous and this may influence what they believe, he said. Niebauer’s theory may shed light on a number of issues where differences in beliefs seem to create irresolvable conflicts. For example, recent work in his lab has shown that handedness is related to opinions regarding the U.S. involvement in Iraq such that ambidextrous are more likely to believe the U.S. should immediately remove all troops. “In any case, the next time we find ourselves in a heated debate because one side wants to change while the other side wants to hold fast to tradition, we might want to consider that our real differences may reside in brain organization,” he said…. SOURCE – http://www.sru.edu/pages/11970.asp
I would say something if it were any of my business.
Either talk to that friend of yours about The Issue or stop being his friend. Real Jews don't want Jews like you, and the rest of us need you to help us destroy them, not have dinner with them.
Actually, Phil, it's probably because you've made so much prgress with Mondoweiss, you have Jewish guilt about your role in establishing the new progressive identity. Hard-line Zionists are digging in their heels, and a change is needed no matter what. I'd say you probably had a good dream, all-in-all.
I don't want to destroy anyone. I want honesty and an end to political correctness.
Please change your name. It's already taken.
PS. It can be difficult to ascertain whether an individual is cross-dominant (and the degree thereof) with one exception. According to what I have read, if a person writes with their left hand but does not backslant, then that individual is cross-dominant!
Fascinating dream, as yours always are. Do you remember how you changed the liturgy?
Feeling bad about betraying your own nation.
Here's a nightmare for you: Imagine you're snug in bed, sound asleep when this horrifying vision materializes: A once-abused ethnic minority founds their own state and before the dust has settled, they begin massacring the native inhabitants and showing the entire world that they had studied and internalized the tactics of the Nazis…they had BECOME the very people they once sought to escape. now THERE's a movie scenario one would love to see…(though please, let's find a better director than silly Stephen Spielberg).
Messing with his identity on the basis of a single political conclusion IS an imposition. The basis of Jewish identity is much deeper and much broader, so the political is relatively trivial. On the other hand, it is an ethical negligence to ignore that the actions of a group do not have collective ethical significance. To continue a policy that is brutal, when there are other options is wrong, and to not point that observation out, is a gross negligence however much a gamble on your part that you get it right. There is a wide range of ethically benign approaches to a Jewish identity, including ones that are Zionist, ones that are a-Zionist, ones that prayerful and ones that are more service oriented. Even a defensive approach is understandable and valid, if it only results in separation. When it gets to unnecessary harming of another, its time to speak up and know that that is what you are doing, and return to that if you deviate.
Don't kid yourself, all Mondoweiss is a place for leftist Jew haters to come spew their ilk, its a tragic its a Jew who created this.
Creating and marketing identity has been a Jewish pastime for a long time: