Journalist and Christian Scott Hogenson, today (10/29/2023) wrote an editorial for Townhall, and I will quote some lines from it and respond to his ideas. The title of the article was Slouching Toward Kristallnact.
Hogenson: “Something sinister is happening before our eyes. An alarming number of Americans blame Israel for the murder of civilians by Hamas terrorists October 7, and violence against the Jews is rising precipitously.”
My response: the tradition of ghettos, pogroms, and periodic efforts at genocide against the Jews was almost finished with the Holocaust, and today Islamists and Leftists—even here in America want them wiped out in Israel to the last one, from the sea to the river. They are not kidding and will do it if they can.
The consistent and periodic flare-up of Jew-hating and Jew-killing is all I need to know that they are God’s chosen people, and the rest of us, based in envy, devil worship and altruistic amorality, living in sin in a world run by Lucifer and Lera, working to wipe them out—that is the proof that I point to as proving that evil exists and it is the human heart, unreformed and untrained by God.
Hogenson: “It began before the dead were buried, when a group of Harvard students issued a statement proclaiming they ‘hold the Israeli regime responsible for all unfolding violence.’ Days later, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres cribbed a line from that statement, saying the killing of Israeli civilians ‘did not occur in a vacuum.’ In cities across the nation, Americans chant for Palestine to seize land ‘from the river to the sea,’ promoting the annihilation of Israel and the Jews living there.
Today, American Jews are forced to hide behind locked doors in fear of attack of pro-Hamas activists. Jewish middle school students are threatened with taunts of ‘kill the Jews.’ In Brooklyn, Jews are being warned to stay in their homes this weekend because militants supporting the Gaza charter calling for ‘the destruction of Israel’ massed in their neighborhood.
The Anti-Defamation League reports that anti-semitic threats and violence have risen nearly 400% in just two weeks, and a recent Harvard Caps Harris poll revealed that more than half of 18-24 year old Americans think the murder of 1,200 Israeli civilians by Hamas was justified. They blame the victims; the Jews had it coming.
Some people are simply bigots that hate Jews. But others who are not dogmatically opposed to Israel or Jewish people are persuadable toward this pro-Hamas position. They can be misled into victim blaming, believing Israel could have avoided the massacre if only Jews were better people.
There is a body of research on why people blame victims, much of it reflecting secular beliefs about the nature of man and society. One reason was postulated by psychologist Melvin Lerner who pioneered the ‘just-world’ theory. It’s described as a ‘psychological concept proposing the individuals possessing a strong belief in the inherent fairness of the world, where people get what they deserve, and deserve what they get.’”
My response: As a staunch individualist, I always advocate blaming the victim. Often, he may not be to blame for his unfortunate state or his suffering, but I want him to take responsibility and then self-realize so that, as an individuator, he is most enabled to recover, and empowered to battle the forces that hurt him and hold him down. It is what I refer to as a useful fiction that the victim blame himself first, and the society blame him too. A corollary to this is that society must agree to protect him against evildoers hurting him, and make sure he has equal opportunity to succeed so that he is free to better himself by his own effort.
In no way am I for pathetic, loser groupists looking for victims to blame and attack for their own worthless lives. We should never victimize anyone nor allow anyone to victimize us. If we blame ourselves when we are victims, it is tough love so that we resolve to climb up out of the morass that we are stuck in.
Hogenson: “As essay by Young Leaders for Legal Literacy Foundation explores Lerner’s theory observing: ‘One’s need to maintain a belief in a just world may be at fault for our tendency to blame victims. When bad things happen to someone that seems a lot like us, this threatens our belief that the world is a just place.”
My response: There is Prager moral clarity at work when cowards and popular insiders in a society, part of the popular majority, subjectively assume that they are nice and moral, and if any of the majority are thugs going after victims, it is just morally easy to live with their attacking innocent victims, if we just declare that the world is just, and the victims had it coming. That is cowardice and mendacity, no proof of the just world outside one’s window.
Hogenson: The theory is intriguing but in order to have a fair and just world, the world must be filled with fair and just people. (Ed NOTES: EXACTLY!) The belief in the natural goodness of man –widely promoted through the works of Genevan philosopher Jean-Jacque Rosseau and others—is accompanied by the theory that man’s goodness is corrupted by society. Taken as a whole, it’s a false utopian philosophy that invites anarchy by rationalizing bad behavior.
This view of man’s nature is diametrically opposed to the biblical view. Ask any Bible-believing Christian about the nature of man and they’ll say it is sinful and corrupt. The notion of man as naturally sinful isn’t universal but it is foundational to Judeo-Christian thought. It might explain why so few Christians blame Israel for the Hamas attack. Christians can debate Israel’s response to Hamas, but I don’t know any claiming that Jewish civilians deserved to be killed. If there are any, they’re in miniscule fringe seeking 15 minutes of fame.
This differing perspectives matter when talking about Israel and Hamas. Those subscribing to Rousseauean and similar philosophies see Hamas as a organization of fundamentally good people who were corrupted by society and the state of Israel. It gives terrorists a pass, as do many pro-Hamas agitators marching in the streets today. But to those adhering to biblical precepts, Hamas is an organization of sinful people who demonstrated their sinfulness in a orgy of murder and rape, and who are solely responsible for their actions.
The larger issue, however, is what kinds of societies these conflicting worldviews foster. While the biblical view promotes order, the secular view foments chaos, gratifying American Leftists and other authoritarians. It is another reason the Left is keen on denigrating Judeo-Christian values, paving the way for new violence.”
My response: Leftists are secular, and Islamists and Hamas are religious, but both are true-believing fanatics willing to use violence, terror, and revolution to spread their causes everywhere. There is a demonic spirit running through the ethos of these haters and killers, be their secular or religious, and wiping out Jews works for them just fine.
Hogenson: “America is slouching towards Kristallnact, the seminal pogrom against innocent Jews across Germany on the evening of November 9-10, 1938. Thousands of Jewish homes, businesses and synagogues were looted and burned. Men were arrested by the tens of thousands for the crime of being Jewish. Others were simply murdered.”
My response: Israel must wipe out Hamas, I hope with minimum death to civilians, but the Arabs in Egypt and elsewhere should open refugee camps for them in Sinai Desert immediately. Hamas must be liquidated in Gaza, and no talk of a two-state Palestine unless the Palestinians agree that Israel has a right to exist in peace.
Hogenson: “We need to wake up before a tipping point arrives. A staggering 51% of college age Americans think the barbaric Hamas murders of Israeli civilians were justifiable, an attitude likely to metastasize. This is why defending the biblical view of man’s nature is so critical. We cannot confront evil without first understanding the inherent sinfulness of man.”
My response: Amen.
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