“Selectivity and Moral Outrage” (please have a look at the Brett Stevens Column re Moral Outrage — written as an indictment of the “Moral Outrage crowd” along with the so-called “virtue-signaling-selection-crowd”).
Drawing on the Past
Deuteronomy (from the Parsha) 13:29
הִשָּׁ֣מֶר לְךָ֗ פֶּן־תִּנָּקֵשׁ֙ אַחֲרֵיהֶ֔ם אַחֲרֵ֖י הִשָּׁמְדָ֣ם מִפָּנֶ֑יךָ וּפֶן־תִּדְרֹ֨שׁ לֵאלֹֽהֵיהֶ֜ם לֵאמֹ֗ר אֵיכָ֨ה יַעַבְד֜וּ הַגּוֹיִ֤ם הָאֵ֙לֶּה֙ אֶת־אֱלֹ֣הֵיהֶ֔ם וְאֶעֱשֶׂה־כֵּ֖ן גַּם־אָֽנִי׃
beware of being lured into their ways Do not inquire about their gods, saying, “How did those nations worship their gods? I too will follow those practices.”
לֹא־תַעֲשֶׂ֣ה כֵ֔ן לַיהֹוָ֖ה אֱלֹהֶ֑יךָ כִּי֩ כׇל־תּוֹעֲבַ֨ת יְהֹוָ֜ה אֲשֶׁ֣ר שָׂנֵ֗א עָשׂוּ֙ לֵאלֹ֣הֵיהֶ֔ם כִּ֣י גַ֤ם אֶת־בְּנֵיהֶם֙ וְאֶת־בְּנֹ֣תֵיהֶ֔ם יִשְׂרְפ֥וּ בָאֵ֖שׁ לֵאלֹֽהֵיהֶֽם׃
You shall not act thus toward your God יהוה, for they perform for their gods every abhorrent act that יהוה detests; they even offer up their sons and daughters in fire to their gods.
We know what moral outrage is — we also know how to determine it — we have seen it and we have experienced it before . . .
NYT Op-Ed August 27th / Brett Stevens unlocked: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/27/opinion/gaza-protests-venezuela.html?unlocked_article_code=1.GU4.9pJB.6X8D56Cn440a&smid=url-share
“Can We Be a Little Less Selective With Our Moral Outrage”
While we already know it as “selective” moral outrage — apparently, this current “selectivity” appears to be failing the time-tested smell test of what it really is: irony, jealousy, and hatred of the Jewish People, of Clal Yisrael (of our community).
Selective moral outrage: Welcome to the new Jewhate.
Wisely, and without overreacting with hyperbole, we also know it to be a certain”quisling antisemitism” — or let’s just call it for what it is: the most current iteration of political parties, gaggles of college campus disrupters, “want-to-be-political-subgroup progressives” and their glamming academic allies — not to even mention their “hoped-for political administrations” along with incumbent politicians seeking higher office — all of this constitutes the newest form of Jewhate in the world today.
For the record, expressing moral outrage solely against the Jewish State of Israel is essentially a “virtue signaling” game to gain support for a newly constituted “progressive party” adhesion to a more “traditional” form of antisemitism. This rather insidious alliance is actively engaged in expressing a denial of the historic nature of the “identity” component inherent in the “community” of the Jewish Community, Clal Yisrael.
In doing this, political parties, administrations, and governments essentially become “quisling” at best, along with their not-so-hidden-Jewhating agendas, all bonded together with their so-called political allies, at worst.
Below: Here an excerpt from the concluding paragraph of the NYT article:
- Iran. The regime in Iran ought to tick every box of progressive outrage. Misogyny? As CNN documented in 2022, the government responded to mass protests against mandatory hijab by systematically raping protesters, men as well as women. Homophobia? Homosexuality is legally punishable by death, and executions are carried out.
- It says something about the moral priorities of much of today’s global left that Iran is one Middle Eastern regime toward which they’ve advocated better relations, including the lifting of economic sanctions, while simultaneously insisting on boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel. Why that is — the mental pathways that lead self-declared champions of human rights to make common cause with some of the worst regimes on earth while directing their moral fury at countries, including Israel, that protect the values those champions pretend to hold dear — has been one of humanity’s great puzzles for over a century. But that puzzle shouldn’t restrain morally minded, globally conscious people from standing up for the oppressed and suffering everywhere they might be. The list I’ve offered above is very partial: There are also Rohingya in Myanmar, Uyghurs in China, Christians in Nigeria and ethnic minorities in Russia, to name a few. They, too, deserve the world’s attention, compassion and, whenever possible, active assistance.
- (the bottom Line — both literally and figuratively): It could happen if only one cause weren’t consuming so much of the world’s moral energies.
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For those who have risen to power and prominence in denying “the community” of the Jewish People, or in “selectivity signaling” out your people because we might want to fit in better or more nicely, perhaps it is time to remember who you are and whence you’ve come.
Everyone in the world is aware of who each and every one of us “is” — and for the record, none of them are forgetting who we are, — and it would be best if we were to do the same.
