humanities.philosophy.objectivism

Potroast wrote:
>
> Can we please stop fighting over mystic "choosen people for this
> land" memes now? I really get headaches thinking about how many
> insecure grown adults in the 21st century are still fighting over such
> silly petty things when there is literally billions of lightyears of
> universe to colonize...not to mention vertical living spaces for small
> countries called "apartment buildings".

Strangely enough, I agree with to some extent. Establashing a nation on
a religious basis is a thoroughly bad idea. Just how bad it is can be
seen by observing the Islamic domains. The Ummah has been a pox and a
poison to the human race for nearly 1400 years.

The best thing that ever happened to the Jews was that they were
dispersed among othe other peoples. That means if they want to maintain
their religion it has to be a private or at least a social matter, not a
national matter. The re-establishment of the modern state of Israel was
a big mistake (the Orthodox folk were right on that). The best thing
for Jews is to find a friendly country to live in (the U.S. for example)
and adapt their customs to the modality of the country they live in.
American Jews have done this quite well. American Jews do not need
Israel. They need America.

Judaism has survived in the world (since the Diaspora) by adaptation and
detoxification of the extremities of the religion. Jews acheived this by
having the shit kicked out of them by other nations. Surviving in a
world not dedicated to Jewish peculiarity bred a kind of toughness and
intelligence into Jews that the never had, when they had their own
nation. In fact, when Jews had their own nation, way back when, they
became soft and corrupt. Which is what the biblical prophets were saying
all along. The best thing that ever happened to the Jews was to learn to
live in a lot of different place and make the apporpriate adaptations
without ever losing their cultural or ethical identity. That takes a
kind of toughness and resilliance that goes way beyond founding a nation.

Bob Kolker