It's easy to be liberal -- until they come for what's yours.
Many of us learn that lesson the hard way. I had already begun questioning some of my left-wing beliefs by the time the second intifada started in 2000, but the fact that the left was suddenly hell-bent on destroying Israel certainly prompted me to rethink my political worldview.
I've had liberal friends over the years come up to me over the years and admit that they were having conservative impulses after the government started trying to regulate their business or their hobby. It's fine when the state wants to redistribute someone else's money, or mess with someone else's business, but once they come for yours -- that's a different story.
One of the many drawbacks of an expansive welfare state is that you create that kind of entrenched interest in government programs. "Hands off my Medicare" etc. People have a quasi-"conservative" impulse to protect what they believe they are entitled to, even if it only comes because the state is coercing other people to pay for it. We've even seen some Democrats argue that Republicans should not cut government spending (when Republicans cared about cutting govenrment spending) because doing so went against supposedly "conservative" values, i.e. "conserving" existing government programs.
We've seen the beginnings of a conservative awakening in this country, as the Biden administration has followed the left's direction. But the two forms of "conservatism" -- to protect what exists in the private sector, and to protect what comes from the state -- are doomed to clash. And I'm not optimistic, at the moment, about which of those is likely to prevail.
This week’s portion launches the great story of Abraham, who is told to leave everything of his life behind — except his immediate family — and to leave for “the Land that I shall show you.”
There’s something interesting in the fact that Abraham is told to leave his father’s house, as if breaking away from his father’s life — but his father, in fact, began the journey, moving from Ur to Haran (in last week’s portion). His father set a positive example — why should Abraham leave him?
Some obvious answers suggest themselves — adulthood, needing to make one’s own choices, his father not going far enough, etc.
But I think there is another answer. Abraham (known for the moment as Abram) needs to establish his own household. This is not just about making one’s own choice, but really about choosing one’s own starting point. It’s starting over.
Sometimes we start over in fundamental ways even if much that surrounds us remains the same. Sometimes the journey we have to ...
The story of Noah is familiar; the details, less so.
Noah is often seen as an ambivalent figure. He was righteous -- but only for his generation. What was his deficiency?
One answer suggests itself: knowing that the world was about to be flooded, he built an Ark for the animals and for his own family -- but did not try to save anyone else or to convince them to repent and change their ways (the prophet Jonah, later, would share that reluctance).
Abraham, later, would set himself apart by arguing with God -- with the Lord Himself! -- against the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, saying that they should be saved if there were enough righteous people to be found (there were not).
Still, Noah was good enough -- and sometimes, that really is sufficient to save the world. We don't need heroes every time -- just ordinary decency.
Hi all -- as I noted last month, I'm going to be closing down my Locals page, at least for tips and subscriptions -- I may keep the page up and the posts as well, but I'm no longer going to be accepting any kind of payment.
Look for cancelation in the very near future. Thank you for your support!
