Conservatives are constantly aghast at the left-wing bias that has infected all of our institutions -- most obviously, the media and the schools, but also (lately) the boardroom and even the Pentagon.
What's the origin of the bias? Well, we usually talk about academic indoctrination of elites by tenured radicals; or deliberate propaganda efforts by trained operatives -- and all of that probably is a factor.
But I think there's another source, and it's within each of us. The nature of left-wing opposition is to complain and demand, and to attack those who would dare defend tradition or invoke authority.
In other words, the left is a teenager. The right is composed of adults -- and not even particularly stodgy or square adults, just men and (usually married) women who understand what living requires.
The reason our politics and our culture have a left-wing bias is that, at core, it's a bias toward youth. Our popular art forms -- especially rock -- are about rebellion; our ideas of beauty are about youth. Etc.
It's natural to value youth. But we didn't always obsess about youth the way we do today. And I think it has a lot to do with the rise of visual media, from TV to TikTok, and self-consciousness about image.
The Democrats are often fighting what they call a return to the 1950s, which they say means repressing women and minorities, but it also conjures pipe-smoking dads and moms in sensible calf-length skirts.
In other words, the 1950s were about adulthood. The revolution of the 1960s was about the triumph of youth -- and we have never really looked back. After 1968 or so, adults strove to look like kids.
The bias toward youth dooms our politics to have a left-wing bias. It also means that when Republicans win, it's a surprise -- because there are still adults, but they are quiet, and often deliberately so.
So -- if you want to change that bias, you have to make adulthood more exciting. Not just demand people grow up or behave like adults, which is the method of some scolds, but make our adulthood fun.
Adulthood is about enjoying certain things that are off limits. We can't get there by banning things that are widely available -- but there are some things you can't just pull up on a smartphone.
How about, for example... the experience of pregnancy? Not just for women, but men? Savoring a pregnant woman's beauty is something only men in committed relationships can do. It's for adults, only.
Making pregnancy sexy and fun -- or just honored and valuable -- seems more persuasive than going on about when life begins and so on, even if those are really crucial underlying concepts to everything.
So... I'm toying with the idea of developing our notions of adulthood -- not just as a philosophy or a set of rules, but as an aesthetic. If you can get to that, I think, you can start to correct our political course.
This week'd portion begins the book of Numbers. Interestingly, the Hebrew name for the book is "In the Desert," not "Numbers." The portion, which happens to be my bar mitzvah portion, focuses almost as much on the names of the princes of each tribe as the number of soldiers it fielded. It also focuses on the configuration of the tribal camps around the central Tabernacle and the Levites.
So why "Numbers" instead of "Names" or "Places"? The numbers are, to be sure, a unique feature of the opening of this Biblical book -- but they are not the focus of the rest of the narrative. The Hebrew focuses on the place where the events in the book take place, because essentially this is the narrative of the Israelites' wanderings from Egypt to Israel, across 40 years. We move from the giving of the Torah and the construction of the Tabernacle in Exodus and Leviticus, to the final valediction of Moses in Deuteronomy -- Bamidbar is the story of wandering that happened in between.
The question of ...
This week's portion begins with the laws of the Sabbath and the Sabbatical year, and the Jubilee year that restores all land to its original (tribal) owners. It also explores laws of property and labor that will apply in the Land of Israel, and the laws of vows and inheritance.
The Israelites are presented -- not for the last time -- with the essential moral choice that they must face, and the rewards for choosing well, along with the consequences for choosing poorly.
We learn that doing good things will earn God's protection from enemies. That does not mean that victims of terror, God forbid, were sinful. But it does mean that we can respond to evil by committing ourselves to a higher path.
This week's portion describes the major sacrifices that are to be offered by the Jewish people, including those that are offered only by the priestly Kohen class, and physical requirements of the people (men) who serve in that role.
Inter alia, there are interesting commandments -- such as an injection to treat animals with respect and care, first, by letting a mother animal nurse her offspring for a week before being offered in any sacrifice; and second, by refraining from slaughtering an animal and its offspring on the same day.
The commandments regarding animals remind us of the purpose of those regarding human beings: to uphold a divine connection, through ritual.
https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/111878/jewish/Rabbi-Isaac-Luria-The-Ari-Hakodosh.htm
