Last night I sat down with Tim Pool and his crew to record three hours of discussion -- two for his livestream and one for his members-only forum. It was a great experience. One of the issues we addressed in the members-only portion was Occupy Wall Street.
Tim made his name as a journalist by streaming from the protest in Zuccotti Park in Manhattan -- the main Occupy site. He has long argued that conservatives -- including Andrew Breitbart -- made a mistake by dismissing the movement instead of listening to it.
Tim saw the protest -- at least until it was taken over by trust fund babies and professional left-wing activists -- as an important populist movement that challenged the union of political and financial power. It took Donald Trump to make conservatives listen.
I pointed out that Andrew Breitbart did, indeed, visit and listen to the Occupy protesters -- though he also made fun of them and the fact that they were undoing fundamental values, not just capitalism and law and order, but individualism itself (think: human microphone).
Perhaps Andrew's take on Occupy was also affected by the fact that the protest site we visited was in L.A., where unions were much more directly and visibly involved. It was an institutional-left set-piece. Perhaps it had been less so in the early days in New York.
Regardless, we agreed on a few points. 1. Conservatives should have listened to the populist critique, because their refusal to do so led the GOP to nominate Mitt Romney, who was an emblem of all that both left and right disliked about politics and the establishment.
2. Occupy Wall Street was, in fact, taken over by left-wing crazies who inaugurated an era of wokism. I think that was present at the outset, but Tim points out that it accelerated when people like Sean Hannity bashed the movement. Tribalism hurt political dialogue.
3. The "mic check" stuff really was creepy, as was the movement's descent into identity politics, in which white people were not even allowed to speak (this was years before Black Lives Matter). The crushing of individual liberty was something we all lamented.
This is the portion that all journalists should love: the Torah tells the story of the 12 spies, only two of whom tell the truth when the other ten shade it in a negative away (perhaps to suit a political agenda that is opposed to Moses).
It's not that the ten "lying" spies misconstrue the facts about the Land of Israel; rather, they interject their opinions that the land is impossible to conquer, which strikes unnecessary terror into the hearts of the people.
We have many examples of such fake news today -- from the Iranian propaganda outlets spreading false claims that they are winning the war, to California politicians spreading false horror stories about ICE raids in L.A.
The people realize, too late, that they have been fooled, and once they are condemned to die in the desert, they try to rush into Israel -- only to be defeated by the inhabitants, as the spies predicted that they would be.
But as consolation, God gives the people new commandments -- focused on things they must ...
This week's portion discusses the procedure for lighting the menorah, the holy seven-branched lamp, in the Tabernacle (and later the Temple). It also describes an episode where the people crave meat, and God punishes them by giving it to them in excess. We also read the story of Miriam, Moses's sister, who is punished with the spiritual skin blemish of tzara'at for speaking about her brother, thus violating the prohibition against lashon hara (evil tongue).
I heard a fantastic sermon this week about the lighting of the menorah: that while only the priests were qualified to clean and purify the menorah, anyone could light it. A reminder that each of us can inspire others along the way.
This week we study the vow of the Nazirite; a reminder that sometimes trying to be too holy is excessive, and the best we can do is to be the best that we are.
https://www.chabad.org/parshah/torahreading_cdo/aid/2495720/p/complete/jewish/Naso-Torah-Reading.htm
