A goy professor says to me:
I was thinking about Jews again last night cuz I watched an episode of Transparent with my wife, about the tranny. The whole family went to Shabbat at a liberal reform temple. And even then, the rabbi let everyone eat tacos or whatever but then she still gave a nice little talk and everyone felt “together” and I thought, I sure would like something like that. But then that phrase–a people that shall dwell alone–came to mind. And I thought maybe that could apply to me, as a pariah–“a person who shall dwell alone.”
The rabbi’s sermon was about the 36 righteous people who hold all things together in any given generation. I’d put my money in you as one of them, brother.
I was fantasizing about how you spend Shabbat last night. Go to shul, then just, take it easy? Amazing!
When I was in grad school, all the Rhetoric “scholars” were postmodernists, so they would say they were all about persuasion–they were experts in that. I asked them how they decide which cause to argue for. They would dodge. But once in a while they would say, “Look, maybe the true sophist can show a kid who wants to write a gay-bashing paper how to do it better and more effectively.” But then, none of them ever did. Same goes for that Richard Spencer post about reaching the eternal normie. Why can my Rhetoric friends just help us figure out a way to reach that audience and persuade them more effectively? Morality is a construct, right?
I can’t remember how I was first programmed to react negatively upon hearing the words “David Duke.” I must’ve been very young.
I think we need to tell people the law, at least in this day & age. Was trying to explain to Dad the other day… he’s a liberal Protestant after childhood SDA. He thinks he’s so magnanimous for being okay with gays. You can tell. It’s a kind of self righteousness to not insist that sodomy is a sin.
I told him, “look, you don’t have to stone them to death, but they should know that they’re lucky to not be stoned to death… and feel that they deserve it.”
Luke: Being Jewish in America is a lovely way to lead a life, you get the best of both worlds. You have your own state of Israel on the side. You are full Americans and entitled to lobby as hard as you like for the Jewish state and for Jewish interests. And you have the advantages of ethnic solidarity.
For me, however, the best thing about being Jewish is that I can live by the commands of the God of the Torah, but that sounds boring, I know.
Morality is a construct. For objective morality, there has to be faith in a transcendent Law Giver, though it does seem that certain moral laws are written into our DNA, such as the prohibition against incest. In no society can you kill anyone you want without consequence or sleep with anyone you want without consequence.
It seems like nobody can talk about life for long without referencing good and evil.
