I just read an essay, “How to Live as a Dissident.”
It reminds me of how Jews have often felt. You could change a few words around in this piece and it would fit the situation of Jews in vulnerable places.
In some circumstances, Jews are the persecuted. In other circumstances, we are the persecutors.
No people are inherently good or evil, superior or inferior. Our fortunes wax and wane depending on our make-up and our circumstances.
Life is a spiral staircase. At one moment we’ll feel grandiose, in the next vulnerable, in the next small, and in the next masterful. We circulate between these four states throughout our lives. The one thing we can do at any time is to increase our mastery.
At some points in my life, I’ve felt like a vulnerable 22yo Gwyneth Paltrow fending off Harvey Weinstein’s advances. At other times, I’ve acted like Harvey Weinstein. Most men would act like Harvey Weinstein if they could get away with it. A stiff prick has no conscience.
