The Atrophy of Solomon

One pays heavily for coming to power: power makes stupid. The Germans - once they were called the people of thinkers: do they think at all today? The Germans are now bored with the spirit, the Germans now mistrust the spirit; politics swallows up all serious concern for really spiritual matters. Deutschland, Deutschland uber alles - I fear that was the end of German philosophy.
- Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols

Am Yisrael Chai - I fear that was the end of Jewish spiritual genius. Nationalism has become the ersatz religion of a godless people.

I am not opposed to nationalism, but I subscribe to what Hans Kohn called a "nationalism of inwardness." Franz Kafka internalizing the Jewish feeling of exile and universalizing it through writing is a greater nationalist than a New York settler setting fire to olive trees.

Jewish nationalist excesses are justified through reference to Arab perversions. Without denying the latter, let me quote Martin Buber with my own emphasis added:
To me, the most repulsive of men is the oily war profiteer, who does not cheat any God, for he knows none. And the Jewish profiteer is more repugnant than the non-Jewish, for he has fallen lower.

If Islam is a "religion of peace," it is up to individual Muslims to prove it rather than slander anyone who questions them. Similarly, if Jews are the "chosen people" with greater ethical obligations than other nations, it is up to individual Jews to live up to that mantle rather than slandering anyone who questions it.

Jews are powerful today - but power makes stupid. Jews are politically organized today - but politics swallows up spirit. If material strength is found in the homeland, spiritual strength is found in exile.

Comments

  1. Ernest MirallesAugust 5, 2009 at 8:56 PM

    Do you refer to inner exile or just exile? I think that israeli ultra nationalism has inherited the fears of the Shoah: its birth comes from death & pain, suffer & despair. It can be considered a religious nationalism, where the country is sacred ~but not the individuals, who serve the country blindly~.

    Exiled jews want to be free, to think free and to act in freedom, that be inner or mundane.
    Encouraging free thinking is not the target of Israel but this of the israelites. A must, could be said.

    ReplyDelete

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