We begin with an example of the human intellect falling short in the process of analysis. Like trying to cobble together a jigsaw puzzle with a piece missing, it can only lead to erroneous conclusions, confusion, or even a violent catastrophe. The table is upset, the puzzle pieces hopelessly strewn about, damaged or missing. The objective abandoned; all human activity ceased. Such is the human condition—not a future dystopia—the human condition TODAY!
What is the puzzle in question? Why do we see so much violence in the human community? A large part of the answer, perhaps the most important “piece,” is belief in the other. The other is an individual or group perceived as not “belonging” or as being different in some fundamental way.
For example, some noteworthy scholars and award-winning authors have tried to explain (analyze) the cause of antisemitism in the West and Middle East. “Maxim Gorky (1868-1936) was the founder of the socialist realism literary method. He viewed writing his fiction as a moral and political act. He felt the violent treatment of the Jews in Russia, i.e., the pogroms, was a result of jealousy. He explained that the Jews were perceived by many Russians as “obviously better, more adroit and more capable.”[i]
Many Jews have had a worldview that might seem to support those who would want to project their shadows onto them and rationalize treating them as the other. Whether the other is seen as threatening because they are perceived as superior or subhuman/inferior in one way or another, either works as a rationalization for violence toward them. “Today that idea [of superiority] has spread well beyond Reform Judaism. Arnold Eisen, chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary, the leading Conservative institution in the United States, has noted that the idea of Jews as a ‘chosen people’ appears throughout the Bible and that Jews have embraced the message of later prophets that Jews are ‘the servant of mankind’ and a ‘light unto the nations.’”[ii] In other words, being perceived as “competent” or “special” becomes a threat and invites violent reactions from one’s neighbors.
Yes, that could be, but in future essays we keep looking a bit deeper, at what has proven to be a puzzling analysis.
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Supplemental Reading: The Other, The ABC’s of Simple Reality, Vol 2
#6 Puzzling Analysis
[i] Zipperstein, Steven. “The Origins of the Holocaust.” The New York Times Book Review. May 3, 2020, p. 17.
[ii] Weisman, Steven R. “How America’s Jews Learned to Be Liberal.” The New York Times. August 19, 2020, p. 3.
