re: #13 CuriousLurker

I don’t see how focusing on Mr. Adler in this instance minimizes the problem.

It’s a widespread problem, and many are acting like it’s his problem only. Call it myopia, solipsism, narcissism—it all amounts to the toolkit needed to provoke or commit violence.

Are you saying that any time we focus on the bad words or actions of one person we’re minimizing the widespread nature of this human failing, or just this time?

I’m saying that we read of research and breakthroughs in the diseases of cancer, diabetes, potential epidemics, we read of ecological breakthroughs, energy breakthroughs—there is a constant effort to make these plagues, so to speak, go away. Where is the research on narcissism, the digging into consciousness to make progress on the willingness of people to kill when even mildly requested by an authority figure (the Milgram Experiment)? There is none. Let’s say Adler has what psychology calls a Personality Disorder—there is no treatment for Personality Disorders, not even a hint. When this issue comes up, it’s usually because of one person, and the focus is on that one person. I’m saying it’s an untreated, unresearched epidemic.

That’s not an inconsequential thing.

I completely agree. The other day I finished my comment with the word ‘Jail.’ That’s as serious as I can get. I never implied that he isn’t bound by ethics. I said ‘Jail’. I consider that being bound.

Do we all share a his human weakness to some degree? Of course we do, but most of us know better than to pull such a stunt.

It’s more than a weakness. I’d call this one of the lessons of the Holocaust—that is ignored. I’ll add ‘ignored’ to my description of this epidemic. Do we know better for fear of punishment, or do we know so much better that the thought would never enter our minds? I look at world events, and I see that the thought is frequently entering people’s minds. The news is a seemingly endless refrain of one dehumanizing act after another. For some, dehumanizing others is the reason they get up in the morning.

That’s why I asked about your meaning. Do you see how rampant this problem is? I’m sure you understand where this leads to, unchecked.

Since we’re on the subject: What, I wonder, would Abraham (a.s.) have thought? He became a great & powerful leader, no? How would he have reacted if someone from his own camp had proposed assassinating him, or even some lesser (but still important) personage of the tribe? Would he have instructed everyone to just let it go and focus on self-vigilance and improvement?

He wasn’t great and powerful, according to our teaching. He possessed quiet qualities, suberb qualities that were not easily visible. He traveled with maybe three hundred people, some left as Lot went to Sodom. There were threats to his life, but his skills in dealing with those threats were much different than what we are presently capable of. However, his legacy is showing us what lies on the path of self-vigilance and improvement, of acquiring wisdom and knowledge—things of which we presently cannot conceive. And Gd treated him according to his path and deeds.