Religion Dispatches
If you haven’t heard of Jonathan Haidt yet, you probably will soon. The social psychologist from the University of Virginia is making quite a media splash. Most recently, he set off a small media storm by calling out his fellow psychologists for unacknowledged liberal bias.
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From the ashes of Mt. Carmel, the largest forest fire in Israel’s history, a strange phoenix is rising: a clash of civilizations. It’s not between Israelis and Arabs, nor between Jews and Muslims. It’s a clash between two worldviews. Let’s oversimplify, for convenience…
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The positive reception of Budrus in the U.S. says a lot about the political climate today. The right-wing “pro-Israel” movement is going through a tough time. It has always built its public appeal on one simple narrative: Israel wants peace, but it must fight to ward off implacable violence from its enemies. Anything Israel does is justified because it’s in self-defense.
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An exclusive Religion Dispatches interview with the late historian of religions Mircea Eliade, conducted (by seance?) via Ira Chernus:
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If the fear of a broken society is, at its deepest level, the fear of a broken foundation myth—a loss of the sense of secure identity that once came from simply living on American soil—then no party is to blame for it and no party can fix it.
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Two scholars respond to Shalom Goldman’s essay, “Gandhi, His Grandson, Israel, and the Jews.”
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Myths of good versus evil have long sustained conservatism, but these narratives, with their shining heroes, and dastardly evildoers, are irrelevant to the civil debates at hand, and threaten to undermine the reforms that would help us all the most.
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A new study reveals that the majority of Israelis view the conflict with Palestine through the lens of fear, throwing their support behind a parade of bellicose and paranoid leaders. Until the cycle of victimhood and aggression is broken no amount of pressure from the U.S., vain military adventures, or Labor Party victories will alter the tragic stalemate in the region.
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Though Zionism sought to establish a state of normalcy, Israel has become an institutionalized mechanism for perpetuating a sense of abnormality.
Read MoreMaybe the real “straight-talk express” should run for the nation’s highest office himself; the one test for president Wright cannot pass is the one the mainstream media insist on more than any other.
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