My wife, Stella, recently shut down her account on the social-media-platform-that-must-not-be-named. “It feels like I’m walking away from a fight,” she said. “Almost everything I read there is a signal as to what side the poster is on. Or an attempt to promote the idea that, ‘I’m smart!’ Or, ‘I’m right.’ It’s all ego. I’m […]
human nature
Our New, Happy Life? The Ideology of Development
This essay originally appeared in Tikkun. In George Orwell’s 1984, there is a moment when the Party announces an “increase” in the chocolate ration – from thirty grams to twenty. No one except for the protagonist, Winston, seems to notice that the ration has gone down not up. ‘Comrades!’ cried an eager youthful voice. ‘Attention, […]
A Restorative Response to MH17
There is an alternative view that doesn’t dehumanize the perpetrators of atrocities and render them into cartoonish villains of the type that appear in James Bond movies. It says that evil is not an elemental aspect of the human psyche, but is the product of context. It therefore seeks first to understand. What is the context?
Gateway drug, to what?
Substance abuse has less to do with the substance than it has to do with the lives we live. But what has the War on Drugs done to us, and what will follow it?
De Kringloop van Terreur
In de nasleep van terreuraanslagen verkondigen politici graag dat “We ons niet laten intimideren”. Daarmee lijken ze te bedoelen dat we ons niet angstig terugtrekken, maar de terroristen uit zullen roeien, ze berechten en ter verantwoording roepen. “Laat daarover geen misverstand bestaan”, zeggen ze dan. Er wordt hard en doortastend optreden beloofd, waarmee verhoogde beveiliging […]
The Cycle of Terror
From fear comes hate, and from hate comes violence. Acting from that fear, we sow the seeds of future terrorism in the world, thereby confirming the image of our terror.