Prophecy
Greil Marcus' new book is as good a place to start as anywhere. "The Shape of Things to Come: Prophecy and the American Voice", addresses the 'old and fundamental part of American identity' that is the idea of a nation making a covenant with Gd to carry out a mission in the world, and then the betrayal of that vision. Thus the American ideal and American failure are the forces that shape the country's psyche, which creates a powerful sense of hope and feeling of 'doom' that hangs over American culture.
There is another culture that believes it made a covenant with Gd to carry out a mission in the world. We, the Jews (case you missed that one), also have a contagious hope and overwhelming sense of doom hanging over our heads. Our culture, you could argue is shaped by those two sides of prophecy.
In fact, the only culture that speaks about its mission in the world, how the world thinks of us, what it means to be a light unto the nations, and the failure of these goals more than the US is Jewish people.
It's not just the Foreign Aid and the Evangelical Dream of Jews returning to Israel (read: becoming goyim in the end days) that tie our nations together, we also share a an intractable war against religious fundamentalists that cannot be defeated with conventional means, and are willing to fight to the death.
We share societies that are inflamed with religious revival, mixed with militarism, a wave of low wage immigrants changing the fabric of society, and a sense of deep sense of bankruptcy in the political system that has alienated the citizens from their country.
Moreover, we share an extreme pride, exhibited over the last five years, that we can alone, wether in the US or in Israel unilaterally change the facts on the ground, because we alone are the ones who understand the world as it really is, and are the only ones willing to fight for that. Wether or not this is even true (how could you determine if it is, anyway?) where can this line of thinking lead you, except to pre-approve any dumb idea your country comes up with? We're just now beginning to come to terms with the failures to live up to our self-imposed covenant.
Marcus get's that; it would be neat to imagine extending his kind of thinking in a more to the Jewish/Israeli experience.
There is another culture that believes it made a covenant with Gd to carry out a mission in the world. We, the Jews (case you missed that one), also have a contagious hope and overwhelming sense of doom hanging over our heads. Our culture, you could argue is shaped by those two sides of prophecy.
In fact, the only culture that speaks about its mission in the world, how the world thinks of us, what it means to be a light unto the nations, and the failure of these goals more than the US is Jewish people.
It's not just the Foreign Aid and the Evangelical Dream of Jews returning to Israel (read: becoming goyim in the end days) that tie our nations together, we also share a an intractable war against religious fundamentalists that cannot be defeated with conventional means, and are willing to fight to the death.
We share societies that are inflamed with religious revival, mixed with militarism, a wave of low wage immigrants changing the fabric of society, and a sense of deep sense of bankruptcy in the political system that has alienated the citizens from their country.
Moreover, we share an extreme pride, exhibited over the last five years, that we can alone, wether in the US or in Israel unilaterally change the facts on the ground, because we alone are the ones who understand the world as it really is, and are the only ones willing to fight for that. Wether or not this is even true (how could you determine if it is, anyway?) where can this line of thinking lead you, except to pre-approve any dumb idea your country comes up with? We're just now beginning to come to terms with the failures to live up to our self-imposed covenant.
Marcus get's that; it would be neat to imagine extending his kind of thinking in a more to the Jewish/Israeli experience.
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on Wednesday, October 11, 2006 at 11:14 AM.
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