Yesterday may have been Halloween, but I’m afraid there may exist something seriously scarier.
I’m fearful that somewhere along the line, we’ve taught those who come after us that it’s good to be militant in our views… To be militant means to be authentic. To be militant means we’re convicted. To be militant means we know what is good and right and true…
Note what militant actually means…
mil·i·tant | ˈmiləd(ə)nt | adj. – combative and aggressive in support of a political or social cause, and typically favoring extreme, violent, or confrontational methods.
There is nothing inherent in its definition that speaks to authenticity nor virtue.
As eloquent author, former presidential speechwriter (and Intramuralist favorite) Peggy Noonan recently wrote, regardless of any articulated call for equity or justice, when militance is invoked, what’s on display is not authenticity; it’s a desire for dominance…we know what is good and right and true and you don’t. You thus need to think like me…There is a self-assumed posture that is ready and eager to fight.
And let’s face it; when we’re in a posture ready and eager to fight, that means we’re also prone to be defensive… to take someone on at the earliest perceived infringement. That means our listening skills are nullified. Our sense of reason is off. And the idea of loving our neighbor as ourself is a nice sounding idea more apt to be thrown out the nearest window. We’re selective in who that so-called neighbor actually is.
Hence, militance in our views is a weakness that unknowingly obscures wisdom.
I read a scary op-ed in The Free Press this week (a news source that has provided especially keen and thoughtful insight in the current situation in the Middle East). It was written by contributor Julia Steinberg, and entitled “Why My Generation Hates Jews.”
Steinberg is 21 years old, a junior at Stanford, and Jewish. (Read the entire piece HERE.) She talks about the lack of diverse thought encouraged and taught to her generation (at far more than Stanford… although tangent note: it’s fascinating to read the lengthy list of anti-Israel demands included on a circulating petition by Stanford Palestinian activists; “demand” is a kind word).
Steinberg speaks of how her generation has been taught to “worship” identity categories and “the distinction of oppressor/oppressed.” “The oppressor is always wrong, and the oppressed are always right. Since high school, we’ve been trained to identify and slot people based on their identities alone.”
Granted, this is only the perspective on one member of Gen Z, but it’s hard to ignore her insights, especially with the amount of support for the hatred and terrorism of Hamas seen on the college campus — and somehow not viewed as hatred and terrorism.
“The cheering of Hamas among people my age on college campuses in the U.S. might seem shocking to older people. But it doesn’t shock me. For most of my peers, social issues are unanimous.”
Note the unanimous response to social issues — the lack of individual thinking. That eerily sounds way too close to one’s listening skills being nullified, sense of reason being off, and the idea of loving your neighbor as ourself as yes, thrown out that nearest window.
Sadly, as you read through Steinberg’s account, she says it a little bolder:
“It’s cool to promote hate.”
Sit with that for a moment. The actual promotion of hate.
That militance, friends, is scary.
The Intramuralist has always supported the right for every person to believe what they believe. Indeed; none of us are someone else’s Holy Spirit. But we also simultaneously advocate for the wise act of always being open to learning more, realizing places where we may have knowingly or unknowingly allowed judgment, arrogance or foolishness to creep into our perspective. Judgment, arrogance and foolishness pave the way for hate — and for constructing that window that allows for the throwing out of loving our neighbor well.
Yes, this is scary, far scarier than any Tuesday.
Respectfully…
AR