Continuing to focus on our individual efforts with the Jewish concepts of social justice, today we followed up on our discussion from last week in terms of how we might deal with people who hold different views, presumptions, and biases. Rather than labeling each other as racists, or homophobes, or conservatives, or liberals, the students all feel it's important to talk with their fellow students, friends, or acquaintances.
We discussed the concept of being a stranger in a strange land, not only for the recent immigration issues, but for context on Jewish history in the Arabic and European countries, which persisted since the time of Joseph and Moses. We also discussed the concept of L'dor v'dor and how each generation must reckon with its own understanding, responses, and responsibilities.
We discussed viewpoint, how essential it is to understand where someone is coming from, as best we can. The issues, the background, the beliefs. I introduced the great line by St. Francis of Assisi: "Seek first to understand, then to be understood."
Dara brought up a memoir she just read about the difficulty the author's parent's had in putting food on the table, and how she and her brother suffered through this, but as adults, learned that it was not difficult to do, overcoming their painful childhood experences.
Evie discussed the anti-chief protesters, the interaction, and the idea that they were near each other, and as long as they remained non-violent they shared the same space and at least engaged.
Ilana talked about how acknowledging viewpoints are essential in our understanding of one another.
Daniel talked about the importance of allowing free speech, to be heard out, whether one protests, chants, or simply listens.
Helen made the point that at some points violence may become necessary as actions as against the institutionalized violence against the people.
We then watched a TED talk: Can A Divided America Heal
How can the US recover after the negative, partisan presidential election of 2016? Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt studies the morals that form the basis of our political choices. In conversation with TED Curator Chris Anderson, he describes the patterns of thinking and historical causes that have led to such sharp divisions in America -- and provides a vision for how the country might move forward.
We watched the presentation and focused on the need to find other ways to speak to one another, specifically since many people choose to live and socialize with those whose views only mirror our own. His point was that this leads to more extremes on all sides.
https://www.ted.com/talks/
https://www.ted.com/talks/
https://www.ted.com/talks/
We then discussed the text from the transcript further below from the TED talk: How We Can Face The Future Without Fear Together
It's a fateful moment in history. We've seen divisive elections, divided societies and the growth of extremism -- all fueled by anxiety and uncertainty. "Is there something we can do, each of us, to be able to face the future without fear?" asks Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks. In this electrifying talk, the spiritual leader gives us three specific ways we can move from the politics of "me" to the politics of "all of us, together."
We focused on the idea of the individual, the group, the way we identify with ethnic, religious, and political ideologies, and the concept of the larger sense of community, as in "We, the people". We talked about ways to interact with others who have different views, while still finding connections, in the midst of our Jewish ethics and concepts of social justice and Tikkun Olam.
https://www.ted.com/talks/
https://www.ted.com/talks/
TRANSCRIPT PORTION for discussion:
I tell you, Jews have been scattered and dispersed and exiled for 2,000 years. We never lost our identity. Why? Because at least once a year, on the festival of Passover, we told our story and we taught it to our children and we ate the unleavened bread of affliction and tasted the bitter herbs of slavery. So we never lost our identity. I think collectively we've got to get back to telling our story, who we are, where we came from, what ideals by which we live. And if that happens, we will become strong enough to welcome the stranger and say, "Come and share our lives, share our stories, share our aspirations and dreams." That is the us of identity.
And finally, the us of responsibility. Do you know something? My favorite phrase in all of politics, very American phrase, is: "We the people." Why "we the people?" Because it says that we all share collective responsibility for our collective future. And that's how things really are and should be.
Have you noticed how magical thinking has taken over our politics? So we say, all you've got to do is elect this strong leader and he or she will solve all our problems for us. Believe me, that is magical thinking. And then we get the extremes: the far right, the far left, the extreme religious and the extreme anti-religious, the far right dreaming of a golden age that never was, the far left dreaming of a utopia that never will be and the religious and anti-religious equally convinced that all it takes is God or the absence of God to save us from ourselves. That, too, is magical thinking, because the only people who will save us from ourselves is we the people, all of us together. And when we do that, and when we move from the politics of me to the politics of all of us together, we rediscover those beautiful, counterintuitive truths: that a nation is strong when it cares for the weak, that it becomes rich when it cares for the poor, it becomes invulnerable when it cares about the vulnerable. That is what makes great nations.
So here is my simple suggestion. It might just change your life, and it might just help to begin to change the world. Do a search and replace operation on the text of your mind, and wherever you encounter the word "self," substitute the word "other." So instead of self-help, other-help; instead of self-esteem, other-esteem.
And if you do that, you will begin to feel the power of what for me is one of the most moving sentences in all of religious literature. "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me." We can face any future without fear so long as we know we will not face it alone.
So for the sake of the future "you," together let us strengthen the future "us."
