The Bloody Hands of Progressive Philosophy
Over the weekend, a 69-year-old Jewish man was killed at the corner of Westlake and Thousand Oaks Boulevard. He was demonstrating for Israel, there was an altercation with a protestor for Palestine, the altercation escalated, and the protestor hit the man in the head with his megaphone, which ultimately resulted in the 69-year-old’s death.
What is most surprising about this killing is its location: Thousand Oaks, CA. Thousand Oaks, for those unfamiliar with the region, is a sleepy, well-off, suburban town with wide lots and wider avenues. It’s boring. It’s one of the most boring places in the universe. It’s like if a country club had a mayor and a police department.
It’s not a particularly Jewish neighborhood, and it’s not a particularly Muslim neighborhood either. It is, in the mind of most people familiar with it, a goyish white suburb.
So how did someone there end up dead?
Now, before I can go further, I must disclose – I have a personal relationship with Thousand Oaks – my dentist works out there. And, strangely enough, I had a teeth cleaning last Friday. Two days before Paul Kessler died.
This particular teeth cleaning began quite well. After many weeks of Jewish anxiety, I felt very calm to be in the presence of my extremely non-Jewish dental hygienist. Just knowing that she could have been completely oblivious to everything happening to my people was actually a relief, an escape.
But then, tragedy. She took the hooks out of my mouth and started telling me that she had taken her daughter to the mall and there, at the mall, was a substantially loud Palestinian protest. Her daughter, of course, asked her what they were protesting about. And she really didn’t know what to tell her.
So, of course, she asked me. Because if there is one thing I love more than going to the dentist, it’s going to the dentist and giving an abbreviated lecture on the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
I felt uneasy leaving her chair last Friday. I felt uneasy because, somewhere in my bones, I was unnerved that these protests had spread out as far as Thousand Oaks. We are talking about an area whose largest and most prominent cultural center is the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. If the protests could spread to the conservative enclave of Thousand Oaks, then they could spread anywhere. And everywhere.
I was not shocked to hear that a Jewish man had died at the hands of an antizionist protestor – anyone watching the news knew that it was only a matter of time – I was shocked that it happened in Thousand Oaks.
But this is the historical nature of unbridled progressive philosophy. And decolonization is an unbridled progressive philosophy.
What I mean by “progressive philosophy” is a philosophy which seeks to progress humanity towards its ultimate liberation. What that ultimate liberation is will be defined by the philosopher. The most obvious example of a progressive philosophy is marxism, a philosophical movement which seeks to liberate man from the chains of capitalism through global and perhaps perpetual revolution, but there are others. Most notably are the French Revolution with its proto-marxist vision for humanity, and Aryan Antisemitism, which sought to liberate mankind from the servitude imposed on it by its Jewish oppressors.
Decolonization, a philosophy which posits that all of the ‘colonized’ people of the world must liberate themselves from the oppression of the ‘colonizer’ by any means necessary, is no different.
What these philosophies all have in common is a totalitarian vision of the future – anything short of ‘total’ liberation is unacceptable.
The drive for total liberation, then, cannot be stopped or slowed for anything, especially dissent. This explains why progressive theologians often find themselves embroiled in civil war – they each have their own vision of what true liberation looks like, and the other guy’s vision, well the other guy’s vision is just plain stupid.
Well, I shouldn’t say that – it isn’t just stupid; it’s dangerous. It’s dangerous because that person’s ideas can hurt your ability to achieve the true liberation of the world. And, if they succeed in their subterfuge, then the world will continue to be enslaved by its ruling powers for perpetuity.
For progressive philosophy, the stakes are quite high.
That’s why it becomes necessary to free Palestine in Thousand Oaks. That’s why it becomes necessary for Palestine to be free from the river to the sea, it doesn’t matter which river, it doesn’t matter which sea. Because, once you start to see things clearly, you’ll recognize that, Palestine isn’t just an occupied country in the Middle East; Palestine is the whole world. And Palestine must be free, from every river, to every sea, because, if even one square inch of earthly-palestine were left unfree, then none of us, none of us, would be free.
Of course, the funniest-not-so-funny part about this, is that the people in Thousand Oaks who might be saying these things aren’t joking. The people in Harvard Yard aren’t joking. The law students at Yale Law aren’t joking.
Which is sad, because it’s actually a pretty good joke. It’s actually a pretty good joke to be a rich, American, ivy-league graduate, with a summer home or two, and go marching up and down the streets calling for a global jihad before catching the evening train to the Hamptons. That would be funny.
What’s not funny is that these people don’t get it, and they don’t get it because they don’t know their history. And they don’t know their history because you can graduate from any college in America without knowing why the French Revolution became so damned bloody.
The history of progressive philosophy is the bloodiest history in the world besides the history of religion. There is a reason for that.
The French Revolution brought political violence to a scale Europe had never seen before, not even during the 30 Years War. Moreover, the subsequent wars would be 10 times bloodier and more violent than any wars that preceded them.
The Russian Revolution would bring 30 million dissidents to their untimely deaths, and countless others to the gulag. Luckily, though, it was all in the name of global communism. Comrade Stalin is said to have cracked almost 3000 of those eggs himself. The people are still waiting on their omelet.
Of all the great progressive movements, though, Aryan Antisemitism was the most successful. Of all the great progressives, it was only the Nazis who actually brought their progressive revolution to the world in earnest. Adolf Hitler was direct about who the enemy of humanity was – the Jews. He would wage a war across Europe to exterminate them and liberate the world. And let’s not forget how popular his philosophy was.
Sadly, I do not believe Paul Kessler will be the only victim of these progressive philosophers. They are calling for nothing short of decolonization of the whole world, and Thousand Oaks is just the beginning.
It is perhaps the saddest and most profound historical irony that the people who philosophize so poetically about the liberation of human life are so often its greatest enslavers.
The good news is that there is still one progressive philosophy out there that does not have a historical penchant for violence, and that is religious Judaism. Religious Judaism is a philosophy that seeks the ultimate liberation of man through the coming of the Messiah. Who, consequently, will not come until we start treating each other the way that we would like ourselves to be treated ourselves. And if there are any real zealots who would like to try to liberate humanity sooner rather than later, they can always go out into the world and treat others with kindness, show respect to their elders, and give charity to those in need. And if your blood is really boiling to end humanity’s suffering, you can try to stop gossipping about other people.
According to the Jewish progressive philosophers, the only way to achieve a global revolution and end human suffering is if each individual person has a personal revolution within themselves to end the human suffering that they see. This is why Rabbi Hillel’s tells us:
“That which is hateful to you, do not do unto others.”
If we know what we hate, and I mean what we actually hate not what we think we hate, and we make a covenant with ourselves and the universe not to perpetuate that hateful thing, then we will make our life a life that limits the hateful things in the world and does not increase them.
The progressive philosophers will tell you that no one can be truly happy until the “Chains of _________ism” are overthrown. However, as I have gotten older, I have learned a valuable lesson: do not take advice from unhappy people. If they are unhappy with their life in general, they shouldn’t really be giving advice about anything in specific.
Luckily for the Jews, this is not our first rodeo. Where is Robespierre? Where is Stalin? Where is Hitler? I know Reuben. I know Stein. I know Hertzl.
If you like this or any or my other writing, please consider upgrading to a paid subscription so you can join the discussion in the comments.