Emotion and Thought

[debka_notion]

At lunch today, I joined one of my Hebrew classmates and a few other folks for what I expected to be a nice, quite lunch- well, not quiet, exactly, but fun. In Hebrew class, we'd discussed the bombing in Jerusalem today, and then went on to work on our current topics: verb review and the army. So my classmate (Steve, of course) was visibly upset when we got to lunch. So I was trying ot listen and be helpful. She was upset about the attack, and about how we'd then proceeded to have a regular class: the verb review was what she mentioned. She then complained that all we talked about was the army (that's our current topic for new vocab, so it makes sense), and that she couldn't deal with it. I can sympathize- if it wasn't for needed the vocab, considering that society, I'm not a big fan of military stuff in general. However, she started talking about how Israel had to do something, and retaliate. ANd then she pointed out that people on campus have signs that say "We have to protext our Muslim neighbors". I pointed out that this was true: just because someone shares a religion with a criminal doesn't mean that they're guilty for the other person's crimes. I added that I don't believe in killing innocent people to get back at someone who committed an atrocity. AFter that, the guy sitting next to her burst out, near-screaming that I shouldn't be talking about politics when people have just died. He follows that with "GO away. Get out. Just get out." So I got up to leave, although I didn't. I was pretty upset- I don't think I was out of place to make that point. People are people, regardless of their religion. So this guy then sort of sulks and cries (not that I have a problem with crying: I admire that he was comfortable doing so in the open- usually I huddle into a little ball, of sorts), but won't talk about it. Later he commented that his friend works at the hospital at one end of the bus line that was bombed, but what set him off again was that there were doctors on the bus. I'm not sure what makes doctors better than the rest of humanity: they do something important, and useful, and we'd live a lot shorter time without them- but they're not gods. We wouldn't live too long in this society without farmers, either- I certainly don't have room near my dorm to grow enough food to feed myself. But htis is getting off topic. My problem is how much hate people have. I don't understand how people equate terrorists with the rest of the people who happen to share the general category of religion with them. I don't endorse what the guy who killed Rabin did, but I'm Jewish. It's one of my worries about Brandeis- there are some places where this campus is really blind to other peoples' humanity.

Comments

[shirei-shibolim.livejournal.com]

That sounds . . . well, really difficult. You didn't deserve to be yelled at.

I don't think Brandeis in particular is lacking in its ability to see others' humanity. It's an unfortunate trait, maybe even a kind of primitive survival instinct, that most humans seem to have on some level. Brandeis tends to look strange because it's a diverse community with a very large Jewish component, and I think there are a lot of Jews who don't handle that gracefully. They want either a ghetto or a society in which they are the repressed minority, and Brandeis provides neither.

Re:

[fleurdelis28.livejournal.com]

I've also noticed that in general whenever people sit around talking about one thing to people who agree with them for too long, no matter how intelligent and considered they are, in time things get weird. In Brandeis this seems to happen a lot with Judaism and Israel -- it's so great to be surrounded by people who share your interests and perspectives that you get wrapped up in the threads and end up seeing the world solely through that lens, and losing track of how anyone else could reasonably disagree. Which can get pretty scary even when the fundamental ideas involved are not unreasonable. No matter what you think about the absoluteness or relativity of morality, the world's a bigger place than that.

Re:

[fleurdelis28.livejournal.com]

Also...Brandeis is quite diverse, but the extent to which you experience it depends a huge amount on which classes you take and which activities you participate in. It's possible to miss if you hang out largely in your own community, and in certain departments. I remember watching the Asian Awareness Week closing ceremonies last year with a friend, a science major, who was scanning the packed atrium and realizing he knew almost everyone there. I barely recognized _anyone_, which considerably weirded me out. I certainly didn't look to end up in an ethnic social niche at college -- anything but; that was one of my concerns about going to Brandeis in the first place -- but when I wasn't looking it seemed to have happened anyway.

Re:

[debka-notion.livejournal.com]

I understand that. I guess I should have been more specific, but I was on the frustrated and upset side of the spectrum when I wrote that. It astounds me that a Jewish community, that has so much of a history of being scapegoats, can forget so easily that we're not the only ones who sometimes suffer for other people's stupidity. But I'm preaching to the choir here. It really does remind me how insular some of the people I know are. AS far as activities go- how Did BORG end up with such a large observant population, and almost entirely Jewish?