Opinion

August 2, 2011

Dennis Prager: First fight yourself, then society

The Torah: Part V

By Dennis Prager

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The Case for the Torah: Part I / Part II / Part III / Part IV / Part V

Some 20 years ago, I was putting my older son, then about 8 years old, to bed and asked him what he learned that day in school. Normally he would answer, as boys usually do, “Nothing.” But that night, he had an answer.

“I learned I have a yetzer hara,” he told me. As a student at a religious Jewish school, he was using the Hebrew term for the desire to do what is wrong. It is basic Jewish theology that the human being has two innate drives — one for good (yetzer hatov) and one for bad (yetzer hara) — and that we have to battle our yetzer hara throughout life.

This is a significant way in which the Torah’s value system differs from that of the dominant secular and liberal value system. The latter’s primary emphasis is on battling society — to promote “social justice” — not on battling the self.

Of course, the Torah also seeks to create a just society. But that is not the same as what the left refers to as “social justice.” While justice is central to the Torah, there is no term “social justice.” In the Torah and the Prophets, there is only “justice” (tzedek or tzedakah). When you add a modifier to “justice,” you modify its meaning — deliberately, because you obviously find the term “justice” insufficient.

“Social justice” usually means social equality, which is not the same as justice. And it means, more than anything, using the state to redistribute wealth so that equality can be achieved. That, too, is not the same as justice.

Moreover, placing social equality above other values has led to terrible moral distortions.

While I suspect that few liberal readers of this column have expressed affection for Fidel Castro, many of the most prominent liberal leaders of the last 50 years have. Norman Mailer, the members of the Congressional Black Caucus, Robert Redford, Ted Turner, Steven Spielberg and Jesse Jackson, among many others, have visited Cuba and spoken glowingly of Castro. Why? Because, though he was a totalitarian tyrant, though there is no freedom in Cuba and though he destroyed that country’s economy, Castro advocated social equality.

Similarly, by valuing social justice over personal integrity, the most prominent American artist of the second half of the 20th century, Leonard Bernstein, and almost every leading cultural figure in New York City felt morally progressive in hosting fundraisers in their homes for the Black Panthers. That the Panthers were a violent group of racists who announced — at these very fundraisers — that killing “pigs,” their term for police, was noble in no way disturbed Bernstein and his friends. What mattered was their social justice ideal of opposing white racism.

This preoccupation with equality and fairness over justice is also why the left believes that courts should be far more than umpires of justice: They believe the courts should promote equality and fairness.

The Torah has a different view of the role of courts. “Do not favor the poor in judgment” is a Torah law — because courts are not set up to promote fairness and equality, but only to administer justice. In our personal lives, we should all promote fairness, but the moment that becomes the goal of courts, justice becomes, in the Torah’s description, “perverted.”

Judaism believes that the road to a just society is paved by individual character development. The greatest difference between my yeshiva education and secular education since the 1960s is that I was taught the biggest moral challenge in my life was ... me. To make a better world, first I had to fight my flawed nature, not American society. Young people receiving an education rooted in liberal-left values — which means virtually all education today, from elementary school through graduate school — are taught that to be a good person they have to fight American society with its alleged rampant racism, sexism, homophobia, bigotry, xenophobia and despoilment of the environment.

The results of teaching tikkun olam (repairing the world) before tikkun atzmi (repairing the self) are sadly apparent. More young people cheat on tests than ever before, more steal, more show disrespect to parents and teachers, fewer think marriage is an ideal to aspire to, and so on. The State of Maryland has just passed a law that in order to receive a high school diploma, students must be proficient in environmentalism. I suspect almost none of Maryland’s high school students will graduate with the ability to name the Ten Commandments. But they will be able to cite 10 advantages of wind power.

Let me state, as I do in every column on political/social subjects, that I readily acknowledge that there are wonderful individuals with liberal-left values, and that there are awful religious and conservative individuals who have made little effort to repair their characters. But American society will not be repaired if people are taught to fight American society rather than themselves. On the contrary, it will become a worse society.

A version of this article appeared in print.

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Dennis has just set the landspeed record for lambasting and laying the world’s woes at the feet of those “liberal/secular/leftists”, accomplishing it by the third paragraph of his bimonthly essay. The hate for anyone or anything that does not agree with Dennis is obviously becoming infectiously consuming, as he usually waits till the end of his screeds to insert, no matter awkwardly or inapproriate, his animus to the troika that is responsible for the fall of the modern garden of Eden: the liberals, secualarists and leftists.

Comment by marc rogers on 8/04/11 at 8:59 am

Dennis again tries to paint a multicolored world with a black-and-white brush.

Working on oneself and working on the world are not mutually exclusive,as one is constantly effected and effects the other. Whether that world is a family, a community, a city or a nation, life is not about Dennis’s self-aggrandizing either/or approach but mutually cooperative and/ both approach.

Comment by marc rogers on 8/04/11 at 9:07 am

Facts for Shooter, a Dennis acolyte who himself eschews facts:

Social science has demonstrably proven that working on oneself while not working within and simultaneous with the larger world, be it the home or the community, produces individuals severely lacking in empathy. And when individuals lack empathy, crimes, murders and yes Holocausts, can ultimately result.

Comment by marc rogers on 8/04/11 at 9:21 am

Fact: Social science has proven that the survival of our families, communities, cities and nation, is predicated on acts of altruism, where self-sacrifice for others leads to the survival of one’s family, community or nation.

Fact: Social science has proved that individuals who give rather than take to others, have the highest self-reported degrees of happiness.

Comment by marc rogers on 8/04/11 at 9:27 am

And finally, history, economics and political science, have shown, that behavior that is pursued independent and not simultaneous with the larger society, leads to recessions and depressions.

Thus pursing Dennis’s individualistic philosophy across the board, rains havoc, destitution and literally death upon mankind and the natural world.

Enough facts for you Shooter?

Comment by marc rogers on 8/04/11 at 9:32 am

Marc, I certainly hope the Lord shines on you today and blesses your life by speaking to your heart.

Comment by Jay on 8/05/11 at 6:44 am

Thank you Jay for your kind words. I honestly and sincerely believe, through research and professional experience, that Dennis’s hectoring and antipathy to liberals and his myopic embrace of the I over the We, has resulted in a world tettering on the edge of fiscal and interpersonal destitution.

Comment by marc rogers on 8/05/11 at 9:27 am

marc rogers dissonance is of such magnitude he fails to recognize the irony in Jay’s
blessing. Am reminded of the admonition “physician-heal thyself.  Aunty Mame

Comment by Mr. Againster on 8/06/11 at 8:41 am

There is NO dissonanace at all- I got Jay’s message completely. And I speak the truth regarding Prager’s diatribic screeds dissembling as the TRUth.

I thanked Jay for his intentions, and unlike you, I will follow my conscience no matter how many or how much miscomprehension I receive.

My values and morals are not at the whim and caprice of the commonweal.

Comment by marc rogers on 8/06/11 at 8:52 am

marc

might be a tough chore. have you noticed that seven of the nine above entries-yours?

aunty mame

Comment by Mr. Againster on 8/06/11 at 11:05 am

marc

as a self-identified purveyor of “truth” perhaps you will find the following NY Times article enlightening….if not persuasive

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/08/science/08tier.html

auntie mame

Comment by Mr. Againster on 8/06/11 at 11:14 am

Unlike you Mr.Againster, I am willing to fight the self-aggrandizing behavior and philosophy that Dennis espouses.

His way of thinking, self first, last and always, ahs resulted in national recessions and depressions throughout history.

I know Dr Haidt’s materials - maybe you need to read all his research instead of one article.

Comment by marc rogers on 8/06/11 at 11:33 am

And I would love to debate you and your ilk anytime, anywhere, where you cannot throw unsubstantiated written barbs behind the anonymous comment section.

You are free to pick the questions and the judges.

Comment by marc rogers on 8/06/11 at 11:36 am

marc,

your largesse and affection notwithstanding,  i will not endorse any debate that might include me as a participant. conversely my ilk can wipe the floor with you. further, kindly point out where my text includes “unsubstantiated written barbs” unless perhaps,  you find the word “truth”  a weapon. based upon your persistent Prager-prattling, you appear the barbmeister here. aunty mame (in 700 character limit)

Comment by Mr. Againster on 8/06/11 at 12:16 pm

Just like you, to claim your ilk can wipe the floor with me but when given the chance, you turn, run and reject.

If you are so sure of your truth and beliefs, I proffered you an opportunity and gave you the upper hand by picking the topics and the judges.

And I will keep up my Dennis “prattling,’’ because as Thomas Paine said: moderation in principle is always a vice and attempting to debate a person who has abandoned reason is like giving medicine to the dead.

Comment by marc rogers on 8/06/11 at 9:03 pm

If you do want to debate, in person, then I will not debate you by hiding behind your cyber wall.

Talk really is cheap, and your absence of actions, like Prager’s, have cost the country dearly.

Patriotism really is the last bastion of scoundrels, and need I say more?

You may have the last craven words. Be my guest.

Comment by marc rogers on 8/06/11 at 9:09 pm

marc, have you enjoyed a good laugh lately, much more at your expense?

“Shooter’s” zapped,  you missed “Jay’s” prayer and this old aunty’s wearin’ down.
everyone else is long gone…and cares less

wanna be more than a spec of energy on a weekly rag’s web frame? aunty mame

Comment by Mr. Againster on 8/07/11 at 2:54 pm

To quote FDR about conservatives and their minions:They are unanimous in their hate for me _ and I welcome their hatred.

I will never waer down in what is right and caring less is what enabled the country to get into its current( and recurring ) crisis.

Comment by marc rogers on 8/07/11 at 9:14 pm

I find it amazing how much vitriol over anything moral and decent coming from Mr. Prager.  But not unexpected in ole liberal LA.  Just trying to make oneself a better person causes so much anger on the left?

Comment by Rich on 8/20/11 at 5:07 pm

I know there are some decent lib Dems who also hate your guts Mark, just no enough of them.  You are nothing like the great JFK.  See Mark, you thought I was some ultra-right nut.  Joe Lieberman is a great man.  Zell Miller.  Just a few good Dems.

Comment by Rich on 8/23/11 at 7:22 pm

Your ignorance is showing-again.

Lieberman is an independent and Miller became a conservative in Democratic clothing.

And you are wrong about the liberal democrats hating my guts- the progressive democrats speak to me all the time.

And you still have not answered my challenge for an open mike debate without the anonymity of the internet.

Keep on submitting comments, however, as I can show my command of the facts while you reveal the absence of yours.

And you still avoid my public challenge to a debate.

Comment by marc rogers on 8/23/11 at 8:32 pm

Why will you not answer my challenge for an open mike debate?

I will stand on the facts that you accuse me of not having- but you have yet to submit a fact.

The Internet is a blessing and a bane- it allows boorish flamethrowers like you to hide while professing to be knowledgeable but in reality, only exhibiting your abysmal ignorance and waterbug scurrying when the factual light is shown in your direction.

Comment by marc rogers on 8/23/11 at 8:38 pm

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