Jews

Tatyana recently accused me of being anti-Semitic. I did not intend to be, and I don't think I am, but who knows? Maybe I am, but I just don't know it.

The whole Jewish thing is pretty weird. I mean, I don't think I even know any Jews. OK, there is one guy who comes to our Thursday lunches, but then we are a motley crew. But other than that, I don't know. I don't inquire as to people's religion. They could Papists, or Moslems, or, gasp, even Presbyterians, and I wouldn't know. But religion gets talked about a lot, and the topic of Jews seems to come up more often than others.

So the whole "persecution of the Jews" thing is kind of a mystery to me. How could you persecute the Jews if you don't even know who they are? That right there I think is the core of the issue. Seems like Jews set themselves apart. Mormons do the same sort of thing. If you do business with them during the week, you might never notice, but if you engage them socially you run into all kinds of little things, like special food, special times and special days.

By setting themselves apart, whenever things go bad, the pack is going to turn on the minority who are different. So I guess I can see why they would want their own country, someplace where they can be the pack. I suppose it's another form of tribalism, and for some reason their tribal ties are very strong. Indoctrinated since they were little, I suppose. I'm a member of the big, wide, sort-of-a-Christian majority tribe so I am not feeling especially persecuted. If I had been born and raised in a Moslem country, I would probably be a member of the big, wide, sort-of-a-Muslim majority tribe. Conventional religion doesn't really mean much to me.

Maybe I'm a coward, just engaging in protective camouflage. You know, don't draw attention to yourself. These religions that set themselves apart, like the Jews and the Mormons, the are probably a stronger force because of it. They band together against attacks by outside world. Such attacks only serve to reinforce their belief that they are special. Me, I am having a hard time figuring out where to draw the line.