Yiftach Ofek

Hebrew Agrarian | Looking for a path out of modernity | My wife approves of my politics but only some of my jokes | Teaches @ShalemCollege | Opinions my own

[Yiftach Ofek @yo101]

My contribution to the political ideologies debate, inspired by recent posts by @TheWorthyHouse and NS Lyons.

With special attention to Philip Rieff, I claim:
1. Western political thought was always concerned with the relationship between individual and communal well-being.

[Buchanan Brigade @BuchananEndH1B]

In Allan Bloom's Giants and Dwarves he had some very thoughtful musings on this subject, and in Closing of the American Mind, too. Bloom clearly felt the German technocratic and managerial system of hyperspecializing didn't do our character and favors. And our lovely English system on Dons and walks and broad learning was doomed.

"The modern university was that great folly of an attempt to establish a center for reflection and education independent of the regime and the pervasive influence of its principles, free of the overwhelming effect of public opinion in its crude and subtle forms... It was to be an independent island within civil society, the sovereign Republic of Letters."

[Michael S. Kochin 🗑️ מיכאל קוצ'ין @mskochin]

מקרב אחיך תשים עליך מלך

[Yiftach Ofek @yo101]

@mskochin Fair points. It may be an unfortunate word choice on my part. Would “function” work better?

[Yiftach Ofek @yo101]

I agree, unironically. Academic life should be dedicated to preserving the True, the Good, and the Beautiful - not to the “production of knowledge,” let alone “engagement.” But this cannot work in a market economy or a mass democracy.

[Zena Hitz @zenahitz]

Obviously academic life should be more monastic. Free room and board, provisions for health care, that's it. <ducks>

[Yiftach Ofek @yo101]

@DonBreslauer26 Very well phrased.

[שגיא ברמק Sagi Barmak @SagiBarmak]

יהודים חיו וחיים כמיעוט לאומי בעשרות מדינות, לרבות כאלה שרדפו אותם, גירשו אותם ואף טבחו בהם. ההמנונים של המדינות הללו אינם מזכירים את היהודים, אינם מבטאים את זהותם ואינם מספרים את סיפורם. חלקם מהללים במפורש את הנצרות, את אבות האומה, את דמה ואת מורשתה ההיסטורית.

ובכל זאת, יהודים לא ראו בכך עילה עקרונית לסרב לכבד את המנון המדינה שבה הם אזרחים. הם הבינו שאפשר לכבד את סמליה הלאומיים של מדינה גם אם לא מזדהים עם כל מילה בהם, וששוויון אזרחי אינו מחייב בשום אופן מחיקה של זהות הרוב הלאומי או שכתוב של ההמנון.

רק אצלנו נמצאים יהודים "נאורים" מתאמצים להצדיק גסות רוח וזלזול מופגן בשם העובדה שההמנון מבטא את סיפורו של העם היהודי. במקום לדרוש כבוד בסיסי לסמליה של המדינה, מתרצים בדלנות לאומית פלסטינית ומציגים אותה כרגישות אזרחית. בדיחה.

[Yiftach Ofek @yo101]

Does anyone else here simply find this beautiful?

[apollo @apollophanes]

Ancient Roman music is the most unsettling shit I’ve ever heard in my life

[Ruskin Society @ruskinsociety]

📖
“As long as men sought for truth first, and beauty secondarily…”
— John Ruskin, Modern Painters.
🎨Near Interlaken, 1870.

For #Ruskin, art should reveal truth, not simply pursue ideal beauty.
Can beauty and truth ever be separated?
#ModernPainters #RuskinReadingGroup

[Yiftach Ofek @yo101]

@cognazor I am sorry for your loss. What a beautiful story.

[Yiftach Ofek @yo101]

I don't think I would enjoy that...

[Crémieux @cremieuxrecueil]

This restaurant gives you a picture of the animal you're eating when they bring each course out.

[Yiftach Ofek @yo101]

@booksoftitans What music do you feel is most conducive to reflective thought and active reading?

[Yiftach Ofek @yo101]

This does not upset me.

More than any other political figure of our time, Trump understood from Day One that the traditional distinction between polemos and stasis - foreign war and civil strife - has broken down, or at least became very blurry in this late liberal era of ours.

This hatred for those leader-products of the "system" - those who simultaneously controlled and manipulated it against large segments of the population (and Trump himself) - was precisely what made him such an inspiring figure for so many of my generation, and why he will be remembered, to quote Kissinger, as "one of those figures in history who appears from time to time to mark the end of an era and to force it to give up its pretenses."

My two complaints are: first, that he did not pursue his hatred far enough. Trump was too forgiving, too eager for the approval of those who set out to destroy him and his agenda.

Second, that he himself was far from innocent. As becomes clear in another part of this interview, his own corruption in many ways undid the great movement he championed and for which he was elected.

Still, it is not up to me to judge him in the eyes of God.

[Eric Daugherty @EricLDaugh]

🚨 Q: You're entering the next life [before God], all you have to do to enter paradise is feel love and forgiveness for James Comey, Nancy Pelosi, etc...can you do it?

TRUMP: Then I wouldn't be real, would I? The easy answer is, yes, I could forgive. They are extremely dishonest people, bad people, I love our country far more...the answer is no. I want to be honest.

Q: In judgement before God?

TRUMP: I do hate some of my enemies. Look what they put me through.

REPORTER: You had the most charmed and remarkable life of any American in my entire lifetime, and you can't find it in your heart to forgive some of your enemies?

TRUMP: All I have to do is say yes, I can. Can I be honest? I probably cannot do that. Because I do hate some of my enemies — and I always will.

Never heard Trump get asked such a deep question like that before.

He COULD just say "yes" and get out of the question, but he didn't

One thing you have to admit is this man is brutally honest.

[Yiftach Ofek @yo101]

@zriboua Wow! Congratulations!

[Yiftach Ofek @yo101]

@WilliamWolfe Best reply I’ve seen:

https://t.co/VZF2ZqDuqs

[Melissa the Hopeful🏠Homemaker @BiblicalBeauty]

Only if you ignore the fact that God did in fact die on a hill as a biological male.

[Yiftach Ofek @yo101]

Did the German Chancellor just find a way to promote remigration without upsetting the liberal base? 🤔

[BRICS News @BRICSinfo]

JUST IN: 🇩🇪 German Chancellor Merz says Muslims who reject Germany's historical responsibility for the Holocaust cannot stay in the country.

[Yiftach Ofek @yo101]

@doronbloch הרצוג לובש עניבה עם בוי ג׳ורג׳ אבל לא רה״מ ורה״מ בפוטנציה? בחירה מעניינת.

[Yiftach Ofek @yo101]

@VaubanBooks Yes! Do more literary takes in general

[Yiftach Ofek @yo101]

I'm sorry, was this supposed to be an insult?

[Mark R. Levin @marklevinshow]

The Woke Right or New Right are nothing more than old-time Buchananites with foreign op influence.

[Yiftach Ofek @yo101]

Clearly Mr. Klein has not visited a Religion Department or Divinity School in any of the top universities in many years.

[Ezra Klein @ezraklein]

One of the more exciting parts of this election - among many - is the return of a religious left.