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5th April, 2021

Thoughts on Cancel Culture
By Jonathan Bluestein


Cancel Culture is a form of religious dogma, characteristic of immature individuals. An adult is a person who can contain competing ideas in his sphere, and live with them peacefully. A child's mind, whose mannerisms are simplistic, must follow a singular agenda in order to keep itself coherent and functional. In this fashion, Cancel Culture is also a indicative of ignorance, because it reflects inclinations of people who have not been sufficiently exposed to the habits and beliefs of other human beings, to recognize that they too have value.

As my friend Prof. Dario Nardi had wisely commented, the literal verbal meaning of Cancel Culture is: "To cancel a culture". This points to an attempt to annihilate a sense of Culture in a society. This is, in other words, an attempt to undo the collective effort and achievements of many generations; to destroy what gives people hope, inspiration and a sense of shared destiny and unity. I would certainly not be the first to suggest, that wherein a country's enemies wanted to obliterate it from within, then Cancel Culture would have been a successful 'weapon of mass-destruction'. As a matter of fact, there is a famous KGB agent who claims that this is exactly what the Russians have been doing to the United States:
https://youtu.be/Y9TviIuXPSE

In Judaism, since thousands of years ago, there has been a tradition of preserving minority opinions. Not only were such opinions preserved, but also put into writing, next to the majority opinions. It was understood, that what was once thought to be a mistake, an error or a stupid idea, might in a few dozen or hundred years, become the dominant point of view - either because the majority were wrong, or due to changes in circumstances. Indeed, within the Jewish world, such things have happened many a time. At the least, the minority opinion is important for contrasting that of the majority, and providing it with the proper perspective for appreciation and growth.

The term 'The Science is Settled', is a form of Cancel Culture. It is a sneaky way of asserting that there is only only dominant point of view worthy of mentioning, and also that it is an ultimate truth which will never change. This manner of operation is, of course, contrarian not only to the traditional Jewish mindset, but also to the Scientific Method itself. What else is reveals is a measure of historical ignorance on part of the believer in such religious dogma, for there had hardly been any cases in history, in which humans were 'settled' on anything for very long. From crucifixions to the public execution of astronomers, book-burnings and social media account deletions, one thing is for certain - future generations would shamefully tilt their heads from side to side while squeezing their lips together, in thinking of their brutal ancestors...

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