Dark or Light - Choose

I’ve been reading Einstein’s biography by Walter Isaacson. I’m up to the 20s – after Germany lost WWI and before WWII. It was the era of the Weimar Republic.

During WWI, there were rumblings of anti-Semitism but it grew worse after Germany lost the war. People wanted scapegoats. Einstein, although not a full-fledged member of the Zionist movement, was a sympathizer and advocated Jews speaking out rather than trying to hide by assimilating into the German population and state. Einstein in particular was interested in the establishment of a university in Jerusalem which would allow Jewish students to pursue knowledge without being branded as some evil force tainting German science and German everything else.

In 1921, Einstein came to America to advocate for this university and raise money for it. Although there were droves of Jews who came out to support him, other Americans mobbed him to see a great scientist. His science got all the attention. He gave a number of lectures while he was here.

The unique and important thing to get from this period of history is the night and day comparison of a darkening Germany with a light and free America. The book makes that comparison available. Because I could relate to the light and free America of then, the stark darkness of now becomes apparent and chilling. Right now, important and powerful people in our culture are looking for scapegoats: Wall Street fat cats, Jews, White people, established success – all of these groups are blamed for our current problems.

Individual Germans holding themselves as victims - which makes no sense unless one is objectively a victim – was the root of Germany’s problems, and that condition is spreading, because people are taking it on themselves to spread it, like cancer in America. Obama has not been cultivating victims for nothing. Cultivating victims is the heart and soul of community organizing. He knows that only when a person considers himself a victim can he feel justified to abide and commit violence in one form or another. There have already been numerous instances of violence - mostly in the form of theft of property and liberty - and each is a test of the willingness of the American people to abide it. So far, there is no reason for him to be anything but confident.

The innocence of you - and if enough of us do it, America - is available at any time. All it requires is to flip the switch to the power position: I create value. That power rests with the individual. It is your choice.