The only "ism" you need is Judaism.
(And even if you aren't Jewish, Judaism still provides you with the value system you need to be an upstanding non-Jew.)
With all the other "isms" available today, it's easy to get caught up in other philosophies that seem to provide what Judaism appears to not provide.
So people turn to Communism, Socialism, Capitalism, feminism, nationalism, atheism, polytheism, humanism, environmentalism, materialism, and so on.
But if you delve into the original Jewish sources or receive Torah from people who are in touch with authentic Judaism, then you enable yourself to receive everything you need from one source: Judaism.
I can't deny that looking into the original Torah sources takes some adjustment if you haven't studied them before.
And even Jews born into the religious community and who attended religious schools can face a similar adjustment if they've been very influenced by the attitudes of non-Jewish society and/or received their education from people who've been unconsciously influenced by surrounding attitudes and outlooks or by authority figures who simply didn't have the capability to pass on and explain the authentic Torah mindset.
Like everything else, understanding what's already been laid out for you by Chazal (the Torah Sages) is a process.
Your mind needs to adjust to a new (and better) way of thinking and perceiving yourself and the world around you, and perceiving God.
Fine! That's exactly what God put us here to accomplish.
(And even if you aren't Jewish, Judaism still provides you with the value system you need to be an upstanding non-Jew.)
With all the other "isms" available today, it's easy to get caught up in other philosophies that seem to provide what Judaism appears to not provide.
So people turn to Communism, Socialism, Capitalism, feminism, nationalism, atheism, polytheism, humanism, environmentalism, materialism, and so on.
But if you delve into the original Jewish sources or receive Torah from people who are in touch with authentic Judaism, then you enable yourself to receive everything you need from one source: Judaism.
I can't deny that looking into the original Torah sources takes some adjustment if you haven't studied them before.
And even Jews born into the religious community and who attended religious schools can face a similar adjustment if they've been very influenced by the attitudes of non-Jewish society and/or received their education from people who've been unconsciously influenced by surrounding attitudes and outlooks or by authority figures who simply didn't have the capability to pass on and explain the authentic Torah mindset.
Like everything else, understanding what's already been laid out for you by Chazal (the Torah Sages) is a process.
Your mind needs to adjust to a new (and better) way of thinking and perceiving yourself and the world around you, and perceiving God.
Fine! That's exactly what God put us here to accomplish.
Replacing One Tyrant with Another
Before Communism, countries like China and Russia were run by imperialists. Regular folk were at the mercy of royals and landholders.
No matter how hard you worked or how talented and brilliant you were, there was no way for you to get ahead. You were stuck in miserable grinding poverty, no matter what you did or what potential you possessed.
Furthermore, if someone from the gentry class decided to beat you, whether because you didn't fill your quota on the field or simply because the bigwig wanted an outlet for his sadism, then you had no recourse. If your superior chose to shove you in an underground prison to slowly starve to death, that was his prerogative. If he felt like assaulting and violating your wife or daughter, then again, there was no recourse and nothing to do to prevent it or heal from it later.
And we all know how Russian superiors and Cossacks treated the Jews, regardless of any Jew's position.
So when Communism came along proclaiming both social and economic equality for all, that was irresistible to your average peasant.
And even those who believed in God didn't mind the spiritual "equality" part and parcel of Communist belief. Ultimately, Communist leaders didn't want ANY superior above them -- not even God.
Some of the only people who could see the cruel fascism underneath the veneer of Communism were Orthodox Jews (but even then, not all of them).
So Communism came to correct some very real and tragically widespread human rights abuses. It came to remedy very real and genuinely unjust oppression.
But because it wasn't based on the right value system (the core idea of saying that your work and accomplishments don't belong to you and can't benefit you is in itself a huge problem), it was doomed to failure and ended up oppressing and abusing people far more than imperialism.
No matter how hard you worked or how talented and brilliant you were, there was no way for you to get ahead. You were stuck in miserable grinding poverty, no matter what you did or what potential you possessed.
Furthermore, if someone from the gentry class decided to beat you, whether because you didn't fill your quota on the field or simply because the bigwig wanted an outlet for his sadism, then you had no recourse. If your superior chose to shove you in an underground prison to slowly starve to death, that was his prerogative. If he felt like assaulting and violating your wife or daughter, then again, there was no recourse and nothing to do to prevent it or heal from it later.
And we all know how Russian superiors and Cossacks treated the Jews, regardless of any Jew's position.
So when Communism came along proclaiming both social and economic equality for all, that was irresistible to your average peasant.
And even those who believed in God didn't mind the spiritual "equality" part and parcel of Communist belief. Ultimately, Communist leaders didn't want ANY superior above them -- not even God.
Some of the only people who could see the cruel fascism underneath the veneer of Communism were Orthodox Jews (but even then, not all of them).
So Communism came to correct some very real and tragically widespread human rights abuses. It came to remedy very real and genuinely unjust oppression.
But because it wasn't based on the right value system (the core idea of saying that your work and accomplishments don't belong to you and can't benefit you is in itself a huge problem), it was doomed to failure and ended up oppressing and abusing people far more than imperialism.
Revenge: The REAL Worker's Paradise
Communism was predicated on despair.
The reason why impoverished people agreed to such equality is because they didn't feel they could have a much better life anyway. Let everyone have their basic needs met -- a decent roof over their heads, enough to eat, basic medical care, etc. -- and that's enough! At least they wouldn't have to see the rich enjoying what the poor couldn't. Let everyone be kind of poor (but not too poor).
(Revenge played a part in this too, of course. Let's punish the rich!)
The reason why impoverished people agreed to such equality is because they didn't feel they could have a much better life anyway. Let everyone have their basic needs met -- a decent roof over their heads, enough to eat, basic medical care, etc. -- and that's enough! At least they wouldn't have to see the rich enjoying what the poor couldn't. Let everyone be kind of poor (but not too poor).
(Revenge played a part in this too, of course. Let's punish the rich!)
Equality for All -- Except Jews
Likewise, Nazism initially came under the guise of compassion for the underdog.
The period after WWI consisted of hopeless suffering and impoverishment for the German people. Disenchanted youth abounded (including former soldiers), who discarded respect for rank and age. Communism's promise of equality and an end to poverty exerted a magnetic pull on many German youth.
But even after the initial phase of poverty eased prior to the victory of the Nazi party, many German working class still suffered.
Factories exposed workers to dangerous conditions without compensation. Transportation and journeys to the countryside were for the rich who had cars and could afford to pay for vacation resorts.
In fact, class discrimination in pre-WWII Germany was so severe that in school, the child of blue collar workers could receive a lower grade (no matter how high he actually scored) just to keep him beneath the children of doctors and professors. So the idea of making everybody equal (except the Jews) with equal opportunities solely on the basis of merit (i.e. loyalty to the Nazi party and its leader) was a very big deal back then.
(Incidentally, Hitler [yemach shemo - may his name be erased] barely mentioned the Jews in speeches between 1932-1933, making the Jew-hatred endemic in Nazi dogma less obvious.)
And to be sure, YM"SH (yemach shemo - may his name be erased) temporarily produced exciting progress for Nazi society.
Under the Nazi party, Germany nearly eradicated unemployment (for Aryans), broke down class barriers and enabled new and much-needed opportunities for the poor (especially the children), it greatly improved working conditions in formerly dangerous factory environments that sometimes injured or even killed workers, and Germany expanded workers rights in general, significantly improved the quality of life for working-class Germans (they could now afford cars via the German-made VW bug and vacations at newly built affordable resorts), and more.
Furthermore, the Nazi party instituted great strides in environmentalism, animal rights, organic foods, and anti-smoking attitudes. They also fought Communism (not because they opposed Communist principles -- Nazism and Communism proclaim similar ideals -- but because they didn't want to share power). They also made society safer by sending habitual criminals and sx offenders to concentration camps. (Yes, the first victims of concentration camps tended not to be Jews, but non-Jews considered asocial, criminal, or politically incorrect.)
The above is why some people say that had YM"SH dropped dead in 1938, he'd have been hailed a hero (despite the cruel anti-Jewish legislation he'd already enacted by March 1933 and onwards because in the end, economic comfort and ego-stroking trump Jewish suffering in the eyes of many).
And some Germans still privately believe that Nazism had its positive side.
The implication is that the initial Jewish suffering, torture, and eventual genocide was just a lamentable side effect of German progression.
The period after WWI consisted of hopeless suffering and impoverishment for the German people. Disenchanted youth abounded (including former soldiers), who discarded respect for rank and age. Communism's promise of equality and an end to poverty exerted a magnetic pull on many German youth.
But even after the initial phase of poverty eased prior to the victory of the Nazi party, many German working class still suffered.
Factories exposed workers to dangerous conditions without compensation. Transportation and journeys to the countryside were for the rich who had cars and could afford to pay for vacation resorts.
In fact, class discrimination in pre-WWII Germany was so severe that in school, the child of blue collar workers could receive a lower grade (no matter how high he actually scored) just to keep him beneath the children of doctors and professors. So the idea of making everybody equal (except the Jews) with equal opportunities solely on the basis of merit (i.e. loyalty to the Nazi party and its leader) was a very big deal back then.
(Incidentally, Hitler [yemach shemo - may his name be erased] barely mentioned the Jews in speeches between 1932-1933, making the Jew-hatred endemic in Nazi dogma less obvious.)
And to be sure, YM"SH (yemach shemo - may his name be erased) temporarily produced exciting progress for Nazi society.
Under the Nazi party, Germany nearly eradicated unemployment (for Aryans), broke down class barriers and enabled new and much-needed opportunities for the poor (especially the children), it greatly improved working conditions in formerly dangerous factory environments that sometimes injured or even killed workers, and Germany expanded workers rights in general, significantly improved the quality of life for working-class Germans (they could now afford cars via the German-made VW bug and vacations at newly built affordable resorts), and more.
Furthermore, the Nazi party instituted great strides in environmentalism, animal rights, organic foods, and anti-smoking attitudes. They also fought Communism (not because they opposed Communist principles -- Nazism and Communism proclaim similar ideals -- but because they didn't want to share power). They also made society safer by sending habitual criminals and sx offenders to concentration camps. (Yes, the first victims of concentration camps tended not to be Jews, but non-Jews considered asocial, criminal, or politically incorrect.)
The above is why some people say that had YM"SH dropped dead in 1938, he'd have been hailed a hero (despite the cruel anti-Jewish legislation he'd already enacted by March 1933 and onwards because in the end, economic comfort and ego-stroking trump Jewish suffering in the eyes of many).
And some Germans still privately believe that Nazism had its positive side.
The implication is that the initial Jewish suffering, torture, and eventual genocide was just a lamentable side effect of German progression.
Without Judaism, You Only Have Egoism
People (particularly the youth) are always trying to re-invent the wheel.
The same problems crop up generation after generation (inequalities, discrimination, unfortunates who fall through the cracks, etc.) and the wheel turns, somersaulting those once on the bottom to the top, while those on top plunge to the bottom.
In trying to analyze how the German people could've turned into such a barbaric killing machine that even treated babies and toddlers with ruthless sadism, the prelude to that genocidal era is rarely discussed. Ditto with Communism and many other isms.
The human rights abuses were very real.
The pain and trauma that catapulted people into their respective "isms" was very real and justified.
However, you see that all these people actually cared nothing for others.
All the cries for equality and compassion and "rights for all!" were mere slogans that secretly meant: "Compassion for me, equality (which actually meant superiority) for me, rights for me."
And the movements continue to snake their way through society, replacing the prefix of their chosen "ism" with another prefix ad nauseam.
And it's always done under the battle-cry of compassion and fairness...
...when all they really care about is rights for oneself and everyone else be damned.
Except for Judaism.
Whatever good exists in another movement already exists within Judaism.
And anything that Judaism rejects or forbids cannot be justified within the good points of another movement.
We've already seen too many times what happens when people believe otherwise.
_____
Related post:
How Ingratitude Leads to Genocide
The same problems crop up generation after generation (inequalities, discrimination, unfortunates who fall through the cracks, etc.) and the wheel turns, somersaulting those once on the bottom to the top, while those on top plunge to the bottom.
In trying to analyze how the German people could've turned into such a barbaric killing machine that even treated babies and toddlers with ruthless sadism, the prelude to that genocidal era is rarely discussed. Ditto with Communism and many other isms.
The human rights abuses were very real.
The pain and trauma that catapulted people into their respective "isms" was very real and justified.
However, you see that all these people actually cared nothing for others.
All the cries for equality and compassion and "rights for all!" were mere slogans that secretly meant: "Compassion for me, equality (which actually meant superiority) for me, rights for me."
And the movements continue to snake their way through society, replacing the prefix of their chosen "ism" with another prefix ad nauseam.
And it's always done under the battle-cry of compassion and fairness...
...when all they really care about is rights for oneself and everyone else be damned.
Except for Judaism.
Whatever good exists in another movement already exists within Judaism.
And anything that Judaism rejects or forbids cannot be justified within the good points of another movement.
We've already seen too many times what happens when people believe otherwise.
_____
Related post:
How Ingratitude Leads to Genocide
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