ESSAY NOVEMBER 7, 2023
The New American Anarchists
ronald w. dworkin
Living in the world online, college students, knowledge workers, and lone wolf killers embrace illusions to justify violence.
Many Americans were shocked to watch college campus groups defend Hamas’s killing of innocent Israeli civilians. What is life like for a person unable to say that beheading babies is evil, or who tries to qualify the event by “giving it context”? Most people can’t even imagine it. Such a person must have different feelings and different joys—his or her view of the world is not the same as ours and life doesn’t seem a very precious gift.
Yet pictures of the campus groups invariably reveal not one but several different populations of radicalized students, and the explanation for their immorality may not be the same for all.
One population includes students of Arab descent. Some of them were likely raised in the anti-Jewish culture well-documented in Middle Eastern life. Also, many of these students likely had friends or relatives directly affected by the Arab-Israeli dispute. Their immorality in condoning Hamas’s targeting of innocent civilians is horrible but comprehensible.
Another population of students is the bigger mystery. They look to be Americans of European descent, well-nourished, and upper-middle class. They were probably not exposed to anti-Semitism growing up; nor did they have a family member killed or land confiscated during the Arab-Israeli wars. Yet now they wear the Palestinian keffiyeh around their necks and celebrate Hamas. Their path from playdates to shopping malls to virulent anti-Semitism and celebrating the purposeful slaughter of innocent civilians is as puzzling as it is artificial.
https://lawliberty.org/the-new-american-anarchists/
