Sex abuse and the referendum: Us and them.

Us and them and after all we're only ordinary men. Pink Floyd.

A lot of things have happened over the last few weeks. 

 For the first time in my life I felt myself emotionally moved by politics, and also realised how strong certain feelings could spill into utter disdain for democracy and the ability of human beings to act wisely. But since then I've calmed down somewhat.

But far more harrowing that week was the breaking news of a scandal in the Jewish community where a sex abuser was retained as a capacity of rabbi by a number of institutions who ignored evidence of his conduct. 

It was particularly scary to read descriptions of his character: Controlling, making those around him emotionally dependant, living through them, crushing their confidence and lifting them out again. Without them realising. This resonated. I have experienced this type of character before, in my own life, and it is terrifying. 

But perhaps the issue that bothers me most comes down to these three words: Us and Them. 

We, the English. We want control of our money, our country, our laws, our people, our heritage. They the foreigners, they the immigrants, they the Europeans. Let them burn. The attitude scares me as a Jew and as a human being. 

Yes, I'm sure some used their calculators to argue that they will in the long term have more cash somehow but the number of slogans and comments suggesting otherwise leads me to think that this was not the only issue at hand.

And you never ask questions when God's on your side. Bob Dylan.

Us, the religious people, us in possession of truth and insight, we the select. When the whole concept of being religious is thought about exclusively in terms of knowledge of texts, Judaism is whatever the rabbi says it is as he's the expert, and Judaism covers all areas of life, he must be right. Or we must protect him as he must have just taken things a bit 'too far' but is essentially well meaning.

Do you see how easy it is to pretend that everything is ok?

You can make all the checks and supervision you want but once you're on the inside it's very hard to take a look at a situation from the outside. Changing attitudes that are so deeply ingrained would seem to some as an impossible struggle. When it's us and them you don't think about much beyond the walls of your mind. 

The tragedy in Israel recently only serves to galvanise this sort of attitude, and clearly I can't blame anyone for thinking that but... Us and them Us and them. Us and them.  

Reading this back, it looks like I have great anger towards being religious. I don't. I love being religious. 
But I used to think that insularity was a personality type or a lifestyle choice. 
But increasingly I see it as dangerous and dark. 
Us...
and them?