If you have the New York TImes Sunday edition for November 4, 2001, take a look at Jonathan Rosen’s piece called The Uncomfortable Question of Anti-Semitism.
It’s a well-argued essay about the strange phenomenon of anti-Jewish sentiment that arises every time there is a world crisis. From the crusades to the enlightenment to the Dreyfus Trial and the Holocaust, Jews are always the focus of the angry. There are only 13 million Jews right now, making the target pretty small but viable.
One thing that the article brought out for me is the ever-associated question of rationalism. Will this new war (or wars) destroy rationality as we have known it post-enlightenment? I found myself reading the article and thinking about how rationality is a very fragile thing, as rumors, hypotheses, and insecurity are now reigning our media and our minds. I know that post-modernists have often called for the end of the instiutionalization of rationality and I have often agreed in principle. But without rationality and its concomittant foundation of proof, patience, and practicality, what are we left with besides accusations and comformity?