Influential psychosocial theorists as diverse as Freud and Dan Ariely maintain that shadowy instincts drive human behavior, with our authentic motives remaining beneath our conscious awareness. Even the Talmud argues that we may be “triggered” by innocent people who remind us of our own shortcomings, though we can be blissfully ignorant of what is driving our antipathy (Kiddushin 70a).
Many of us scratch our heads wondering what is motivating Western youth to embrace patently self-destructive policies like open borders, unisex bathrooms, and historically doomed economic socialism.
I offer a theory that may make sense of this puzzling human behavior.
I would argue that the heavy burden of guilt the Western world carries is not over shameful slave ownership by our distant ancestors, our cars’ toxic emissions, disrespecting personal pronouns, or betraying any other catechism invented yesterday by society’s self-appointed victims. It is rather over something much more basic—the bread of shame—what the Zohar calls “nahama d’kisufa” in Aramaic. Bread of shame is the guilt and disempowerment we feel when we receive too much of something for nothing.
The Real Source of “White Guilt”
Over the last century, our Western intelligentsia, from elite scientists to artists, has purged our moral landscape of a Creator, the very Being Who has given each and every one of us life. Intellectual elites have further mocked and derided the explicit obligations—such as the Ten Commandments for Jews and the Noahide Laws for all humanity—given to us for our own good by that Creator. We have thereby turned ourselves into ungrateful children who gratify our selfish desires, often at one another’s expense. This is what I maintain is the real source of “White Guilt.”
In addition to our lack of simple gratitude to God, our Benefactor, we carry a profound burden of guilt for betraying the moral code given us by our Creator in granting legitimacy and liberty to much of what the Creator forbids. (Hence, the advantage in denying that Creator’s existence.)
A False Freedom Claimed by the “Athiest”
Weakening us and our world further, this legitimate but unconscious guilt is being exploited by nefarious actors—such as Islamists, radical trans advocates, and other sexual and financial predators—bent on turning others, starting with vulnerable and innocent children, into mirror images of themselves, for power, greed, to satisfy their appetites and disperse their own guilt.
Instead of serving a just and good God, we are becoming slaves to the evil.
We can only reverse this Western societal decline by healing the root, through returning to our loving Creator and embracing His laws. In this way, we can replace unnecessary guilt with healthy pride and self-respect, enhanced by a nourishing relationship with God, our Provider.
Letting Go of Jewish Guilt
In my own life, I transitioned from a religious skeptic to an ironclad believer in a biblical God; this change and everything it required greatly improved my sense of wellbeing.
Israel and the Jewish people have pivotal roles to play in resurrecting the awareness of God in Western culture, for the benefit of all. Let’s get started!
Visit Amanda Chaitt at www.antisemitismanswers.com to receive a compelling argument for the authority of the Bible.
There is another dimension to this self-destructive neurosis, arguably a more sinister cause. It is the moral and philosophical emptiness in the psyches of so many young people today. In the 1980s, university professor Allan Bloom observed this phenomenon in his university students and detailed it in his book, The Closing of the American Mind. Bloom observed students who lived with no moral grounding and no philosophical upbringing or education. He writes:
“But the unity, grandeur and attendant folklore of the founding heritage was attacked from so many directions in the last half-century that it gradually disappeared from daily life and from textbooks…The leading ideas of the Declaration began to be understood as eighteenth-century myths or ideologies.”
He further notes that families were once more spiritually grounded:
“The other element of fundamental primary learning that has disappeared is religion…Attending church or synagogue, praying at the table, were a way of life, inseparable from the moral education that was supposed to be the family’s special responsibility in a democracy. Actually, the moral teaching was the religious teaching.”
Even in happy homes, Bloom points out, “(Parents) have nothing to give their children in the way of a vision of the world, of high models of action or profound sense of connection with others.”
Too many young people today are spiritually and morally empty. They gravitate to various causes that sound noble and “feel right” in order to fill that void with something — anything — that will provide a sense of higher purpose, a sense that their lives aren’t simply wasted on animalistic self-gratification. Even irrational or objectively pointless efforts seem virtuous to people who have lived their lives with no sense of transcendence, or even meaning. If we’re just another species, indistinguishable from camels, orchids or armadillos, then we need to search for some differentiator; otherwise, it’s all meaningless.
Thank G-d, we have a Torah that imbues our every moment with meaning, and we have no need to search for it at the open border.
I couldn’t agree more, Mr. Wyckoff, thanks for contributing such a thoughtful comment! I bought Allan Bloom’s book many years ago but never got around to reading it. Bli neder, now I shall.
Human beings’ relentless search for meaning itself, even if misguided in today’s young people, as you point out, proves that we are beings uniquely created in the image of God. Animals don’t care about meaning or the transcendent!
I just want to caution you about Bloom’s book, ma’am. The excerpts that I quoted are from the beginning of the book and are fairly compelling. However, as Bloom continues, he gets into some inappropriate material. I also found out some truly repugnant, disgraceful information about Bloom himself and decided that the book wasn’t right for a Jewish home.
Thanks for the warning, Mr. Wyckoff. Nothing can be taken for granted these days.