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Should people even want to be normal?Reader comment on item: Erdoğan's Self-Indulgence Submitted by Michael S (United States), Jun 15, 2016 at 05:25 Hi, Borek. You said, "But do YOU consider an Industrialist like H.Ford as a "normal man" when reading his performances in politics and antisemitic delirium?" I don't think most thinking people would think of Henry Ford Sr. as a "normal" person. He was exceptional in so many ways; his thousands of workers could be considered "normal", but definitely not him. This brings up the question, of whether we should really want people to be normal. Which would you rather have, after all? A country full of Henry Fords? Or a country full of his workers. In the first case, you would have a land full of exceedingly talented people, possessed of inflated egos; in the second, you would have a country full of potentially hard-working people who would unfortunately be out of work. On a Jewish website, or in Jewish company, it's very hard to talk about Nazis, or about Nazi sympathizers, in less than monstrous terms. Considering another not-too-dissimilar group, it's really counter-productive to talk to a Vietnam vet about the merits and demerits of the Vietnam War. In both cases, a group-shared post-traumatic stress has happened. Even today, there are possibly some Jewish people who have been so wounded by the Holocaust, they cannot properly function. I don't doubt that Henry Ford considered himself not only "normal", but the very poster child of what "normality" should be. But he was a peculiar fellow. He changed the very world he lived in so much, that he felt a forgotten stranger in it. He longed for an America with the rustic, pioneering values of the American farmer he and his family once were. He spent his free time cutting hay with a scythe, while his factories replaced millions of horses with machines. He was also idolized by the masses, and visited by Presidents. Would it even be possible for such a person to be "normal"? I think it's foolish, for people to try to become, much less make others become, "normal". It is far, far more profitable to all, to learn what is Godly; and to pray to become that. Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments". Reader comments (16) on this item
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