perhaps a reason to hope, after all

Submitted by Charles Martel (United States), Sep 28, 2020 at 23:41

Throughout human history the enemies of rational thought were often successful in brainwashing the masses in a vacuum. Isolation and a monopoly of message long served to stoke the fires of hate. It is now estimated that more than 200 million Americans possess some form of smart phone. Worldwide, 3.5 billion now have ready access to the internet. While religious fervor continues to animate, motivate and sublimate, the [reality check of immediately accessible reality] in the form of a simple Google search constitutes a paradigm that has never before existed -- and an experiment in human evolution that has never before occurred. How can crazy religious fervor inoculate as well when the counter narrative voices of reason are merely a click or two away. Brandeis' words convey a prescient fact --- it turns out sunlight really is the best disinfectant. And so, in the context of the six million Jewish people perched precariously upon their tiny speck of land one can but hope that the rational, 21st Century Muslim may find greater wisdom in peaceful coexistence rather than perpetual enmity.

Shall we say, it is, at the very least a fond Yom Kippur prayer...

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