I would like to take the time spent on this blog post to reflect on the war going on overseas about Russia wanting to take over Ukraine. First, my heart breaks for the Ukraine and I hope that this war ceases soon and the lasting impacts are minimal. The way Vladimir Putin is running Russia had me connect the dots to our discussions in class on what good government is. His rule is kind of the prime example of governments that are extremely dangerous. The dictatorship he has over Russia relates to Hobbes’ proposed form of government. He believed that once a leader was in power, they could never be overthrown by the people. This is almost like the current state of the government in Russia. People can not safely speak out against Putin, and he can not be overthrown or replaced unless he feels as if he wants to step down. Since Vladimir Putin is quite power-hungry, even stating the possibility of him stepping down feels silly. One of the reasons I think he feels the need to be number one and have ultimate power is because he can not be overthrown or challenged. With no one telling him that he is wrong or challenging his thoughts, his ego only gets bigger and he becomes more convinced that everything he does is the best. Unfortunately, this complete self-centeredness has caused him to create a war killing and destroying hundreds of innocent lives. To me, it seems as if he has ordered war just to make himself seem macho and like the alpha. Putin is trying to make a name for himself as one of the great leaders of Russia. He just wants to be remembered as someone who was so powerful. However, he is ruining people, economies, and an entire country along the way. Now, even if Vladimir Putin wanted to end the war, he can’t. That would make him look as if he had failed and his ego has become too big to cope with his citizens viewing him as a “looser”. The thing that scares me is the question of where do we go from here? It doesn’t seem like Russia will cease-fire anytime soon and if they eventually take control of Kyiv, will they try and keep going and take over other countries? I am nervous that nuclear weapons will eventually get involved and the dangers that come with that. Hopefully, the people of Ukraine will stay safe and keep defending their country.

For this blog post, I would like to dive a little deeper into the idea that people are selfish which has come up in discussion quite a bit in class. My personal belief is that it is impossible to be selfless, no matter how good of a person one is. The Oxford dictionary’s  definition of selfish is “(of a person, action, or motive) lacking consideration for others; concerned chiefly with one’s own personal profit or pleasure.” To start off, I think that the notion that selfishness equates to bad is not correct. In order to survive people must be at least a tad bit selfish. Also, even when people do something that appears selfless, they are doing it because they enjoy helping others. This joy that they get is still a personal gain, therefore, they are not fully selfless. The reason I don’t say that everyone is selfish is that selfishness is defined as lacking consideration for others. If someone does a mitzvah because it makes them feel good, is that being selfish? My short answer is no, but based on all the debates this topic has started, we all know it is more complicated than that. Even though the person might be doing the good deed so they can feel as if they are doing good, it is still not selfishness due to the fact that they are still caring for others. The concept of selfishness relating to being a bad person is quite odd. If one thinks about it, back when humans were created, they had to be selfish creatures, or else they would die or get killed or eaten or something else horrible. Now that we have evolved, it is much more complex than that. The idea of being selfish is also relative. If someone who had lots of resources and was quite wealthy never donated anything, they would be thought of as selfish. I would think of them as selfish. If someone who was homeless never donated anything and always made sure they were cared for before anyone else, this wouldn’t be considered selfish but merely an attempt to survive. The difference here is that one lacks care for others whereas the other cannot even care for themselves. But are they both selfish? I would like to state again that selfishness does not equal being a bad person, and this is a perfect example of just that. It would be greedy and immoral for a wealthy person to constantly put themselves first and act selfishly because they already have more than enough to survive. It would make perfect sense for the homeless person to put themselves first as the priority because they barely have enough to keep themselves alive. It wouldn’t make sense for them to give to others when they don’t have enough on their own. All this to say, it is human nature to be selfish, and ultimately, it is what keeps us alive.

I agree with Montesquieu that people are not born violent-seeking beings, but they can learn evil. When put with others, that’s when people get power-hungry, rulers become established, and then war can break out. Locke makes an excellent point in saying, “That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government.” In agreement with Locke, I think that if one starts to feel that they can never be overthrown, they risk turning into someone extremely evil. A scary example that is currently being presented is with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin who has taken on almost a dictatorship. How the Russian government is set up, Putin basically cannot be forced to leave his seat of power. If people even try and challenge him, he will try and provoke evil because when one is in power for so long, they can lose sight of reality. It is like the point Evie brought up about checks and balances. In order to be a good leader, one must be getting reality checked and hearing ideas that are not their own. 

Personally, I do not agree with Rousseau’s proposed form of government. I think that people are power-hungry and if there is no decided leader, many will try and climb and fight to be rulers, and disaster will occur. I believe that people would try and fight for resources in order to live, there would be an agreement that a leader should be instituted to help ration, and then violence and war would break out over those fighting for a spot as ruler. The real danger, however, is the desire for power. I believe that it is natural for humans to try and be “the alpha” and to find ways to prove their superiority. What’s dangerous is if everyone is freely doing this at once. 

What if 9/11 never happened? If the tragic events that took place on September 11th, 2001, America would be incredibly different. 9/11 is the main reason many of the things in America are the way they are. Take airport security for example. Because of 9/11, airport security is much, much more thorough. Also, I think that if 9/11 didn’t happen, there definitely would have been a different kind of terrorist attack in the future that would cause similar things like more security.  I think that maybe there would have been a worse attack that could have possibly even led to war. Another thing that would probably be different is countries’ relations with one another. I feel like 9/11 made countries wary of each other and gave them more reason not to trust people coming into countries.

So far, I am really enjoying the Athens vs. Melos simulation. I feel like the workable peace framework we are using in class is extremely helpful for all of our daily lives. This framework would be beneficial in all types of situations I might find myself in. Whether it be arguing with a parent, a friend, or negotiating future jobs, I definitely will be using this workable peace framework in order to make both parties happy and to make sure that the situation doesn’t get too argumentative. I am also pretty proud of how we handled the first part of negotiations in class today. I feel like we got to an agreement on moving the ships until negotiations are settled pretty quickly.

The J term project you asked us to do I think was a very interesting and beneficial project. Like I have mentioned before, this course as a whole really has helped me figure out my religious beliefs and has helped me form my religious identity. Part of the reason I think this worked so well was because of the J term project. Knowing that I would have to discuss my beliefs at the end of the unit made me hone in more on all the religions we were learning about on a more personal level. Obviously, I was looking at these religions through a historical lens like you instructed us to, but I also was looking at them through my own personal lens. While learning about each religion, I made sure to reflect and ask myself; do these values align with my values and morals? Again, as I have mentioned before, part of my journey in this class has been figuring out my personal values and morals so in asking myself these questions, I was more asking myself what values just felt the most right to me and resonated with me the most. An example of this is my belief in reincarnation. I have always believed in reincarnation, but I never labeled my view as such. After our lesson on Hinduism, I realized, “Oh! This is what I think the afterlife is almost to a tee!” Another example was when we were having a discussion about being agnostic vs. atheist. I have always believed that there was a force out there that was God-like, but since I never envisioned that force as a human-like thing, I thought I didn’t believe in God. After that conversation, I realized that the greater force was me believing in God. Even though it didn’t align with what the Torah or really any other religious document said, my belief in that force, was my personal God.

Something that has really contributed to me feeling more in touch with my Jewish identity is something I’ve mentioned before called BBYO (B’nai B’rith Youth Organization). Anyone who knows me at all has probably heard me talk about BBYO way more than they would like, but I can’t help it because I just love it so much. BBYO is a youth organization for Jewish teens all around the world with over 88,000 members. Through BBYO, I have become more interested in Judaism, met some of my best friends, and, have become a prouder Jew. At my old school, there were only 3 Jewish students in the entire grade including Maia and me. This meant that for a while, I had little to no friends who were Jewish as well. I didn’t realize it at the time, but this made me push away my Jewish identity because subconsciously I made myself think that being Jewish=not normal or weird. When I learned about BBYO, I was eager to join in hopes of making more Jewish friends, although I was extremely nervous. As I have mentioned in blog posts before, I rarely go to synagogue (only about twice a year for high holidays) and was never bat mitzvah’d. This made me feel uneasy about joining because I didn’t think I was “Jewish enough” which is really dumb because Judaism is a spectrum and just because I’m not super religious doesn’t make me any less Jewish. Anyways, when I joined I felt a sense of imposter syndrome due to not feeling Jewish enough. Lucky for me, this quickly went away. I met lots of people who were in the same boat as me and also weren’t that religious and many who were! It truly helped affirm my Jewish identity and feel more confident as a Jew.

This semester in this class has been truly transformative for me. I have never felt more comfortable in my religious identity. Not only has this class helped Judaism become a big part of my identity, but it has also made me realize my views on important things such as the afterlife, God, and my own morals. At the start of the semester, I had certain ideas on all of these things but I had never put enough thought into them to be able to verbalize them and make them cohesive. Now that the semester is coming to an end, I am able to not only vocally express my religious views but also connect them to existing religions and express my thoughts to others. I have always identified myself as Jewish but thought of myself as more Jew-ish. I knew about the Jewish holidays I celebrated and certain things about Jewish culture, but due to the fact that I went to synoguage approximately twice a year, I hardly knew anything about the religion itself. This class was like a door for me. After learning a bit about the history and basics of Judaism in class, I wanted to explore more. I have been trying to go to synagogue more and have been much more involved in the Jewish youth organization I am in. It has opened my eyes to the world of Judaism and I am so excited to dive even deeper into my religion. I could not be more grateful for the impact this class has had on me.

As I have mentioned before, and probably make it extremely obvious, I am a very proud Jew. The one time a year I sometimes tend to find myself struggling with my Jewish identity is around the holidays and especially Christmas time. When I was very little, I went to a Jewish preschool so for the first few years of my life I knew hardly any people who weren’t Jewish. Apparently, one time when I was little I said, “I feel bad for people who celebrate Christmas. They must feel so left out because everyone celebrates Hanukkah, not Christmas.” Little did I know it was the exact opposite. Now, I’m sounding just a little dramatic, but, during the holiday season, I do sometimes feel as if I’m missing out or I get a sense of imposter syndrome. Every year I usually end up going over to friends’ houses and help them to decorate their Christmas tree or to build gingerbread houses or participate in some family tradition that has gone decades back, long before I came. I always have fun doing these activities, but it also makes me feel isolated. You know when you’re hanging out with two people who go way back and they keep telling stories and reminiscing on memories that they had in the past and you’re just kind of sitting there pretending to know what they’re talking about? It’s a similar feeling. 

Every year there is a part of me that just wishes, more than anything, that I could celebrate Christmas and have my own traditions, and every year, these thoughts come with guilt. Sometimes I’ll catch myself lost in these thoughts and I’ll beat myself up about it. I’ll think to myself “Why are you so ungrateful? Your ancestors didn’t go through all that hardship for you to wish to celebrate a Christian holiday. You have Hanukkah, is that not enough for you?” It’s not that I wish to be Christian, just that I wish to celebrate Christmas. Nothing says that I can’t celebrate Christmas, I know plenty of Jews who do and I think it is great that they do it, but personally, the thought of celebrating Christmas makes me feel like a bad Jew. 

Something that I find interesting about myself is my view on God. I have recently realized through this class that contrary to what I thought before I actually believe in God. Describing my view I am going to use “it” because I don’t view God as a human or man form. When trying to describe my view in the past, the best description I can come up with is that I believe in the universe. This still doesn’t completely capture my thoughts, but it makes more sense to me than just saying “I believe in God”. What I mean when I say I believe in the universe is that I think there is some bigger force out there than just luck. I think that everything in life happens for a reason and really nothing is a coincidence. 

As I have mentioned before and in my I believe project, I believe in Karma. I truly believe that if you do wrong, you will receive something negative. If you do good, good things will happen. The only way I see this as possible is if there is a force out there that is bigger than science. I partially think that I think this way is because I want to believe that everything happens for a reason. This way of thinking gets me through life. If I am upset or not in a good headspace it reminds me that there is a light at the end of the tunnel and I will come out better. This belief I believe makes me a better person. It makes me want to do better in the world. I would say it makes me less selfish, but I don’t think that is true. I think it makes me more selfless, but not less selfish. Part of the reason I want to do better is because of Karma, is because I believe that if I do good, good things will come back to me. I personally believe think this way of thinking is selfish but I do not think it is bad because it is not greedy and negative.