a little cognitive dissonance

[cellio]

Today is Yom HaShoah (Holocaust remembrance day). I don't know what is done elsewhere, but my Conservative morning minyan adds a short service after the torah service. It consists of some psalms and some modern writings, and ends with an unusual Kaddish. The Kaddish text is the usual text, but it's interspersed with the names of camps --

Comments

[nancylebov]

Stephen Pinker in The Better Angels of Our Nature say that people have been slowly becoming less violent on the average-- sometimes you need to look at the percentage of people killed in wars, not just the numbers.

Maybe the secular process of human self-domestication is enough.

[cellio]

Thanks.

I'm not even sure it's about body-count; that those with extremely-violent intentions aren't as effective as they could be doesn't get at the underlying problem of those intentions. But I guess we can take comfort when the reason they aren't as effective is that others are working to stop them -- that's something, at least, and better than the indifference we sometimes see.

[osewalrus]

*hugs*

We all struggle. Sometimes it is easier, sometimes harder. That is what faith is about.

[cellio]

Thanks.

It's funny: my faith in God is solid. No wavering there. My faith in people, on the other hand...

[richardf8]

Faith? I don't think Aleinu demands it of us, whether in God or in people. There are three little words that make the difference: על כן נקבה
This isn't even a prayer of supplication so much as an expression of hope.