Americans are shocked at the rising tide of anti-Jewish propaganda and harassment in the streets and on college campuses. But we should have known that this spirit would predictably arise from the witch’s brew of postmodern cynicism, anti-American propaganda, and racialist resentment on which the modern education system is built.
A new Caps/Harvard poll shows the cold reality of what Gen Zers believe. Fifty-nine percent readily admit that Hamas is a terrorist group of brutal killers who indiscriminately shot, killed, and beheaded men, women and children. Yet fifty-one percent say that the brutal killing of innocent Israelis was justified because of Palestinian grievances.
Anti-Jewish and anti-Israel sentiment is more popular among Gen Z than any other belief, with the possible exceptions of unrestricted abortion and socialism.
What more would Gen Z have to do for us to realize this is serious? Venerate Osama Bin Laden?
Well, the Bin Laden worship has begun. Last week his “Letter to America” became the subject of a growing number of TikTok videos, with young adults from all walks of life testifying that it has led them to a new appreciation of how terrorism is justified as a tool of resistance against Western power.
So, hats off to the American education system: you’ve raised a generation of terrorist sympathizers who hate Jews.
Worldviews matter. Sympathy with violent terrorists arises out of a radical worldview which rejects truth, insists that America is evil, and asserts that the free-market system is immoral. Is anyone surprised that a generation this untethered from reality might cheer for a terrorist group such as Hamas? As Voltaire said in a very different context, “Surely whoever can get them to believe absurdities can get them to commit atrocities.”
This isn’t new in America. In the 1930s, according to Gallup, the vast majority of Americans deplored the Nazi treatment of Jews. Yet eight in ten opposed giving Jews sanctuary in America and more than half believed that the persecution of Jews was at least partly their own fault.
Meanwhile, Hitler was busy indoctrinating German young people en masse. Failing to win majority support among the populace, Hitler bolstered his power by radicalizing the youth. In just the first year of Nazi dominance, the Hitler Youth grew from 50,000 members to 2 million. That’s about one in five German youth.
One in five youths would only be about five percent of the total population. But history shows that it doesn’t take a majority to destroy a nation. It requires only the activation of an outraged minority and the acquiescence of the rest.
A similar thing happened during Mao’s cultural revolution in China. The youthful Red Guards rose seemingly out of nowhere, sweeping through the streets with a doctrine of destroying the “Four Olds”: old ideas, old culture, old customs, and old habits. They humiliated and murdered those they thought held power, such as teachers and property owners.
No, we don’t see swastika-wearing goose-steppers yet. To understand violent movements, though, you have to look past their uniformity of clothing to the uniformity of beliefs they hold in lockstep.
And that uniformity of belief is growing among Gen Z. Most young adults now believe that absolute truth is not knowable. They embrace cancel culture and are ashamed of America. A rapidly growing number reject religion. They’re primed to accept without question the propaganda of those who wish to overturn Judeo-Christian civilization.
As G.K. Chesterton pointed out, when people stop believing in God it isn’t that they believe nothing, but that they will believe anything.
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Some say that violent ideologies can’t take root in America. We’re too smart for that. That’s what they said in Germany. But decades of indoctrination in the anti-God philosophies of Nietzsche, Wagner, and Heidegger eroded their moral decision-making ability. Jews were singled out first for harassment, then persecution, then extinction. It was all very slow, until it wasn’t.
Today’s anti-Jewish bigotry is more than a geopolitical struggle. It is a spiritual battle. Those wishing to attack society’s stability know that they must first attack God. Attacking God means attacking the Judeo-Christian worldview that says that humans have value because of God.
Jews are an ever-present reminder that there is a God and that he has a plan for the world. Every anti-God movement, from Haman in the Old Testament, to the Bolsheviks, to the Nazis, seeks to destroy them.
How do we respond to such a time as this? Parents, educators, and pastors all have a role to play.
Parents must reinforce to their children that every person bears the image of God and that individual violence is never the solution. They must explain how the Judeo-Christian worldview has provided greater political, religious, and economic freedom than any other form of society in human history. Communist, Nazi, and Jihadist ideas always — always — lead to wreck and ruin.
Educators must equip students with thinking skills based on truth and teach the difference between propaganda and persuasion. Persuasion is using ethical arguments to enlighten an audience to the truth. Propaganda is using any arguments — ethical or unethical — to deceive an audience from seeing the truth. Schools that refuse to acknowledge that truth exists should be held accountable. Take your kids out. Stop donating. There will always be thieves who try to steal the minds of the young. But why in God’s name would we bankroll them?
After World War Two, the Jewish community admonished us to “never forget.” We have forgotten. Most of today’s college students weren’t alive on September 11, 2001. They have no visceral reaction against terrorism. Little in our culture encourages them to remember why it is wrong.
It is up to us to replant the seeds of truth once more.
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Jeff Myers, Ph.D., is president of Summit Ministries, a Colorado-based non-profit that equips and supports the rising generation to embrace God’s truth and champion a biblical worldview, and author of “Truth Changes Everything.”
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.