Monday, Jews around the world observed Holocaust Day. This day ought to be universally observed because the lessons of the Holocaust are universal. Here are some of them:
1. People are not basically good.
At any time in history, the belief that people are basically good was irrational and naive. To believe it after the Holocaust and after the Communist genocides in China, Korea, Cambodia and the Soviet Union, the Turkish slaughter of the Armenians, and the mass murders in Rwanda, the Congo, Tibet and elsewhere is beyond irrational and naive. It is stupid and dangerous, and therefore inexcusable.
2. The Jews are the worlds canary in the mine.
When Jews are murdered, it is a warning to decent non-Jews that they are next. Because Western nations dismissed Nazi anti-Semitism as the Jews problem, 50 million non-Jews ended up dying.
If the world dismisses Ahmadinejads Iran as primarily the Jewish states problem, non-Jews will suffer again. Jew-haters (or, if you will, Jewish state-haters) begin with Jews but never end with them.
3. Great good is no more common than great evil.
That is why the most important task for any society is to devise ways to make people good. By good, I do not mean people who do not murder or steal. People who dont murder or steal arent good people; they are simply not criminals.
It is therefore worth pondering: With the collapse of Americas Judeo-Christian moral foundations, how exactly will American society make good individuals?
Those who equate goodness with support for a welfare state do not ask this question. But the rest of us are very worried.
4. Lies and victimhood make evil possible.
Most evil is not committed by sadists. Most evil is committed by people who hold evil ideologies. And in modern times those ideologies have emanated from two primary sources: lies and victimhood.
Lies about Jews built Auschwitz (just as, for example, lies about blacks enabled the transatlantic slave trade). And along with lies about Jews, it was Germans sense of victimhood that built Auschwitz.
Perceiving oneself or ones group as a victim allows many people to rationalize doing evil.
The rest of this article, and Dennis Prager’s six other lessons, is available in the IJN’s print edition only. Contact Carol to order your copy at (303) 861-2234 or email carol@ijn.com.
