Memory Eternal
May. 30th, 2026 06:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mallorys_cameraHeard from various sources that Alpha Male has died.
No official announcement (which is odd), but he hasn't been seen in any of the old familiar places, and this morning, I noticed that his FB has been deactivated.
Alpha Male was not what you would call a personal friend, but he chose me to be second-in-command of the Seekrit Private Political Group he started back when Trump was first elected, and I had a lot of affection & respect for him. He was very smart and very jolly. What you might call an old-school Republican—big capitalism fanboy but with a heart, always looking for solutions to social problems that would empower the marginalized so they wouldn't need to be caught by safety nets.
Also, he was younger than me, so you know—there was that.
Alpha Male was always talking about hosting a camp at his farm in Virginia to teach us all to shoot.
I shall miss him.
###
Other than that...
Some younger people I know had a falling out about Zionism.
The history here is interesting.
Zionism is an Ashkenazi phenomenon. Sephardic Jews had been living more or less peaceably in Palestine for hundreds of years, but it was the German death camps and the cry "Never again!" that crystallized the push for a Jewish homeland and the formation of the state of Israel.
Can you dislike Israel and still be a good Jew? Is rejection of Israel, or indeed any criticism at all, a form of antisemitism?
There are a lot of Jews who are not crazy about Israel—most notably, the Haredi who number about 2.1 million worldwide and who take the Biblical dictate that only the Messiah will establish a homeland for the Jews ver-r-ry seriously.
There are also many Jews who are so disgusted by Israel's political behavior, specifically with respect to Gaza, that they have come to question its existence.
The young person I know falls into that latter camp.
He had a very close friend who is religious in that strange way that people who reject their religious upbringing but then gradually find their way back to it are religious.
The two friends fell out over Israel and will probably never speak again. Friendship severed!
Anyway, this narrative imbued me with a deep desire to reread Chaim Potok's The Chosen, which I did yesterday since my knee was acting achey breaky once again. I also watched the movie.
The only reason I am at all interested in living forever is that I am very interested in how these political situations are gonna work themselves out.
Will Israel even be around in 50 years?
I kinda doubt it.
No official announcement (which is odd), but he hasn't been seen in any of the old familiar places, and this morning, I noticed that his FB has been deactivated.
Alpha Male was not what you would call a personal friend, but he chose me to be second-in-command of the Seekrit Private Political Group he started back when Trump was first elected, and I had a lot of affection & respect for him. He was very smart and very jolly. What you might call an old-school Republican—big capitalism fanboy but with a heart, always looking for solutions to social problems that would empower the marginalized so they wouldn't need to be caught by safety nets.
Also, he was younger than me, so you know—there was that.
Alpha Male was always talking about hosting a camp at his farm in Virginia to teach us all to shoot.
I shall miss him.
###
Other than that...
Some younger people I know had a falling out about Zionism.
The history here is interesting.
Zionism is an Ashkenazi phenomenon. Sephardic Jews had been living more or less peaceably in Palestine for hundreds of years, but it was the German death camps and the cry "Never again!" that crystallized the push for a Jewish homeland and the formation of the state of Israel.
Can you dislike Israel and still be a good Jew? Is rejection of Israel, or indeed any criticism at all, a form of antisemitism?
There are a lot of Jews who are not crazy about Israel—most notably, the Haredi who number about 2.1 million worldwide and who take the Biblical dictate that only the Messiah will establish a homeland for the Jews ver-r-ry seriously.
There are also many Jews who are so disgusted by Israel's political behavior, specifically with respect to Gaza, that they have come to question its existence.
The young person I know falls into that latter camp.
He had a very close friend who is religious in that strange way that people who reject their religious upbringing but then gradually find their way back to it are religious.
The two friends fell out over Israel and will probably never speak again. Friendship severed!
Anyway, this narrative imbued me with a deep desire to reread Chaim Potok's The Chosen, which I did yesterday since my knee was acting achey breaky once again. I also watched the movie.
The only reason I am at all interested in living forever is that I am very interested in how these political situations are gonna work themselves out.
Will Israel even be around in 50 years?
I kinda doubt it.
