I would like to find some more books on the "post Exilic" career of the Jehudi elite, who returned to Palestine after a few decades of captivity in Babylon. They somehow managed to turn primitive Jawhism into Judaism, one of the most historically important religions of the world.
They returned to the unimportant province of Judah, where they could have been seen, almost, as foreigners. Apparently most of the "Hebrew Bible" (aka, Old Testament to Christians) was written during this post-Exile. And they did such a good job of it, with dramatic stories of ancestral heroes, that a Jewish identity was made solid and lasting.
But until I get a chance to learn more about this process, around 500--450 BC, I wonder how this example compares with more recent ones. How many times has an Elite been overthrown (taken captive, etc.) and then returned to its homeland, only to blossom into something much greater that it was, originally.
It is a rare experience, is it not? Oh sure, the Stuart dynasty was restored in the middle of the 1600's, when Charles II returned to reign over England. But that only lasted one generation.
During the Napoleonic era, some of the aristocratic emigrés returned to France. But it wasn't the same as before. And when the conquerors of Napoleon restored the Bourbon dynasty with Louis XVIII, the dynasty fizzled out again in 15 years.
Can an Elite really be re-established? Maybe that is where the post-Exilic Jewish Elite was rather unique and brilliant: they didn't just try to 'turn the clock back'. They greatly surpassed the Past while somehow remaining loyal to it, in identity.
Let's think of the Leftist intellectual establishment as being faced with a disaster in the early 1990s, when the Soviet Union ceased to exist; and consider the next couple decades as their 'Babylonian exile', culminating in the populist revolt of the Trump era.
Did the Leftist establishment learn anything? How have they changed? Are they better equipped than before to impose their totalitarian will on the Masses? How much change can be tolerated before a Leftist isn't really a Leftist anymore?
Whew! I will try to finish this next time.
They returned to the unimportant province of Judah, where they could have been seen, almost, as foreigners. Apparently most of the "Hebrew Bible" (aka, Old Testament to Christians) was written during this post-Exile. And they did such a good job of it, with dramatic stories of ancestral heroes, that a Jewish identity was made solid and lasting.
But until I get a chance to learn more about this process, around 500--450 BC, I wonder how this example compares with more recent ones. How many times has an Elite been overthrown (taken captive, etc.) and then returned to its homeland, only to blossom into something much greater that it was, originally.
It is a rare experience, is it not? Oh sure, the Stuart dynasty was restored in the middle of the 1600's, when Charles II returned to reign over England. But that only lasted one generation.
During the Napoleonic era, some of the aristocratic emigrés returned to France. But it wasn't the same as before. And when the conquerors of Napoleon restored the Bourbon dynasty with Louis XVIII, the dynasty fizzled out again in 15 years.
Can an Elite really be re-established? Maybe that is where the post-Exilic Jewish Elite was rather unique and brilliant: they didn't just try to 'turn the clock back'. They greatly surpassed the Past while somehow remaining loyal to it, in identity.
Let's think of the Leftist intellectual establishment as being faced with a disaster in the early 1990s, when the Soviet Union ceased to exist; and consider the next couple decades as their 'Babylonian exile', culminating in the populist revolt of the Trump era.
Did the Leftist establishment learn anything? How have they changed? Are they better equipped than before to impose their totalitarian will on the Masses? How much change can be tolerated before a Leftist isn't really a Leftist anymore?
Whew! I will try to finish this next time.
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