The newly powerful in every case have to learn how to wield power responsibly and for the good of the whole. We can’t just depend on popular struggle from below to always keep the powerful honest, because frankly people don’t want to be political all the time: we want new norms of behavior for how to wield power and this is a hard thing for people who have always been oppressed to develop and internalize in their own minds, because it means first and foremost admitting that one is prey to the same kinds of corruption and temptation that the powerless have always excoriated in the powerful. The more the oppressed have demonized their oppressors in the past, the harder it is to admit when they become powerful themselves that they may possess the same kind of human nature. But we are all human, all capable of misusing power and likely to do so once we have it. [Later: it strikes me that "demonized" may be the wrong word. I mean that when the oppressed have been so brutally treated that they find their oppressors incomprehensible and "other" it can be hard to find the potential in themselves for acting in even partially similar ways to be too hard to really face, in part because it may mean rethinking just how "other" one's oppressors were.]

What is a moral state? How do we form one? What do we do with weapons and a military when we have one? How do we treat strangers in our midst?

The people who hold power in Israel are still governing as if they were powerless.

He meant that we’re still responsible for participating in our own governence. Which means that we can’t wait on Messiahs to do it for us then or now.

I often find that your diaries spur me on to deeper thought, whether its because I absolutely hate what you said or I love what you said. In this case, it’s because I love what you said! At the moment there is a great deal of polarization among progressives on other blogs. Messianism lies at the heart of it. One group of bloggers is absolutely intent on tearing down Obama because he did not live up to their Messianic ideals. So a few of them have formed alliances with the far right for this purpose. Another group is patrolling diaries for any sign of criticism, and then hijacking the comment threads with slurs and threats. None of them are focusing on the structural issues that underly Obama’s decisions.

The basic underlying issue that should be compelling our debate is the relationship between public and private interests. What role should government be playing in our lives? Elevating Obama to Messiahood removes our responsibility to define these roles ourselves.

I don’t know what the correct balance between public and private is, but I am sure it is not defined by an ideology. It must be determined through dialogue. And for that to happen you need ten adults: a community. Or in the case of our religion, the ten adult Jews required to make up a minyan.

I think maybe your later point about Jews rejecting a mediator in our relationship with God is more what you meant to emphasize?