Old Abrahamic religious mindsets in new IT companies (part 13)

⟵ Old Abrahamic religious mindsets in new IT companies (part 12)

In the previous part of this series I wrote about issues that may appear between the observational side and the side immersed in the existing organization, especially when men start to pay more attention to the (initially) feminine psychology. Let me write also something about this in the existing organization in the Jewish context. The starting point feels like a quest in saving the sense of order and organization when realizing you don’t know what to do with all that diachronic complexity in relation to real life, while still feeling it so valuable and meaningful. It can be like in Af Echad of the psychological basement of Ania Bukstein, with a side of her invested in saving the belief that the classical masculinity has a core that can work with diachronicity and another side of her that escapes that. It is a side that it is guilty of “meaningless pursuits”, but she can’t find a way to defeat it. The point of view of the other side can be like in Frecha of Ofra Haza.

And the contemplation by the end of Af Echad is the rabbinical Jewish practical wisdom about the situation, since in the pre-rabbinical times it was something more like in Jalğız-aq bile of the Kazakh singer Nurjan Kermenbaev (but with somebody that was not so stale and linear, with a much more clear realization that it is necessary to save the diachronic gist too; the initial Jewish outlook was about saving both the value of the diachronic gist and the impression that the classical masculinity can deal with that).

Picture the woman tearing apart the posters in the boy’s room as those ancient Jewish religious men destroying any visual idols, in the name of an abyssal psychological coherence that can supposedly keep both the classical masculine organization and the diachronic fluidity, and thus must not get lost in “meaningless perceptions”. As those were men who likely grew up with such women, they also had themselves that deep yearning for self-expression like the vibe of the music from this video. They had in themselves both these angles as a result of the lack of ideas about how to organize social life with the diachronic psychology.

It is like the boy from the video growing up with his mother’s perspective and processing the yearning through her abyssal monotheistic angle that aims to not end up being stuck in any “meaningless details” while being immersed in the fluid multi-dimensional diachronic gist. And later on, after many painful tribulations, the rabbinical perspective had some opening about the contemplation like by the end of Af Echad.

The guy from O’yna-o’yna of the Uzbek singer Ziyoda looks like being in that initial situation, with both a simple diachronic monotheistic focus beyond “meaningless details” and an inner yearning for self-expression. Something like in Oşko of Totomidin and Surma is like when the man is immersed in the mind-boggling diachronic present tense with this feminine expectation to provide order. But if the man wonders what is going on as an overall organization, then it is more like in O’yna-o’yna. A man can have both these nuances.

When you just face the situation as a psychological abyss, the issue of “meaningless pursuits” can be taken much more naturally in consideration, as both the man and the woman need to get serious while feeling like they take in consideration the gist of the diachronicity, without which everything would feel suffocating. Like the way Riff Cohen immerses in Jean qui rit, Jean qui pleure (translation) in a Jewish masculine mind and realizes the psychological abyss at the end. Usually, a woman staying on the sideline and not really experiencing what is like to be in a position to organize is simply clueless about what a mental abyss is created by the task to organize social life with full-course diachronicity. The goalposts can be moved in a more relevant direction and the woman can have some more in-depth realization about the complexity it supposes, but there may still remain some belief in a core in classical masculinity that can provide organization for that.

The situation between the observational side and the side immersed in the existing ecosystem of knowledge can also be like in Greta Garbo of Yardena Arazi, in which the woman does not like to be caught in simplifying categorizations when in relations with men, “I am not Greta Garbo, this is real life, this is not a film”, “speak Hebrew, not English”. The male attention to the diachronic psychology can turn into perceptions that are too superficial and suffocating (at least initially). Compare to the previous Frecha, “I want to love like in the films”, “a hunk speaking in English”.

This vibe of Yardena Arazi is related to that Jewish rejection of superficial classification and categorization, like the initial religious man showing his bad teeth in Mashiach (“Messiah”) of the band Shabak Samech, in order to prevent any creation of lazy-minded static impressions about him. There is a serious diachronic abyss in the religiosity he is talking about and he has to stay within its gist without losing it himself as a man and also without becoming a foolish unidimensional woman’s hero either.

Compare also with Habeit Ya Leil of Nawal El Zoghbi, with a distinction between a side of the woman as a plurality of diachronic threads seeing the existing ecosystem of organization as a film and a side of her as a plurality of diachronic threads really being present in that ecosystem as though that is “reality”. Or Altaic insights into this situation, as in Sargardoringman of the Uzbek singer Umidaxon (in which the man himself experiences too such two sides) or in Uyansın (“Wake up”) of Neslihan Demirtaş, which is so valuable as a move back and forth between these two points of view, every time noticing unexpected angles, until the “grasshopper hops” and you have a much more in-depth understanding of the situation (not necessarily only in conflictual situations as in the video, but in general too).

In the Jewish context, first it is this feminine aim to develop a masculinity that can organize social life with full-course diachronicity. There is a belief in a core in classical masculinity that can deal with that, but the goalposts are really moved further in a more relevant direction, and this really develops a new relevant masculinity in this sense. But, when the men assume this masculinity, they may not really sense all the essential nuances, and it can feel suffocating for women. It is like, “wait a minute, I need to do something about seeing everything as a film, the men take that film as reality”.

The reaction is to reject any perceptions that take the “film” as reality. It is not about rejecting the concept of an observational side, but about staying focused on the diachronic gist. This feeling of suffocation gets back to the men and they apply too such feminine reactions to really take the gist in consideration, while they also must be careful to not end up as unidimensional women’s heroes, devoid of a life of their own. And, in time, the experience accumulated around such issues can develop more relevant psychological nuances and avenues.

This situation can also be like in Ani lo Madonna (“I am not Madonna”, translation) of Sarit Hadad, around the same previous issues. But she does not have a psychological power like that of Yardena Arazi, she does not sound so convincing and she can’t defend what is important in this manner. This only makes her increasingly insightful around Jewish topics, like what I write in Part 16 of Perceiving complexity about her Hikiti Lo (translation). Then she is a person who does not depend so much on the existing masculine organization, she has the psychological depth to make a clear cut-off when it is the case, like in Me’achelet Lecha (translation).

And, in general, there is substance in what she sings, no wonder she is the most appreciated contemporary Israeli female singer. The Lebanese singer Najwa Karam, who became the most appreciated contemporary Arab female singer, had too a path with an initial shy vibe. The same as Sarit Hadad, she did not have the disposition to project strength when it was not the case and it felt inauthentic. She assumed and lived the situation, took in consideration what was that about and explored the psychological depths. Such insights give you substance (I wrote more about how I see Najwa Karam’s path in Some Lebanese female singers facing static mental plateaus).

The previous Riff Cohen, with her immersion in a Jewish masculine mind, kind of goes too much along with it and takes for granted a static sense of order when it is not the case. The immersion itself is a very good thing and it is something to be cultivated among other things. She also has insightful music, like Tzama Nafshi. Probably you don’t even need to know that the first word tehom means “abyss” in Hebrew to sense what is that about. But this is more as an atemporal immersion, not so experienced around how to relate it to the real “real life”.

Much of her music is too much of a diachronic processing of existing notions without the abyssal unfoldment of the present tense, like for example in Marrakech, which I find useless. And, when a plateau of fulfillment she fell into cannot be realized, she revolves too much around the man’s organization, like in Helas, she gets back to him to flaunt her new boyfriend and how “changed” she is. Her insights and empathetic immersions from some of her music videos are very good, but it is necessary to sense that there is more to it, as they can turn into a short-cut of impressions that this is it, as something atemporal.

Something like Ew3a El Wa7sh of Hassan El Kholaey and Johara is a much more realistic immersion in the mind-boggling present tense than Marrakech. It is not necessary to be “just crazy” like this, as this kind of expressivity is about seeking to have both the simplistic classical masculine linear self-centered sense of organization and the immersion in the fluidity of the present tense, while the goalposts around what masculinity can do are not moved in a more relevant direction. Hence it turns so crazy. Something like in Habeit Ya Leil of Nawal El Zoghbi has only the latter, while leaning on men for the former (which means that the men may turn into some overwhelmed psychological support for women, without a life of their own, if they simply continue with the classical masculine sense of organization).

What looks like an immersion in a Jewish masculine mind in Jean qui rit, Jean qui pleure assumes what appears beyond the focus on the classical human sense of knowledge as control of the situation. “Jean who laughs, Jean who cries… is me!” The previous Habeit Ya Leil of Nawal El Zoghbi is a more conscious exploration of that focus and the attention to this aspect is also a good thing to some extent.

The good thing for Riff Cohen in her case is that she senses that she has to be authentic and not avoid such realizations about what is beyond the focus. And then the exploration ending up with the appearance of that abyss at the end of the video. Next year, she came up with Que du bonheur, with a start of a better understanding about how a masculine mind copes with the huge complexity that is opened by realizing the gist of the diachronic psychology of likely feminine origin. There are no classical masculine resources for that, and the woman has to take more directly in consideration the fluid psychology as a world in itself and the mind-boggling present tense it opens.

The gist is the same as in Ew3a El Wa7sh of Hassan El Kholaey and Johara, only that here it is with a Jewish sense of order. This sense of order is not a classical human one, it really grows from this gist. But it is more about some abyssally relevant bases, it is about a concept of order that is fulfilling and relevant for this gist. Regarding its practical application in real life, it has lots of blank spaces, the parts where the long term-feminine experience did not have relevant expertise.

A man may rush to fill in those blank spaces and be quickly under impression that he represents the right sense of order, but the long-term Jewish historical experience showed that more investigation and insight is necessary. The thing when one realizes the need for further investigation is that the sense of order is not crumbling as in a classical masculine sense of order. It continues to have a surprising relevance beyond one’s realization that the previous ecosystem of knowledge had some serious structural problems. One realizes that he simply did not get some nuances, while an abyssal sense of order still remains valid. You may not really have an idea about how it works as in a classical human sense of order, but it still has a sense of being relevant for that gist.

This is not a sense of order based on an ecosystem of knowledge, as in the classical human mindset. The man may build up an ecosystem of knowledge by filling in the blank spaces he notices, later on that ecosystem may break apart, but in the background that abyssal sense of order still remains relevant and even more insightful after realizing issues around the ecosystem that broke apart.

The issue of the contemporary Jewry having some realizations about how much more is necessary to study is also reflected in the way Que du bonheur is only about being on the brink of that plenary expressivity. There is a realization of something like in Ew3a El Wa7sh (which in this video is looked at only under the subterfuge of a dream), but Que du bonheur does not delve into how that looks like when experienced with the Jewish sense of order, because currently there is no so much relevant Jewish expertise for that.

A year after Que du bonheur, Riff Cohen came up with Marrakech. It looks like she got back to the simplistic linear self-centered masculine sense of organization. Her story now looks like a Jewish feminine version of the issues from Kafka’s Castle, around a too direct linear consideration of an abyssal psychology and sense of order. Only that she simply went back to rely as a woman on the classical masculine organization and revolve around it by . She is back to the focus. In Jean qui rit, Jean qui pleure she was

Marrakech has both a simplistic linear sense of order and the immersion in the diachronic psychology. But is not that kind of mind-boggling present tense of real life, while the mollified man by the beginning is the impression that the environment is softened enough to make the whole package work. The sense of organization is simple, the pressure of real life is simple and such a package can work in this context.

Historically, such an option was obviously not realistic in the unfoldment of the mind-boggling real life and this determines down the line feminine reactions to make the men strong and in control of the situation regarding the fluid diachronicity like in Sheikh El Shebab of the Lebanese singer Diana Haddad or Af Echad of Ania Bukstein. The former is with the feminine impression that classical masculinity can handle the full-course diachronicity, the latter is with the historically accumulated Jewish experience and rabbinical opening of the mind about the limits of the classical masculinity in this sense.

An insight into the Jewish situation like in Hikiti Lo (translation) of Sarit Hadad, with the same actor playing all those roles (and with the lyrics about a woman whose entire life is revolving around a man who abandoned her), is an increased comfortability with a sense of organization beyond the simplistic classical masculine type, after facing more directly what has accumulated in the Jewish history.

Sarit Hadad and Najwa Karam were more about living, exploring their own feelings of unexpected, unexplained lack of confidence, abyssal unknown and seeing what is with that fluid psychology beyond the focus on a classical masculine sense of order. But I think that an empathetic immersion in a masculine mind is also a good thing. Now that I think of it, my success in these insights has both an exploration of masculine aspects and an empathetic immersion in the feminine perspective.

Both had something like going along with

She is not self-confident, but with that Jewish living in the complexity

I should stress that the way I notice an expressivity like that of Sarit Hadad is not about the rejection of that feeling of a mental abyss beyond the sense of fulfillment one may slide into at a certain time in their lives. The rejection most likely means still revolving around it, like Riff Cohen, which is a major issue around some specific nuances of mental blockage in the Jewish history. It is more about an increased comfortability with the abyss and nothing from what is felt essential in the Jewish fulfilling abyssal experience is lost.

For example, I find valuable an expressivity like that from Dhub utfatar of Ninet Tayeb (with Dudu Tassa and The Kuwaitis), facing what is going on with that abyss beyond sliding into a plateau of fulfillment (the lyrics are about a heartbroken woman). It is not about rejecting this, but seeing what to do with this from the perspective of continuing the gist of the full-course diachronicity, exploring what is going on with the gist there.

Or Akhadhhu Mini Urah by Dudu Tassa and The Kuwaitis. What a feeling of relief is felt when the female backing vocals repeat the initial lyrics of Dudu Tassa, reaching the part with ilhamdu lilah … (“thank God, the sugar is gone”, in the idea of being sober again after falling in a love whose fulfillment has broken). The female backing vocals bring a much more authentic and to the point expressivity, much more immersed in the psychology at work there. It feels like the man’s anima and it really feels like finding a way to move the situation forward, without losing what is important in the Jewish sense of fulfillment.

A man may not even know how to face such situations initially (but he can learn to pay more attention and see what to do with such psychology as a man). He is the one supposed to provide order in all that abyssal complexity, but in the Jewish context, the men feel too in such moments the abyss beyond the classical sense of order, because they do not really have that core of classical masculinity that the women are under impression it can provide order for the full-course diachronicity.

The images of these two videos also express well the psychological abyss that leads to the Jewish monotheism avoiding imagery that can be felt too static and superficial, with the choice of rather not showing the face, but still implying it, with all the implications about the depth of perception. This is the part where Christianity and Islam went with palliative “solutions” supposedly “solving” such an abyss, with female virginity, respectively pedophilia and consanguinity.

Que du bonheur can be perceived as something extraordinary or as something abyssaly scary

And, in practice, this Jewish perception of a mental abyss when the fulfillment is broken is not limited only to contexts like in the previous videos. To give a few of the other angles, it can be like in Dance Me to the End of Love of Leonard Cohen, experiencing or contemplating the possibility of the death of the partner. It can be about the ancestors from the past who are no longer alive, like in Sayib Ya Galbi Sayib of Dudu Tassa & The Kuwaitis, which harks back to his grandfather, a renowned singer in Iraq.

This revolves around the issues of “death as the experience of an utter abyss in human relations” from The Epic of Gilgamesh. Think also of the Arabic expression ya’aburnee (“you bury me”), said in the hope to die earlier than the person loved, since living without that person would be too abyssal. The perception of death ends up in terms that are opposite to the Indian ones. In the Indian case, it is about an abyss too, but it is felt as a great refreshment, as a result of the other psychological circumstances.

In the specific Jewish nuance of the Middle Eastern angle, there is some reliance on a sense of order that unexpectedly continues alive even in such situations. Further on, it depends to what extent people lean on it as a belief in a core in classical masculinity that can provide organization for the full-course diachronicity or they really see what is with that abyss.

In this sense, I do not imply that this attention to such abyssal moments is necessarily about going beyond the concept of God as a core in the classical masculinity able to provide organization for the full-course diachronicity. The basic sense of order for the full-course diachronicity remains valid and relevant, because that diachronicity is relevant. It is more about realizing how much more is beyond the impression that classical masculinity can provide order for that. It is about paying more attention to situations when the mind slides into a feeling of fulfillment.

Such fulfillment can feel as a representation of everything to the extent the woman is under impression that classical masculinity can provide order to the full-course diachronicity and thus the man may feel like speaking in the name of a God in charge of everything. The moments when the fulfillment with another person is broken for various reasons shows for both men and women what is that “everything” about, what a mental abyss is there. And, as the sense of order for that full-course diachronicity remains relevant, it is not so much about moving beyond the concept of God, but more about like at the end of the Story of Job, when God asks him what he really understands of the world?

The context of that story is, in a sense, adequate to express much better the practicalities of the underlying diachronic psychology, since it is about an mind-boggling suffering like that which developed such feminine psychology along many generations. Only that in this case it is about a man undergoing it, he does not revolve himself around the concept of a core in classical masculinity that can provide order for such profound perceptions. He is himself the one providing order, but he still does not know what to think beyond the simplistic classical masculine sense of understanding things. And, as the story progresses, there is increased awareness about what a huge psychology is beyond.

And, structurally, the belief in a core in classical masculinity able to provide order for all the abyssaly diachronic psychology tends to perpetuate situations that developed such psychology in the first place. It just introduces a profound, yet complex psychology, and the impression that men already have the abilities to provide order for that only turns into a deconstruction of the classical masculine sense of organization.

This, of course, does not make less despicable and accountable the anti-Semitic perpetrators who use this situation to dump their problems on the Jews and make the complexity of life simpler for themselves. And it is not only the issue that they are despicable, but also the issue that they turn into dumb idiots when they find this breezy way through life by dumping any complexity on the Jews. The more you see the Jews as the root of the problems in your life, the dumber you become.

It is not only about the suffering of the Jews, but also that it has bad destructive effects for the anti-Semites themselves. It is a weird situation that turns people into some sort of bizarro Jews who suddenly realize

The Jews are some sort of Atlases who hold a huge complexity of the world on their shoulders

given the way it makes people feel great about themselves, with a supposed “clear” mind that “understands” deep truths about the world, suddenly situated in the middle of essential perceptions about the world by blaming the Jews (and it is their fault, they seek easy ways through life). Besides historical cases with an apogee in the Nazi Germany, see these effects in the current Arab world, in the leftist and rightist streaks in the Western world that lean too much on Jews as something easy to blame etc.

The rabbinical approach that saved the situation for the remnant of the Jews after the disaster with the Romans is about some more direct connection with that diachronic abyss. There can be some more direct masculine immersion in the diachronic abyss of the present tense, with that increasing rabbinical Jewish experience, like in Yosef Hashem with Mona Rosenblum conducting the Freilach band, the Shira choir and the soloists Shulem Lemmer and Avrum Chaim Green (more details about it in part 5 of this series).

Something like this comes to my mind as an approach with much better bases when I see the men from One Hundred Years of Solitude going nuts from a self-confident linear waste of their minds in the diachronicity. I wonder if men by themselves can realize after a while the gist of that complexity or they are just condemned to a Sysiphean insanity if they are left to their own devices when the gates of diachronicity are open in such context of a veneer of outside cultural structures that still believe in the classical human linear outlook.

This Jewish masculine immersion in the gist was made possible because the women themselves in the first place had a more direct realization of it. Their reaction was to save the concept that classical masculinity can make sense of it, but, after a painful history, there were some more in-depth realizations around this topic.

Around these issues, as I mentioned before, I am also aware of an Albanian approach like in Tallava of Teuta Selimi and a Korean approach like in that traditional dance. In the former, the women did not end up in such a psychological abyss as in the Asian/Amerindian cultures. In the latter, it is the experience of a surface veneer of outside cultural influences which gave the impression that you can just work linearly with the diachronicity, with all the ensuing problems (a basic context similar to the Latin American and Russian ones).

The Jewish history is about men being psychologically knocked out of a “normal” linear life, but it is about them being immersed from the start in the diachronic gist. It is the experience of a profound psychological potential of a diachronic masculinity developed by women, but it is such a steep learning curve to do something with it in real life. The Jewish historical narrative starts with the feeling of great things to come, but in practice they do nothing, as they have no idea where and how to start. The major watershed done by Moses occurred when push came to the shove and they could not endure anymore the Egyptian slavery. The modern iteration of the Israeli society and state appeared when push came to the shove and they had to save themselves from the rush of idiots leaning on the Jews’ exposure of “bad teeth” for projecting their own inadequacies in facing modernity.

Nowadays, there is this impression that the Jews are successful, but a large percentage of the contemporary Jewry is made of people knocked out of “normal” linear life. Many religious Jews earn just enough to go by. And it is rather the women who work in these ultra-religious environments, as the men spend most of their time with the pursuits of their psychologically knocked-out minds, studying and debating religious topics, singing and dancing religious music.

For example, the municipalities with the lowest median income in the US tend to be inhabited compactly by religious Jews. I don’t know how the current statistics are, but some years ago Kiryas Joel was the poorest municipality in the US. It is a poverty that is not noticed so much, as they are imbibed with meaning in their lives, it does not turn into a feeling of failure when compared to affluent people. They seek to take care well of the resources they already have, they have networks to support each other when in need and crime is virtually non-existent. But they are really poor. The authorities don’t bother with them, as it is a cheap and largely hands-free poverty (the poverty tends to be expensive for the US authorities and with lots of practical headaches).

They live in their own world and they don’t bother anybody, they don’t have a specific self-centered “truth” about the world like in the Muslim relation with the rest of the people from Hassen Rasool’s call to prayer. It is a problem in Israel, where they got used to special state stipends and they do want to impose the strict Jewish religious regulations in the country, as it is about the very bubble they live in. Plus that they are an increasingly large percentage of the overall population of the country that does not contribute to the economy and defense.

I see as something inevitable the basic state of mind these people live in, as an opening to a much more profound perspective, only that it can be a steep learning curve to do something with it. Plus that you can’t really un-know it once you have some awareness, it is a compelling awareness. Among the contemporary Jewry, I feel closest as life experience to those Jews who left the closed-off religious environment and experience the modern world. I am lucky to have also some other valuable cultural angles in my background and in my life experience (plus my own work with them and also some work with them in the previous generations).

the indian train is not happy-go-lucky, it feels with a deep meaning, it takes in consideration the gist, it is in its flow, it is fulfilling and once you realize what it is about you are not going to leave it unless something more profound may appear. being happy-go lucky means thinking from the point of view of a static self-centered sense of organization

→ Old Abrahamic religious mindsets in new IT companies (part 14)