19 December 2010

Labor, territory, settledness and chosenness

"Living in an environment which they had no power to transform into a civilized world, they could discover no higher value than themselves. The point, however, is that no matter whether racism appears as the natural result of a catastrophe or as the conscious instrument for bringing it about, it is always closely tied to contempt for labor, hatred of territorial limitation, general rootlessness, and an activist faith in one's own chosenness.". (The Origins of Totalitarianism, Hannah Arendt, 1994; page 197). 
Labor, territory, settledness, and chosenness as a matter for appreciation rather than self-importance – these are the elements of 'ki tavouh el haaretz.' 

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