Here’s where the Political Compass web site says I stand politically.

Personally, I don’t think I’m that left… but the questions they ask certainly suggest I am.

Douglas Ruskoff got his start as a media / Generation-X writer. Lately, he has turned his focus to issues of Judiasm. His book Nothing Sacred is on my "must bring on the next vacation" list. It seems to tap into much of what I’ve been thinking about Judiasm and identity and the ideas underneath Judiasm as a way of life.

So it’s interesting and disconcerting and, perhaps more than a little frustrating, when I read about the panel he was on last week, as he writes:

But it did make me think about the limited gains of attempting to spread Torah – or any universal philosophy – under a banner that for many means race. I honestly believe that I’m less likely to find people willing to engage with the underlying ideas of Judaism at a Jewish event than at almost any other. Yes, as one rabbi has advised me, it’s because Jews have so much at stake in their positions on these ideas. But that very at-stakeness translates into a closed-mindedness and an inability to engage.

But it’s an interesting idea… and one worth exploring… how much do we become stuck in our ideas because our ideas become synonymous with our own identities? How many of us would be more willing to change our minds if those ideas weren’t so powerfully intertwined who we were… the ideas of our peers (some religion, gender, race, political party, family… take your pick?)

How do we retain fluidity of ideas while also retaining a strong sense of self?