Friday, July 17, 2026

Kibbutzim

When Israel was founded, there was a culturally powerful Kibbutz Movement, which mixed socialism and Zionism and young people lived communally. It was primarily agrarian at first, as utopian communities often are. These days most people getting back to the land are doing it just because they like it, but in the 50s-70s at least, that life was pursued as having a special holiness of its own. 

The socialists now reject the Zionists with an intense hatred.  I wonder if any of that comes from seeing them as defectors from socialism.  Israel has an extensive social safety net, but it is also prosperous and free market. 

It may be only indirectly related or even coincidental.  But betrayers of the cause are treated with implacable anger. 

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