Walter Benjamin once observed, “There is no document of civilization which is not at the same time a document of barbarism.” His insight points to the violent and bloody foundations upon which modern civilization was built: great monuments, cities, palaces, and fortifications often rose on the backs of slave labor, wars, and exploitation.
Today, we are witnessing a reversal with barbarism returning to the heart of civilization. The discourse surrounding the Gaza war in Western academia, journalism, and political leadership lays bare contradictions between professed values and actual practice. Many of those who lament the decline of democracy are themselves complicit in accelerating it.
Democracy rests not only on regular elections, the rule of law, and functioning political parties, but also on a political culture that sustains these institutions. History shows that even nations with enlightened constitutions have collapsed under the weight of political turmoil, authoritarianism, and contempt for legality. In the 19th century, Tocqueville observed that African Americans in the United States, though legally entitled to vote, refrained from doing so out of fear of mistreatment. From this, he concluded that laws without broad cultural support are unenforceable. In other words, democracy is defined as much by political culture as by formal documents and procedures.
Seen in this light, hostility toward the State of Israel and the resurgence of antisemitism pose dangers to democratic rule no less serious than constitutional violations. The Soviet Union may have collapsed as a communist regime, but its anti-Zionist slogans endure, especially within sectors that call themselves progressive. Israel is falsely branded as a system of apartheid and its war against Hamas in Gaza is falsely called genocide. Both claims originate in Soviet propaganda.
These narratives are sustained by academic frameworks such as “settler colonialism”—a paradigm first promoted in Ivy League institutions like Brown University and now widely embraced across faculty circles. Once entrenched, such ideas harden into unquestioned dogma, undermining principles of critical thinking.
Shortly after the Hamas massacres of civilians on October 7, 2023, more than 400 philosophy professors signed a letter criticizing Israel, indirectly attributing the massacres to Israeli policies.
Academic organizations, such as the American Anthropological Association, the American Sociological Association, and the Association for Asian American Studies, have endorsed boycotts of Israeli academic institutions. Similarly, the Middle East Studies Association, an organization dedicated to scholarly analysis of the region, passed anti-Israel resolutions. The American Historical Association has accused Israel of “scholasticide.” While this resolution was never formally adopted, it is particularly striking given that Israel upholds freedom of expression and academic inquiry, whereas Palestinian universities often operate under restrictive and dogmatic conditions.
The American Association of University Professors recently reversed its stance opposing academic boycotts. Its president, Todd Wolfsohn, gave an interview shortly after taking office calling for an end to all US military aid to Israel and characterizing Israel’s military operations in Gaza as genocide.
Academia sets an example that extends into broader cultural spheres, including the entertainment industry where attacks on Israel include events from the Oscars to the Emmys. About 4,000 film industry figures have signed an open letter calling for a boycott of the Israeli film industry and its workers, accusing the state of Israel of apartheid and genocide. The film boycott is inherently discriminatory, targeting Israeli citizens solely on the basis of their nationality, which is a clear act of racism based on national origin.
Likewise, mainstream newspapers often accept Hamas’s reports at face value. False accusations of Israeli policies, such as deliberate starvation, circulate freely, while nuance and fact-checking are virtually absent. On rare occasions, outlets acknowledge their errors, but such admissions arrive belatedly, couched in evasive language, and long after the damage has been done.
These developments affect not only Israel and the Jewish people but also Western civilization as a whole. In this environment, ideology increasingly displaces rational inquiry, helping to erode the cultural foundations on which democracy depends.
Perhaps the best description of the barbarism and incivility of our times comes from the Frankfurt School of intellectuals founded in Weimar Republic Germany. Its leading figure Theodor Adorno warned: “Lies have long legs: they are ahead of their time. The conversion of all questions of truth into questions of power … not only suppresses truth … but attacks the very heart of the distinction between true and false.”
This is precisely the situation we now face. Hamas’s campaign alleging that Israel was deliberately starving Gazans persisted long after the claim was disproven, gaining traction not only among fringe voices but within the international arena. The joint French-Saudi resolution—backed by 142 countries in support of a Palestinian state—includes language condemning “the attacks by Israel against civilians in Gaza and civilian infrastructure, siege and starvation, which have resulted in a devastating humanitarian catastrophe and protection crisis.” Here, a demonstrably false narrative has been enshrined in diplomatic discourse, exemplifying Adorno’s warning that lies, once politicized, erode the very boundary between truth and falsehood.
One might expect ordinary individuals to succumb to such simplistic thinking, but not academic scholars, serious journalists, or leaders of world democracies. Those signing these letters and making such claims are products of conformity. The Frankfurt School, particularly Theodor Adorno, warned against passive conformity — an enforced participation in mass culture, even when one is aware of its falsity.
We are living in an age where barbarism has returned. As Elie Wiesel observed, echoing the German Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller, hatred may begin toward the Jews, but it does not end there. We would do well to heed this warning.
