We do not have to look far to see how deeply people are attracted to power, unfettered and raw.
We see it in sports – winning teams invariably have more fans. We thrill when we see domination. In some sports, that thrill can even be akin to bloodlust.
We see it in world events, where people overcome whatever common sense they might otherwise have had, and prostrate themselves before power. Liberal women and gays idiotically idolize the power of Hamas and Islam (albeit usually from a safe distance). But those same liberal women, without even understanding why, will even risk their own lives to defend rapists and murderers within our own borders.
The primacy of power is on display in the realm of human relationships, where tall/beautiful/powerful people have their own projected charismatic fields. Those who follow and emulate such people are not interested in what is “right” – they know, with instinctive certainty, that following someone else is what they should do. They almost never even question it.
It is also true in nature, where humans will go to great lengths just to feel overwhelmed and outmatched by mountains or waterfalls or tornadoes, as if experiencing such things fills a void in our hearts.
I even see it within the Jewish community: the vast majority of people do not really want to explore the scary frontier of what we, ourselves, should be doing with their lives. We would much rather follow a respected leader who will simply tell us what to do, so we can tick the boxes, secure in the knowledge that we are doing the “right thing” without any of the uncertainty that comes with making these decisions for ourselves. There is a great relief in letting someone else make our decisions for us.
Removing responsibility is on the same spectrum as choosing to be a victim: a woman who believes she is powerless is unable to be in conscious control of her own life. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy. This is the catastrophe – and evil – of modern liberalism.
The Torah has a single word for this desire and action, in all of its forms: zona.
Zona, as used in the text, means giving in to external power, to allow oneself to be governed by our animal instincts, not our higher functions. And desire is just another way to surrender our free will to power, to authority for its own sake:
I will cut off from among their people both that person and all who zona in going zona after Molech. And if any person turns to ghosts and familiar spirits and goes zona after them, I will set My face against that person, whom I will cut off from among the people.” (Lev. 20:5-6)
Molech, of course, is the power to shamelessly sacrifice our own children. Those who act in this way – like sending their children to be suicide bombers – are instinctively respected, even by those who really should know better. A deity who inspires anyone to murder is a powerful deity, indeed. And plenty of people, including much of the ruling class of Europe these days, bend their knees to Islam simply out of the desire to submit to its power.
Zona is giving in to power – whether internally generated lust, or externally inspired awe, worshipping pagan nature. “To thy own self be true” is another way of saying “follow your desires.” And our desires are to lose our free will in the face of strong urges, desires, and forces.
The Torah tries to keep us from acting in this way:
That shall be your fringe; look at it and recall all the commandments of G-d and observe them, so that you do not follow after your heart and after your eyes that lead your zona. (N. 15:39)
But it is an uphill battle. Zona offers a broad range of attractiveness:
While Israel was staying at Shittim, the menfolk profaned themselves by zona with the Moabite women, who invited the menfolk to the sacrifices for their god. The menfolk partook of them and worshiped that god. (Num 25:1-2)
Indeed, the Greek ideal of Pan, a goat deity, even makes an appearance in the Torah: So that they may no more offer their sacrifices to the goats after whom they zona. (Lev. 17:7) The goat-god Pan stood for reckless abandonment of mature responsibilities in favor of emulating an animal pursuing his pleasures in nature. Because abandoning oneself to nature is like taking drugs: you get to do whatever you want, with full deniability of any responsibility. Doesn’t it sound a bit like promiscuous and hedonistic Western society?
The Torah warns us against giving up our agency and free will and ability to think for ourselves. We are supposed to be responsible for our own actions. Zona is a catch-all for the opposite behavior, for giving in to our internal lusts and our external desire to submit to power.
When people decide to be “true to themselves,” and pursue their lustful urges, they then become governed by those lusts, and they become helpless victims.
Once a person concedes that they are not in charge of their own lives, then they instinctively seek to appease the great natural deities who control the fates of mere mortals, devolving directly into classical paganism.
The consequences of applauding whatever “consenting adults choose,” is that our world becomes corrupted as well; people turn to worship Mother Earth in all its forms, and abandon what the Torah tells us should be the real purpose of our lives: bettering people, building holy relationships, and creating a loving and supportive society.