Credo 1

People should not be shielded (especially at university) from views they disagree with or find uncomfortable.

[Corollary: Banning and No-Platforming speakers, and 'safe spaces', should be rare, at most]

The Real Me

Be yourself; that’s what everyone says
Don’t play a role; don’t try to impress
Be yourself; let your emotions show
The real you is beautiful

Well, if anyone knows who the real me is,
Don’t keep it to yourself; share it please
There is no man in my head that is trying to get out
There is no one single thing that I’m all about

There is no unified me across situations or time
Not reducible to material matter, or substance sublime
There are ideals, which at certain times, I strive
But why should this ideal be rei-ified?

Is what I am, how I act?
Does it matter if I’m quiet or loud and brash
When I’m childish or wise beyond my years
When I’m happy and smiling or close to tears

Is one more me than the other?
Is one genuine and one a cover?

Jeremy Corbyn: Likes, Dislikes, Indifferences and Ambivalences: Asceticism

Jeremy Corbyn is, of course, an unacceptable force in British politics.  … It is also true that not everything he says is or will be bad or wrong… See full intro here

One dislike is Jeremy Corbyn’s asceticism, and coming with that as a bedfellow is obsession . 

See Jeremy Corbyn Story on BBC Website.

a man who is known for his austere, almost ascetic, approach to life...

He reportedly split up with his second wife Claudia after she insisted on sending their son Ben ...to Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, in Barnet, instead of an Islington comprehensive....

Chapman says she married Corbyn for his "honesty" and "principles" but she soon grew weary of his intense focus on politics.

"Politics became our life. He was out most evenings because when we weren't at meetings he would go to the Labour headquarters, and do photocopying

But fun was in short supply at home, recalls Chapman, who remains in touch with Corbyn and backed his leadership bid.

During their five years together he never once took her dinner, she told The Mail, preferring instead to "grab a can of beans and eat it straight from the can" to save time.

I have not great love for material or expensive things.  I don't like to splash the cash.  I feel very bad claiming even legitimate expenses at work (taxis etc).  I don't have a great drive or ambition to climb the greasy pole.

Yet, extreme asceticism will often signify an imbalance, or of being psychologically unhealthy: 

• Following one extreme - even if that extreme is one that results in staying away from bad or unnecessary things - can lead to the negation of good things that could be concentrated on (e.g. ascetics bean eating at the expense of attention to your family). 
• It can lead to a lack of compromise -  compromise that leads to a negation of one's saintliness and yet necessary for getting on in the world (cf. breaking up with your wife about your childs' school)
• It will often come from a place of obsession (cf. out every night at Labour Headquarters) 
• At the very least, it leads to a certain element of being unrelatable.  Asceticism is, at its core, a manifestation of not being like everyone else, not being quite of the world.  Can one who is an ascetic empathise with the priorities and concerns of everyone else, and vice versa? (cf. Corbyn's favourite biscuit)

As I say, asceticism isn't wrong in it itself, but can be both symptomatic of, and a precursor to, obsession.  To repeat, I think obsession is wrong even if that obsession is about a good thing. 

For an observant Jew, studying Torah is one of the highest ideals and one that one should dedicate a good proportion of time to.  Once, however, a rabbi I very much respect told of someone who never got a haircut because he didn't want to lose any opportunity to study.  I said it was obsessive and he said: "But is that a bad thing if what he is obsessive about is Torah?" Well, yes, yes it is. 

Equally charity (cf. Peter Singer).  Giving away too much money if it leave you yourself poor, or if you devote more to other people than your own family, it is a bad thing.

Asceticism and Obsession are characteristic of extremists (e.g. religious extremists).  The following of one ideal, one purpose, one goal, one value (at the expense of all others) will at least lead you to having very strange bedfellows; and justifying things which in any other situation one would reject so long as it furthers your goal.  There is a certain level of judgement and sense that is gained from diversity (of people, experience, interests, obstacles) that is absent from people that focus on just 'important' things whilst being generally switched off.

Of course, the above are all the lifestyle choices of somebody which I have no right to criticise on their own terms.  No-one should eat fancy dinners on my say so.  Yet, these items come into play if they start to effect other people - as in the case of politics.

Just as I have no interest in Israeli ultra-orthodox, chareidi, religious judgements from people that know a lot of religious source material but not about peoples' actual religious practice; politicians who do not share the moral sense, or priorities, of the country is not someone I want as a leader.

Rambam/Maimonides contrasts the saint (chassid) and the wise man (chacham).  The saint stays away from evil influences; and if the evil is one extreme they will go to the other extreme to avoid the merest hint of them.  The wise man on the other hand always takes the middle path: He chooses not to do that which is detrimental but does so from a normal context, in amongst the real world.  It might occasionally be necessary to be a saint, but for him, the wise man is far superior. 

Dislocated

Dislocated, disjointed, an act of teruf
Thrown in a pit, below eye level, handled rough
Cut off from my forbears, disconnected narrative
Willful forgetting, past events not substantive

Solipsistic universe, me myself and I
Eternal chasm between world and mind
Acts of conquest, physical, intellectual
Reach no-mans’ land, turn back now

Man with many homes, at home in none
Amongst the holy, the holy shunned
Constant diaspora, age of anxiety
Full of petrol but running on empty

Physical-spiritual, dichotomy manufactured
A personal unity, holistic nature fractured
From communal striving to personal war
All are, forever, Tinok Shenishba