[response paragraph]

This is my response paragraph for this week's assignment in Great Books. We're reading Josephus right now, The Jewish War. It's a really great book. Just a note: the Zealots was a gang of Jews that grabbed power in the city, and just went hog wild there. The atrocities that went on in there were soo bad, a lot of the Jews deserted to the Romans, gave themselves up as slaves to get away from what was going on in the city. The only problem with that is that you were risking your life just by trying to leave the city, if you were caught leaving, they would kill you and leave your body outside the city walls. It was a bloodbath, extreme internal dissension. 

{response paragraph}

I was really struck this week by the disintegration of things in Jerusalem. It was so easy, nobody resisted. I think there were many people who opposed it, but for some reason didn't do anything publicly. They just let it happen. They gave power to the evil men through "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." This quote is often attributed to Thomas Burke, but in reality the author is unknown. However, it very accurately describes the conditions there in Jerusalem. Ananus gives a very moving speech to the same affect, shortly after the Zealots seized the Temple, saying, "You are plundered without a protest, beaten without a murmur, witnesses of murder without one audible groan.....Wasn't it you who shut your eyes when the gang was first formed-a mere handful then-encouraged its growth by your silence, and by standing idly by while they were arming turned those arms against yourselves?.....you yourselves built every one of the steps by which these sacrilegious wretches have climbed so insolently; do not grumble if they have reached the top." What I've taken away from this? Don't stand by and watch evil form. Not in your country, not in your heart, your personal life. Don't feed a bad habit or a sinful activity by ignoring it. Deal with it, confess it, kill it.

My best friend and me.