{"title":"Defrosting humanism: Losing my ethical worldview in the wake of October 7th and Israel's retaliation","authors":"Yael Assor","doi":"10.1111/etho.70039","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>This auto-ethnographic analysis describes the loss of my ethical worldview and my attempts to regain it following the October 7th Hamas attack on Israel and the subsequent Israeli retaliation. On October 7th, I was unable to feel compassion for the people of Gaza or to take action against the Israeli retaliation, aspects that I used to see as foundational to my humanistic worldview. As I lost my intuitive understanding of humanism, I realized that it had become to me what Hannah Arendt defined as a “frozen” thought, a fixed and unquestioned concept. Drawing upon my attempts to “defrost” my humanistic worldview, this essay critically considers Arendt's theorization and offers an ethical perspective that is grounded on ambiguity rather than on clear and fixed concepts. Focusing on these internal processes also illuminates the moral atmosphere that enables an Israeli public discourse that largely facilitates the violent retaliation against Palestinians.</p>","PeriodicalId":51532,"journal":{"name":"Ethos","volume":"54 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.1000,"publicationDate":"2026-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/etho.70039","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Ethos","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/etho.70039","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2026/5/26 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"ANTHROPOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This auto-ethnographic analysis describes the loss of my ethical worldview and my attempts to regain it following the October 7th Hamas attack on Israel and the subsequent Israeli retaliation. On October 7th, I was unable to feel compassion for the people of Gaza or to take action against the Israeli retaliation, aspects that I used to see as foundational to my humanistic worldview. As I lost my intuitive understanding of humanism, I realized that it had become to me what Hannah Arendt defined as a “frozen” thought, a fixed and unquestioned concept. Drawing upon my attempts to “defrost” my humanistic worldview, this essay critically considers Arendt's theorization and offers an ethical perspective that is grounded on ambiguity rather than on clear and fixed concepts. Focusing on these internal processes also illuminates the moral atmosphere that enables an Israeli public discourse that largely facilitates the violent retaliation against Palestinians.
期刊介绍：
Ethos is an interdisciplinary and international quarterly journal devoted to scholarly articles dealing with the interrelationships between the individual and the sociocultural milieu, between the psychological disciplines and the social disciplines. The journal publishes work from a wide spectrum of research perspectives. Recent issues, for example, include papers on religion and ritual, medical practice, child development, family relationships, interactional dynamics, history and subjectivity, feminist approaches, emotion, cognitive modeling and cultural belief systems. Methodologies range from analyses of language and discourse, to ethnographic and historical interpretations, to experimental treatments and cross-cultural comparisons.
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