We Want AI to Kill Us All

By Emmett Rensin

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The Irresponsible Magid

 Shaul Magid’s essay “Kahane Nation?” (Sept. 10, 2026) moves quickly from Meir Kahane’s advocacy for violence in the late twentieth century to American Jews buying firearms in response to antisemitism in the past few years. Magid then reminds readers that Kahane’s movement provided security at synagogues and protested anti-Israel events. “Sound familiar?” he asks.  That rhetorical question is the problem with his “argument.” Yes, synagogue security sounds familiar. So do Jewish fears of antisemitism, doubts about institutional protection, protests against…

We Want AI to Kill Us All

By Emmett Rensin
Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat before the gathered multitudes. His disciples came to him, and he began to align them: Blessed are the poor in spirit … Blessed are those who mourn … Blessed are the meek … Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness … the merciful … the pure in heart … the peacemakers. Will the AI kill us? Probably not. Do we want the AI to kill us? Yes. We do. We want so badly for the AI to kill us all. We want the AI…

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Blake Smith: How does Christianity help us mediate, as you suggest, between the worst sort of collectivism and the worst sort of individualism? Or perhaps mediate is the wrong word, since these two “worsts” do so often go together! Let’s say, transcend?
Julius Krein: I don’t think it’s anything more complicated than Christianity’s consciousness of the division between the City of God and the City of Man, “render unto Caesar,” and so on. But this distinguishes Christianity from the other monotheistic religions as well as ancient paganism and, I would argue, “rational” philosophy. This distance allows for another dimension or perspective from which to approach the relationship between the individual and the collective.