Here we are again. “Don’t touch tar, it will stick to you.” Sirach would not have liked Jesus. He would have been scandalized at the way he associated with dirty people.
But Sirach persists with his advice. Animals flock together, he says. People do too. They naturally associate with similar people. I don’t disagree. Such behaviour is natural and normal - it’s our unthinking, default mode. But sometimes you need to think, to step out of the default. I think what I object to is Sirach’s advice to make the instinctive behaviour something that is thought out and principled. I can see all sorts of nasty places where that can lead.
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