What is the Secret of Jewish Success?
May 2, 2010
Written in response to Mark Twain's "Concerning the Jews" by Sam Peyo
(for henrymakow.com)"In the oneness of allness, I
am, in some degree or aspect, guilty of, or infected with, or suffering from,
everything that I attack." (Charles Fort)
The question of why Jews have
been so efficient at amassing riches and controlling political and cultural life
over the centuries is most fascinating. It has not been studied much due to the
tremendous psychological/emotional barrier which has been erected to prevent any
serious approach. This barrier is an impressive construction -- more like the
Chinese Wall than a mere taboo. In fact, it is sophisticated mind control.
We are supposed to think ill feelings against Jews are simply envy of their alleged superior intellects. Jews are stereotyped by every writer and movie director as impecunious, humble, warm-hearted, peace-loving, gifted people who value their roots and are persecuted worldwide for no clear reason or automatically used as scapegoats every time a country faces a crisis.
MOUNTING THE PARAPETS
We are supposed to think ill feelings against Jews are simply envy of their alleged superior intellects. Jews are stereotyped by every writer and movie director as impecunious, humble, warm-hearted, peace-loving, gifted people who value their roots and are persecuted worldwide for no clear reason or automatically used as scapegoats every time a country faces a crisis.
Any inquiry into the real socioeconomic situation
of Jews now, during and before the two world wars causes an instant
malaise in non-Jewish conversation partners. The discomfort manifests
physically through trembling, stomach uneasiness, nervous breathing
and sweating, so it must involve deep emotional conditioning.
The response is a combination of fear, incredulity, scoffing, aggression and name-calling. The person raising the issue will be branded as a Nazi sympathizer forever ("forever" because of the emotional level at which the experience is had). If you persist with your inquiry, you may be subjected to systematic defamation and unwinnable legal battles.
The response is a combination of fear, incredulity, scoffing, aggression and name-calling. The person raising the issue will be branded as a Nazi sympathizer forever ("forever" because of the emotional level at which the experience is had). If you persist with your inquiry, you may be subjected to systematic defamation and unwinnable legal battles.
MOUNTING THE PARAPETS
I cannot prove that
Jewish success is not due to genetic, ethnic or hereditary factors. But, if we look at how
racially heterogeneous the Jewish people have become -- Jews hardly agree on
what constitutes Jewishness anymore -- it is hard to believe their
success is primarily in the genes.
Some historical and cultural
circumstances might give a better clue:
Whether Jews read the Talmud or not
(modern people greatly underestimate the importance of oral transmission), the
notion that non-Jews are ontologically inferior to Jews is
ingrained to the point of being "instinctive" among Jews (religious and agnostic
alike) and, surprisingly, even among non-Jews who ought to be unimpressed by
such a claim. Nevertheless, people who in these days flatter themselves with
even remote and dubious Jewish ancestry (whatever that means in racial terms)
very quickly adopt the chosen-people attitude.
Be that as it may, unrelenting
ambition (combined with social discretion),perseverance at work, frequent
ethical and moral disregard for the lot of non-Jews, centuries-long investment
in "white-collar" trades (with usury and banking in first place), and -- very
importantly -- a zealously guarded transnational network dating from long before
the idea occurred to non-Jewish populations, go a long way to explain the
current state of affairs.
PROMOTING SOCIAL DISSOLUTION
Maybe there is more to it. Maybe something else is needed to explain why post-Diaspora Jews have so often been accused of promoting social dissolution, sedition, subversion and attacks on traditional institutions. Scholars have pointed to something called "deviant nomadism": having temporarily become a sedentary people in Palestine, the Jews were expelled and forced to resume their wandering, only this time not like traditional nomads -- performing strictly cyclical movements -- but randomly, erratically. An interesting point, or maybe just nonsense.
Maybe there is more to it. Maybe something else is needed to explain why post-Diaspora Jews have so often been accused of promoting social dissolution, sedition, subversion and attacks on traditional institutions. Scholars have pointed to something called "deviant nomadism": having temporarily become a sedentary people in Palestine, the Jews were expelled and forced to resume their wandering, only this time not like traditional nomads -- performing strictly cyclical movements -- but randomly, erratically. An interesting point, or maybe just nonsense.
If it were not for the ominous fortresses on the "Jewish Wall", it would also be interesting to make an impartial
assessment of how much of American culture is actually "Jewish" culture: comedy, theatre, cinema, music, literature and so forth. Many non-Jews find themselves
wondering: why are the best violinists, comedians, physicists, novelists and
actors apparently Jewish? I think long-time control of media outlets and banking
has given talented Jews greater access to publication, academia and
politics. Or is it the other way around? Do successful people make
up obscure Jewish foremothers overnight simply to follow suit?
There is no easy way the general
public can tell whether Jewish performers and intellectuals are really more
talented than non-Jewish artists who may have lacked the right connections
and opportunities or had too many scruples to make the necessary sacrifice of
conscience or who may have been robbed of their ideas and self-confidence
(sometimes through blackmail).
For example, Anglo-Saxon people have historically been amazingly inventive in music, science and technology, among other areas, but to the public their respective fields are usually identified with some some Jewish icon, like Einstein, Bernstein, Friedman or Kafka.
For example, Anglo-Saxon people have historically been amazingly inventive in music, science and technology, among other areas, but to the public their respective fields are usually identified with some some Jewish icon, like Einstein, Bernstein, Friedman or Kafka.
GOYIM INVESTED IN THEIR OWN DEMISE
In any case, as always, there are two sides to the question of the anti-traditional influence Jews appear to exercise in the world. Are Jews guilty of sponsoring decadent cultural productions, of promoting atheistic world views and ideologies, of subverting society and family? If they are, then there must be a hundred million non-Jews on the other side who are enthusiastically absorbing these productions, ideologies and new behaviors.
Why do we welcome messages of evolutionism, egalitarianism, atheism, feminism, lasciviousness, mockery, materialism and nihilism with such ravenous appetite and then complain about the people peddling them?
--
In any case, as always, there are two sides to the question of the anti-traditional influence Jews appear to exercise in the world. Are Jews guilty of sponsoring decadent cultural productions, of promoting atheistic world views and ideologies, of subverting society and family? If they are, then there must be a hundred million non-Jews on the other side who are enthusiastically absorbing these productions, ideologies and new behaviors.
Why do we welcome messages of evolutionism, egalitarianism, atheism, feminism, lasciviousness, mockery, materialism and nihilism with such ravenous appetite and then complain about the people peddling them?
--
Tony said (May 3, 2010):
This is an important question for everyone, especially parents of young children, because, first, there is no question that however you
want to define "Jewish," "Jews," are disproportionately positive creative forces in this world civilization and have enriched all areas of arts and sciences.
I say it's an important question for everyone because if the first point merits common agreement, the next question is whether it's because the Jews are, as they have been described, a "people of the book." Or given, the onetime undereducated brilliant Jewish comedians and actors of previous generations (from immigrant families), is it became Jewish self definition does not allow itself to be completely absorbed by nationalism or parochial concerns. I don't know.
Is there some unconscious higher power of "creativity" or "Mind" that is operative?
I should think that some social scientist might want to research this matter to discover how Jews see themselves vis a vis the greater society and how this motivates or energizes them in a way that perhaps say, a Puerto Rican world view does not energize a Puerto Rican in the same way for one reason for another.
I'm guessing that in the Jewish framework, great importance is given to creativity and to scholarship. Then again, in this framework, how is "success" defined?
Clearly, a high percentage of parents in this culture do not know how to raise successful children. Somehow a book about Jewish child rearing could be very helpful. The upper class Chinese are another successful group that is only getting more successful as well. Are there common aspects of the child rearing?
As for the lists of "bests," I do have to take note that in spite of overwhelming Jewish brilliance in all areas of the arts and sciences, as I have said, I have observed that people in most groups tend to focus on the achievers in their own group and Jews are no exception. I do not believe that most people think of Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, Nicolai Tesla, etc. as Jewish or for that matter, Beethoven, Bach, etc.
I have Jewish friends who
worship Barbra Streisand, and think she's the greatest thing since sliced bread, but the Beatles, Beyonce, Mariah Carey, the Rolling Stones, and a host of other great (the greatest?) performers and composers (Garland, Sinatra, etc.) are decidedly from other backgrounds. Same with novelists and painters. Were Wyeth, Warhol, O'Keeffe, Sargeant, Pollock, Eakins, etc. Jewish? Is Rothko the great American painter? I guess it depends on how you see things. You mention comedians. The leading comedians today are Jim Carrey, Will Ferrell, Martin Short, Robin Williams (who are all vaguely Irish) as well as Eddie Murphy and a long line of black comics,
some, like the late Richard Pryor, particularly brilliant. So too, if you read The New Yorker, we are seeing a new generation of brilliant African American cultural commentators and critics, who lead the pack.
I also wonder how the huge number of Jews in the arts and sciences who are no more successful than anyone else deal with that situation among their own. That could be part of the study; namely, how Jews deal with failure.
I suspect, generally speaking, in a more creative way than other groups. but I don't know.