Splendid. Thomas Sowell's analysis is always so lucid and penetrating.
"They succeed in a way which is a threat to the egos of other people" This, and the Rockefeller example, is an insight that in my view goes beyond racism. It explains why, for example, people never seem to resent the success of actors and sports star. After all it's not my fault I was not born as handsome as Brad Pitt or as gifted as Lionel Messi, I have nothing to reproach myself.
Sowell is a wellspring of highly informed common sense. In the US today, while not dismissing an increase in antisemitism, as well as anti-asian sentiments, what seems to me to be rising is a propaganda-driven demonization of conservatives that could become somewhat similar to the way 1930's Germany cultivated public sentiment against Jews. I don't see it following Sowell's causative rationale in every way, but more like coming up with a scapegoat to focus on as "the problem" that is somehow the main issue behind all societies troubles. With the proliferation of absurd levels of bigotry by the main stream media with their constant generalizations, regularly labeling all who vote for a Republican as _____-phobes and _____-deniers (fill in the blank), they are grooming their listeners closer and closer to being able to lay direct blame on conservatives for most anything, like any specific weather event. I wouldn't be surprised to hear, even today, on some brain-stem-only program like The View, "It's the climate-deniers that got us into this crisis". Self-justification is such a strong drive that when a group develops an echo chamber that constantly stokes their self-right-ness by virtue of projecting their own insecurities on a straw enemy (Sowell's point), some really incredibly ugly (evil) actions can seem justifiable in their minds.
I understand the thesis, but it doesn't explain the persistence of anti-Semitism among the privileged elite of the West, though thinly disguised today as anti-Zionism. That there seems to be something deeply anti-Semitic in the European cultural DNA, came home to me as a yoof in the 1970s when I visited York and read the plaque at Clifford's Tower. At the time I was your standard lefty anti-Zionist type. I decided to 'educate myself' as our modern yoof say.
That's a great, conscise summary of a primary component of ongoing anti-semitism in the west. I agree that seeing jewish immigrants work hard and prosper is often a bitter pill for others to swallow. It's a great example of how hard work, persistence, family and faith can help an ethnic group to prosper. As compared to feeling entitled to things in the new country, feeling like a victim and not just getting on with it, and having an ongoing chip on one's shoulder.
Splendid. Thomas Sowell's analysis is always so lucid and penetrating.
"They succeed in a way which is a threat to the egos of other people" This, and the Rockefeller example, is an insight that in my view goes beyond racism. It explains why, for example, people never seem to resent the success of actors and sports star. After all it's not my fault I was not born as handsome as Brad Pitt or as gifted as Lionel Messi, I have nothing to reproach myself.
Sowell is a wellspring of highly informed common sense. In the US today, while not dismissing an increase in antisemitism, as well as anti-asian sentiments, what seems to me to be rising is a propaganda-driven demonization of conservatives that could become somewhat similar to the way 1930's Germany cultivated public sentiment against Jews. I don't see it following Sowell's causative rationale in every way, but more like coming up with a scapegoat to focus on as "the problem" that is somehow the main issue behind all societies troubles. With the proliferation of absurd levels of bigotry by the main stream media with their constant generalizations, regularly labeling all who vote for a Republican as _____-phobes and _____-deniers (fill in the blank), they are grooming their listeners closer and closer to being able to lay direct blame on conservatives for most anything, like any specific weather event. I wouldn't be surprised to hear, even today, on some brain-stem-only program like The View, "It's the climate-deniers that got us into this crisis". Self-justification is such a strong drive that when a group develops an echo chamber that constantly stokes their self-right-ness by virtue of projecting their own insecurities on a straw enemy (Sowell's point), some really incredibly ugly (evil) actions can seem justifiable in their minds.
I understand the thesis, but it doesn't explain the persistence of anti-Semitism among the privileged elite of the West, though thinly disguised today as anti-Zionism. That there seems to be something deeply anti-Semitic in the European cultural DNA, came home to me as a yoof in the 1970s when I visited York and read the plaque at Clifford's Tower. At the time I was your standard lefty anti-Zionist type. I decided to 'educate myself' as our modern yoof say.
That's a great, conscise summary of a primary component of ongoing anti-semitism in the west. I agree that seeing jewish immigrants work hard and prosper is often a bitter pill for others to swallow. It's a great example of how hard work, persistence, family and faith can help an ethnic group to prosper. As compared to feeling entitled to things in the new country, feeling like a victim and not just getting on with it, and having an ongoing chip on one's shoulder.