Near where I live, there's a roadhouse where the restaurants always fold after two years. My wife and I actually knew one of the owners. They kept failing, and a long time ago my wife said, That intersection is cursed. For that reason, I sometimes said that she had cursed the place; and out of compassion for the owners, I urged her to lift the curse. She said that the secret of lifting a curse was simple. I begged her to explain this. (My wife has much more religious understanding than I do, she's been studying "wisdom traditions," as new-agers call religion, since she majored in anthropology). After some resistance, she said that a curse was lifted when the cursed one stopped believing in the curse. They had to stop believing it themselves. All the restaurant owners heard that the corner was cursed--even in casual conversation--and the belief worked like a worm in their minds, and destroyed their efforts. This is why the fans of baseball teams who have been struggling with curses hold up signs saying "Believe"; they want the players to believe they're not cursed any more. In fact, I think my wife has the ability to curse me; because I ascribe wisdom to her and believe her declarations about me. I thought my father had cursed me too, and I did a ritual to lift that curse.
I thought about this this morning when I was reading Elliott Abrams saying that a !-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family:"Courier New";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} "covenant with God… imposes special obligations upon [Jews]" to their community.
I've heard about our covenant with God since I was a kid: We are chosen. And I recognize this as a Jewish belief that I must have, because I was told it again and again by people I trust, as they pounded ancient books of wisdom. It was a mythology but a very powerful one. The other day Netanyahu told 238 Jews who had immigrated to Israel that Israel is the most advanced nation in the world. And New York Magazine just wrote about the monthly email Jews send one another about the number of Jews who have won Nobel Prizes. (“Remarkably, Jews constitute almost one-fifth of all Nobel laureates. This, in a world in which Jews number just a fraction of 1 percent of the population.”)
The Jewish mythology about these powers is historical. It arose in the late 19th century for psycho-sociological reasons that Slezkine lays out in the Jewish Century (and Kafka laid out in his letters to his father and his Catholic girlfriend). Belief in Jewish God-granted powers is a powerful belief; for the idea of specialness has lifted Jews incredibly. Though today I'd say that exceptionalism has become a curse.
How about, for every Einstein, there is a Madoff? When’s the last time there was a jewish version of Mother Theresa? Who runs the Federal Reserve? What were those 1980′s names most involved in junk bonds? And now, with the latest version of what we are bailing out? Give full credit where credit is due. And, also, how many Israelis have
won the top prizes? Compared to how many diaspora jews? Just asking.
RE: When’s the last time there was a jewish version of Mother Theresa?
MY COMMENT: Personally, I consider Medea Benjamin tantamount to a “Jewish version of Mother Theresa”.
FROM WIKIPEDIA: Medea Benjamin
(EXCERPT) Medea Benjamin (born Susan Benjamin on September 10, 1952) is an American politician, and political activist, famous for co-founding the anti-war group Code Pink and fair trade advocacy group Global Exchange. Benjamin also was a Green Party candidate in 2000 for the United States Senate…
SOURCE – link to en.wikipedia.org
We all know the theories of jewish exceptionalism. The Catholic celibacy brain drain, as distinguished from the Jewish rich marry Jewish scholars habit, the Christians banning their own from usury, etc for centuries, in a world that has evolved into fiat money… The Bell Curve research re Ashkinazi, etc. Nature v Nurture, etc. Jewish networking, ethnic cronism, etc. And so on, and so on….
RE: “Though today I’d say that exceptionalism has become a curse.”
MY COMMENT: Personally, I have always loved being unexceptional!
PS. As to my photo, it was taken several years ago during a severe drought. Since that time, I have added a great deal of flora (especially, some very colourful fungi). Some people say I look twenty years younger!
RE: Personally, I have always loved being unexceptional!
MY COMMENT: It might be more accurate to say that I have always prided myself on being unexceptional. Referring again to my outdated photo, did I mention that I have recently cultivated an incredible strain of super-bright phosporescent algae? You should see me in the dark! It’s so kewl for clubbing. I look fantastic on a dimly lit dance floor. The clubs usually ‘comp’ me because they use so much less electricity by reducing the ‘house’ lighting while I’m there.
I don’t envy groupthink exceptionalism. I appeciate being a free-thinking individual in America, with my ethnicity as a source of DNA and how I came to be at this particular place in time, and I acknowledge it. But I’m not part of a “tribe” that restricts my thinking. I’m married to a Jewish woman, and I have great respect and admiration for the millenia-old tradition of the culture. But when the exceptionalists tell my wife that to be pro-peace = anti-Zionism = anti-Israel = (choose one: anti-Semite or self-hating Jew), as Phil says, the exceptionalism is a burden. Personally? I’m grateful to have a self-identity as an American in the urban Northeast without the white noise of being subordinated to a group or a label (whether it means I’m exceptional or not). Maybe Dickerson’s on to something: there’s a joy in being unexceptional . . . !
Take a look around at the political landscape, especially since 1965. The Identity politicians love you atomistic, individualistic white guys. I’m not saying I’m any different that you, Oscar. But we do live in a Sotomayor & Obama world. Will anything at be left of Western individualism in thirty years? I doubt it.
Phil,
I’ve tended to think of you as a mature thinker.
To imply that trivial definition of “chosen” or “obligated”, is insulting.
Its NOT brainwashing. Its much more intrinsic. The root of your questioning spirit is the obligation to make whole. Or, is your politics constructed of something more trivial?
The only thing Official Jews seem to be not exceptional in — this blog excepted — is honest self-reflection. When the black market human organ scam was first mentioned as Breaking News on MSNBC’s Dr. Nancy [Spayerman] show, Dr. Nancy called it the most disgusting, vile thing that anyone could do, on and on, in her prissy, high-handed, I-know-more-than-you, self-righteous manner. The images were of NJ pols in handcuffs.
Then it came out that Rabbis were behind this part of the corruption pick-up. Not a word from the good doctor. Not. One. Word.
Again, my html mistakes. I apologize again.
Excellent piece. I’ve had conversations about this very same topic with my friends. We both ended up agreeing that it simply came down to believing one will succeed – one is lucky if they believe they are lucky. From my view, many Jews were successful because of that belief….not because they really were. Motivation really causes people to reach new limits. I also now tell myself the same thing ;)
Of course, you said it so much more wonderfully than my engineer trained brain could have ever done.
“I’ve heard about our covenant with God since I was a kid: We are chosen. And I recognize this as a Jewish belief that I must have, because I was told it again and again by people I trust, as they pounded ancient books of wisdom. It was a mythology but a very powerful one.”
Beyond powerful, doesn’t it strike you as simply silly? That God/G-d — just coincidentally, the one that belongs to your people alone — chose a special species of human pets as his favorites? This always struck me as the most ludicrous thing about the religion.