Who ya gonna hate?
A friend just sent me a link to a wonderful article by historian Paul Johnson on the phenomenon of anti-Semitism and its equally pathological cousin, anti-Americanism.
This is one of the best historical essays I've read in a very long time. It begins by arguing- convincingly, I think- that Spanish anti-Semitism, rather than Max Weber's "Protestant work ethic," was responsible for the prosperity of the Protestant nations of northern Europe in the late Middle Ages, and the comparative poverty of the southern part of that continent.
As an alternate history buff, I was rather impressed by a short story I read a while back- a forget who wrote it, and it's kind of like an itch I can't scratch- called "The Little Admiral," about a German leader in the 1930's who rallied a defeated and moribund German nation to the status of the dominant economic, cultural, moral and political power in Europe. His name was Adolph Hitler, and his life differed from the Hitler of our time-line in only one respect: at an early age, he found a strong father-figure, a veteran of the Imperial Navy who gave him a positive role-model- and a stern lecture about his heroic Jewish comrades in the Great War which nipped young Adolph's anti-Semitic inclinations in the bud.
Whether or not being cured early in his life of the disease of anti-Semitism would have transformed Hitler from monster into benign genius is debatable, but Johnson makes a strong case that without that particular albatross, he would have won World War II- just as Spain would have been the wealthiest nation of the late Middle Ages if it hadn't expelled its Jews, instead of a chronically bankrupt one, and Palestine today would be a wealthy, powerful, bi-ethnic community if the fanatical Arab hatred of the Jews hadn't closed the option of a purely secular state-as much Arab as Jewish- to the early Zionists.
Now, European anti-Semitism is again on the rise- and alongside it, another irrational, self-defeating sickness of the mind also on the ascendent on the Continent (as well as elsewhere): anti-Americanism. Consider:
Johnson is especially apprehensive about the spread of anti-Americanism in our old friend, Germany. With Germany's economy and living standards deterriorating (the burden of absorbing the former East Germany, its economy stunted and deformed by its decades under the unnatural and stultifying Communist system, is doubtless a large part of the problem), the German nation is once again becoming demoralized- and, to paraphrase the Ghost-Busters, who ya gonna hate?
This article makes so much sense at so many different levels- and even on so many different subjects- that it's uncanny. I heartily recommend it to anybody who would like a few mental light bulbs suddenly switched on, or just wants some good, wholesome intellectual meat to chew on.
This is one of the best historical essays I've read in a very long time. It begins by arguing- convincingly, I think- that Spanish anti-Semitism, rather than Max Weber's "Protestant work ethic," was responsible for the prosperity of the Protestant nations of northern Europe in the late Middle Ages, and the comparative poverty of the southern part of that continent.
As an alternate history buff, I was rather impressed by a short story I read a while back- a forget who wrote it, and it's kind of like an itch I can't scratch- called "The Little Admiral," about a German leader in the 1930's who rallied a defeated and moribund German nation to the status of the dominant economic, cultural, moral and political power in Europe. His name was Adolph Hitler, and his life differed from the Hitler of our time-line in only one respect: at an early age, he found a strong father-figure, a veteran of the Imperial Navy who gave him a positive role-model- and a stern lecture about his heroic Jewish comrades in the Great War which nipped young Adolph's anti-Semitic inclinations in the bud.
Whether or not being cured early in his life of the disease of anti-Semitism would have transformed Hitler from monster into benign genius is debatable, but Johnson makes a strong case that without that particular albatross, he would have won World War II- just as Spain would have been the wealthiest nation of the late Middle Ages if it hadn't expelled its Jews, instead of a chronically bankrupt one, and Palestine today would be a wealthy, powerful, bi-ethnic community if the fanatical Arab hatred of the Jews hadn't closed the option of a purely secular state-as much Arab as Jewish- to the early Zionists.
Now, European anti-Semitism is again on the rise- and alongside it, another irrational, self-defeating sickness of the mind also on the ascendent on the Continent (as well as elsewhere): anti-Americanism. Consider:
No less worrying, to my mind, is a related European phenomenon—namely, anti-Americanism. I say “related” because anti-Semitism and anti-Americanism have proceeded hand in hand in today’s Europe just as they once did in Hitler’s mind (as the unpublished second half of Mein Kampf decisively shows). Like hatred of Jews, hatred of Americans can similarly be described as a form of racism or xenophobia, especially in its more vulgar manifestations. But among academics and intellectuals, where it is increasingly prevalent, it has more of the hallmarks of a mental disease, becoming more virulent, widespread, and intractable ever since the United States began to shoulder the duties of the war against international terrorism.
After all, to hate Americans is against reason. For centuries, and never more so than at present, the U.S. has harbored the poor and persecuted from the entire world, who have found freedom and prospered on its soil. America continues to receive more immigrants than any other country; its most recent arrivals, including the Cubans, the Koreans, the Vietnamese, and the Lebanese, have become some of the richest groups in the country and are enthusiastic supporters of its democratic norms. Indeed, since American society is now a vibrant microcosm of the human race, I would say that to hate Americans is to hate humanity as a whole.
That anti-Americanism shares many structural characteristics with anti-Semitism is plain enough. In France, as we read in a new study, intellectuals muster as many contradictory reasons for attacking the U.S. as for attacking Jews. Americans are excessively religious; they are excessively materialistic. They are vulgar money-grubbers; they are vulgar spenders. They hate culture; they are pushy in promoting their own culture. They are aggressive and reckless; they are cowardly. They are stupid; they are exceptionally cunning. They are uneducated; they subordinate everything in life to the goal of sending their children to universities. They build soulless megalopolises; they are rural imbeciles. As with anti-Semitism, this litany of contradictory complaints is fleshed out with demonic caricatures of particular individuals like George W. Bush. Just as 14th-century Christians once held the Jews responsible for the Black Death, Americans are blamed for all the ills of today’s world, starting with (real or imaginary) global warming. Particularly among French intellectuals, such demonization has become almost a culture, a way of life, in itself.
Johnson is especially apprehensive about the spread of anti-Americanism in our old friend, Germany. With Germany's economy and living standards deterriorating (the burden of absorbing the former East Germany, its economy stunted and deformed by its decades under the unnatural and stultifying Communist system, is doubtless a large part of the problem), the German nation is once again becoming demoralized- and, to paraphrase the Ghost-Busters, who ya gonna hate?
In the post-World War II period, ironically, Germany prospered mightily by looking to the U.S. for entrepreneurial inspiration as well as political and military leadership. For the past quarter-century, it has fallen increasingly under the spell of France and the French fantasy of a European superstate that will rival America. Precisely during this period of French hegemony, Germany has entered upon an accelerating economic decline, already relative and soon to be absolute.
For Germany now to turn on America as the source of its woes makes no sense at all. But then a country in the grip of a disease of the mind cannot be expected to behave rationally. Despite all its efforts, Germany, it seems to me, has not learned the essential lesson of its Nazi past, namely, to flee the plague of unreason. Looking at Europe as a whole, and at the continuing malaise of the Middle East, I suspect we are approaching a new crisis in the pathology of nations. Once again, America is the only physician with the power and skill to provide a cure, and one can only pray the hour is not too late for the patient to be revived.
This article makes so much sense at so many different levels- and even on so many different subjects- that it's uncanny. I heartily recommend it to anybody who would like a few mental light bulbs suddenly switched on, or just wants some good, wholesome intellectual meat to chew on.
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