Separation and Its Discontents: Toward an Evolutionary Theory

Separation and Its Discontents: Toward an Evolutionary Theory of Anti-Semitism

Anti-Semitism has been a very robust tendency over a very long period of human history and in a wide range of societies with different forms of government, different economic systems, and different dominant religious ideologies. Many anti-Semitic episodes, such as the Iberian inquisitions and the Nazi Holocaust, have been characterized by extraordinary intra-societal violence. Moreover, anti-Semitism has sometimes been characterized by very overt, self-conscious ethnic hatred, a phenomenon that immediately suggests the relevance of evolutionary theory.
The basic thesis of this book can be summarized by the proposition that Judaism must be conceptualized as a group strategy characterized by cultural and genetic segregation from the wider society combined with resource competition and conflicts of interest with segments of the wider society. This cultural and genetic separatism combined with resource competition and other conflicts of interest tend to result in division and hatred within the society. In addition to discussing how these findings fit with evolutionary theory and modern psychology, later chapters deal with Jewish strategies to minimize anti-Semitism, Jewish ideologies that rationalize Jewish behavior, and Jewish self-deception.

Separation and Its Discontents: Toward an Evolutionary Theory of Anti-Semitism