The Culture of Critique series comprises Kevin B. MacDonald's principal writings on Judaism and Jewish culture: Kevin B. MacDonald Kevin B. MacDonald, (born January 24, 1944) is a professor of psychology at California State University, Long Beach, best known for claiming to use evolutionary psychology to inform his study of Judaism. ... Judaism is the religion of the Jewish people. ... The word culture, from the Latin colo, -ere, with its root meaning to cultivate, generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such activity significance. ...

• MacDonald, K. B. A People That Shall Dwell Alone: Judaism As a Group Evolutionary Strategy, With Diaspora Peoples, (Praeger 1994) ISBN 0-595-22838-0
• MacDonald, K. B. Separation and Its Discontents Toward an Evolutionary Theory of Anti-Semitism, (Praeger 1998) ISBN 0-275-94870-6
• MacDonald, K. B. The Culture of Critique: An Evolutionary Analysis of Jewish Involvement in Twentieth-Century Intellectual and Political Movements, (Praeger 1998) ISBN 0-275-96113-3 (Preface online)
• MacDonald, K. B. Understanding Jewish Influence: A Study in Ethnic Activism, with an Introduction by Samuel Francis, (Occidental Quarterly November, 2004) ISBN 1-59368-017-1 Introduction online

Samuel Todd Francis (April 29, 1947 – February 15, 2005) was a nationally syndicated paleoconservative columnist known for his opposition to immigration, multiculturalism, and his involvement in debates concerning other controversial issues of the day. ... The Occidental Quarterly is a white nationalist journal that seeks to direct American conservatism in the direction of an Anglo-Saxon cultural and racialist ideology. ...

A controversial trilogy

The first three books constitute what is known as MacDonald's "trilogy". This trilogy he describes Judaism as a "group evolutionary strategy" to enhance the ability of Jews to out-compete non-Jews for resources. He argues that Judaism fosters in Jews a series of marked genetic traits, including above-average verbal intelligence and a strong tendency toward collectivist behavior. MacDonald also notes a negative shift in tone from the first book to the third, and attributes it to having learned more, read more, and "changed greatly" in that time.

A People that Shall Dwell Alone

MacDonald describes Judaism as having (or constituting) a "group evolutionary strategy" aimed to limit exogamy, enforce cultural segregation, promote in-group charity and economic cooperation, and regulate in-group marriage and births to achieve high levels of intelligence, resource acquisition ability, parenting care, and group allegiance. He examines evidence from Jewish history, culture, and genetics in support of his thesis, arguing that Judaism is based on a strong and possibly genetically based predisposition to ethnocentrism characteristic of Middle Eastern cultures generally but exacerbated as a result of selective effects resulting from Jewish cultural practices. He analyses the use of the complex and extensive Jewish scriptures and the high prestige of Rabbinic learning as eugenic mechanisms for promoting Jewish verbal intelligence and dexterity. Eugenics is the self-direction of human evolution: Logo from the Second International Congress of Eugenics, 1921, depicting it as a tree which unites a variety of different fields. ...

Separation and Its Discontents

Building on his work in A People that Shall Dwell Alone, MacDonald examines anti-Semitism as a test case for an evolutionary analysis of ethnic conflict in general, applying social identity theory to three critical periods of institutionalized anti-Semitism: the Roman Empire in the fourth century; the Iberian inquisitions from the fourteenth century; and German Nazism in the period 1933-45. He argues that anti-Semitism can be analysed as a consequence of resource competition between groups in which each group is rationally pursuing its own interests, rather than as a manifestation of irrational malice by non-Jewish out-groups, and concludes that Jews, particularly strongly identified Jews, will be relatively prone to self-deception by ignoring or rationalizing negative information about themselves and their in-group. Finally, he discusses whether Judaism has ceased to be an evolutionary strategy because of the current levels of intermarriage among some groups of diaspora Jews, arguing that it has not ceased to be so and that it continues to flourish.

The Culture of Critique

MacDonald examines Boasian anthropology, political radicalism, psychoanalysis, the Frankfurt School of Social Research, and The New York Intellectuals, arguing that Jews dominated these intellectual movements and that a strong sense of Jewish identity was characteristic of the great majority of the individuals in these movements. Franz Boas Franz Boas (July 9, 1858 – December 21, 1942[1]) was one of the pioneers of modern anthropology and is often called the Father of American Anthropology. Born in Germany, Boas worked for most of his life in North America. ... // Psychoanalysis is a family of psychological theories and methods based on the pioneering work of Sigmund Freud. ... Critical theory, in sociology and philosophy, is shorthand for critical theory of society or critical social theory, a label used by the Frankfurt School, i. ... The New York Intellectuals were a group of American writers and literary critics who advocated left-wing, anti-Stalinist political ideas in the mid-20th century. ...

He argues that these individuals were pursuing an ethnic agenda in establishing and participating in them, yet he stresses that the Jewish community does not constitute a unified movement and that only a small minority of that community participated in these movements.

Nevertheless, he alleges Jewish efforts to shape United States Immigration policy in opposition to the interests of the peoples of non-Jewish European descent, particularly the peoples of Northern and Western Europe. He concludes the book by claiming that intellectual movements he examines are movements that are either Jewish by nature or Jewish-controlled, and that these movements are associated with the deaths of millions of people: "In the 20th century many millions of people have been killed in the attempt to establish Marxist societies based on the ideal of complete economic and social leveling, and many more millions of people have been killed as a result of the failure of Jewish assimilation into European societies ... the result has been a widening gulf between the cultural successes of Jews and Gentiles and a disaster for society as a whole."

Describing the evolution of his thinking over the course of his writing the trilogy, MacDonald says in his preface to the paperback edition of The Culture of Critique:

I think there is a noticeable shift in my tone from the first book to the third simply because (I'd like to think) I knew a lot more and had read a lot more. People often say after reading the first book that they think I really admire Jews, but they are unlikely to say that about the last two and especially about CofC. That is because by the time I wrote CofC I had changed greatly from the person who wrote the first book.

Understanding Jewish Influence

With introduction by the late Samuel Francis, "Understanding Jewish Influence" is a concise statement of the roots of Jewish influence. MacDonald describes these roots as consisting of: Samuel Todd Francis (April 29, 1947 – February 15, 2005) was a nationally syndicated paleoconservative columnist known for his opposition to immigration, multiculturalism, and his involvement in debates concerning other controversial issues of the day. ...

• Hyper-ethnocentrism
• High verbal intelligence and consequent wealth
• Psychological intensity
• Social and political aggression

He goes on to relate this influence to current events concerning Zionism, neoconservatism, immigration and middle eastern warfare waged by Western powers. Ethnocentricity is the tendency to look at the world primarily from the perspective of ones own ethnic culture. ... Wealth from the old English word weal, which meant well-being or welfare. The term was originally an adjective to describe the possession of such qualities. ... Poster promoting a film about Jewish settlement in Palestine, 1930s: Toward a New Life (in Romanian),The Promised Land (in Hungarian), the small caption (bottom) reads First Palestinian film with sound Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Zionism Zionism is a political movement that supports a homeland for... Neoconservatism is a political current and ideology, mainly in the United States, which is generally held to have emerged in the 1960s, coalesced in the 1970s, and has had a significant presence in the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. ... Look up West in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Criticism

Academic Jaff Schatz has accused MacDonald of misrepresenting and misusing his work [1]. David Lieberman, who has a PhD in musicology from Brandeis University, has published a paper alleging that MacDonald has distorted evidence and chosen evidence selectively for rhetorical purposes [2]. Musicology is reasoned discourse concerning music (Greek: μουσικη = music and λογος = word or reason). In other words: the whole body of systematized knowledge about music which results from the application of a scientific method of investigation or research, or of philosophical speculation and rational systematization to the facts, the processes and the... Brandeis University is a private university in Waltham, Massachusetts, United States. ...

Slate magazine carried an article by Judith Shulevitz, then Art and Entertainment editor of the Culturebox, entitled "Evolutionary Psychology's Anti-Semite," which was followed up by several letters continuing the discussion, and an extended rebuttal by MacDonald. According to Shulevitz, MacDonald's arguments are prescriptive: "Toward the end of the third book, MacDonald lays out his solution for restoring what he calls 'parity' between the Jews and other ethnic groups: systematic discrimination against Jews in college admission and employment and heavy taxation of Jews 'to counter the Jewish advantage in the possession of wealth'". [3] MacDonald replied that in the actual passage from The Culture of Critique quoted by Shulevitz, he was speaking hypothetically of the consequences of competition between ethnic groups of differing abilities. [4] Categories: Magazines stubs | Microsoft subsidiaries | Websites | The Washington Post ... Judith Shulevitz is a writer on religion and literature whose articles for the New York Times and the on-line Slate magazine. ...

John Tooby, past president of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society [5] and a professor of anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, insists that MacDonald is not an evolutionary psychologist, and that he advocates models incorporating "group-selection theory", a generally discredited view of natural selection – this has been countered with the observation that MacDonald is in fact talking about kin selection, where the selection is ultimately opperating on the level of closely related genetic lineages, as opposed to group selection - and that this suggestion is little more than a straw man attack on MacDonald's theories. Categories: Possible copyright violations ... Anthropology (from the Greek word , human or person) consists of the study of humanity (see genus Homo). ... The University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) is a coeducational public university located on the Pacific Ocean in Santa Barbara County, California. ... Kin selection refers to changes in gene frequency across generations that are driven at least in part by interactions between related individuals, and this forms much of the conceptual basis of the theory of social evolution. ...

Steven Pinker, then a professor in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT and a popular science writer, criticized MacDonald's ideas in a letter to Slate's Fray. Pinker confessed that he has not read the Critique trilogy, stating the books "do not pass that threshold for attention-worthiness", noting the theories expressed in them have not been published in peer-reviewed journals. He accuses MacDonald of enaging in ad hominem argumentation, criticizes his use of group selection in his theories, and asserts that MacDonald "fail[s] two basic tests of scientific credibility: a control group (in this case, other minority ethnic groups), and a comparison with alternative hypotheses" when writing about Jews. He also claims MacDonald's ideas "collectively add up to a consistently invidious portrayal of Jews, couched in value-laden, disparaging language". [6] Steven Pinker Steven Arthur Pinker (born September 18, 1954, in Montreal, Canada) is a prominent American experimental psychologist, cognitive scientist, and popular science writer known for his spirited and wide-ranging defence of evolutionary psychology and the computational theory of mind. ... Mapúa Institute of Technology (MIT, MapúaTech or simply Mapúa) is a private, non-sectarian, Filipino tertiary institute located in Intramuros, Manila. ... Peer review (known as refereeing in some academic fields) is a process of subjecting an authors scholarly work or ideas to the scrutiny of others who are experts in the field. ... An ad hominem argument, also known as argumentum ad hominem (Latin, literally argument against the person) involves replying to an argument or assertion by attacking the person presenting the argument or assertion rather than the argument itself. ... In evolutionary biology, group selection refers to the idea that alleles can become fixed or spread in a population because of the benefits they bestow on groups, regardless of the fitness of individuals within that group. ...

Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center, an institute that monitors neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups, has said of MacDonald that "he put the anti-Semitism under the guise of scholarly work... Kevin MacDonald’s work is nothing but gussied-up anti-Semitism. At base it says that Jews are out to get us through their agenda ... His work is bandied about by just about every neo-Nazi group in America.” [7] The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is an American non-profit legal organization, whose stated purpose is to combat racism and promote civil rights through research, education, and litigation. ... The terms Neo-Nazism and Neo-Fascism refer to any social or political movement to revive Nazism or Fascism, respectively, and postdates the Second World War. ... White supremacy is the variety of white nationalism that believes the white race should rule over other races. ...

MacDonald has replied to Tooby, Pinker, Schatz, and Lieberman on his website.[8]

See also

• Ethnocentrism

Ethnocentricity is the tendency to look at the world primarily from the perspective of ones own ethnic culture. ...

References

• MacDonald, K. B. A People That Shall Dwell Alone: Judaism As a Group Evolutionary Strategy, With Diaspora Peoples, (Praeger 1994) ISBN 0-595-22838-0
• MacDonald, K. B. Separation and Its Discontents Toward an Evolutionary Theory of Anti-Semitism, (Praeger 1998) ISBN 0-275-94870-6
• MacDonald, K. B. The Culture of Critique: An Evolutionary Analysis of Jewish Involvement in Twentieth-Century Intellectual and Political Movements, (Praeger 1998) ISBN 0-275-96113-3

External links

• "The Marx of the anti-Semites" -- critical review by John Derbyshire in The American Conservative.
• "The Conservatism of Fools" -- MacDonald's reply to Derbyshire's review