Harley, this may be an inappropriate and/or awkward question for you
so no problem if you want to give this one a pass but, in your opinion, why do you think Jews are so disproportionately successful and intelligent?
As a fair warning, this board is primarily anti-semitic.
Dear Pellius,
When I returned to GetBig recently, I promised that if I felt I were treated just fairly, I would try to answer almost every question without turning away
from the hard or uncomfortable ones and always answer honestly. Your question centers on a topic I will not shy from IF asked so here goes;
My answer is that the reason for the disproportionate amount of success and intelligence from Jewish people stems from a combination of culture and genetics.
Let's take genetics first as it is the most hostile position of my two part answer. I do believe there is a genetic component to intelligence and a people who have
been around for over 5,700 years (and again, this is not meant to start a debate with Wiggs as I do respect his beliefs) who have been nothing but a target for total
evisceration from majority to majority must have some element of genetic intelligence in order to continually survive. Coming to grips with the fact that a certain race,
ethnicity or people from a particular part of the world hold some genetic advantage to others from different parts of the world shouldn't shock the rational mind. If you lived
in the middle of Africa you had better develop the ability to run faster and longer and go longer distances without water. If you lived in the Arctic like an Eskimo you had better
develop some trait to help you adapt to the environment quicker than those who live in Aruba. Every one has different genetic and biological advantages with which they are born
and we need to embrace and maximize them, rather than exploit them as marks of differentiation or even alleged superiority. Darwin's "Origin of Species" is seminal in explaining
and demonstrating the importance of adaptation in order to survive. Darwin did not say, "the strongest survive." He said that those who are best at adaptation (the ability to change
over time to better survive circumstance and environment) will survive as a species.
As for culture well, that is easy. Jews for the most part don't encourage or even accept their children having dreams of become professional athletes, rappers, singers, actors, etc.
In my household, it was always said that I would become a doctor, dentist or lawyer and that was the hierarchy of prestige. My sister would become a teacher like my Mom. It's a culture
that rewards and promotes a reverence for scholarship, not home runs in little league. Don't for a moment think that the idea of doing worse than my first cousins on my SAT didn't petrify my poor
mom who was unfortunately caught up in the senseless competition of all that. Of course there are exceptions within the few million Jews who live in America but that only serves to
prove the rule. Positive reinforcement and ego development are based upon scholastic achievement and that is the culture. People are free to argue if it is for the better or for the worse.
Having said that, I do always like to joke that Christians place their faith in a Jewish "only son" who left his mother to become a carpenter. Of course, I kid when I say that but the idea relates
more to what Jewish people have attempted to achieve over the years and where they place their efforts. Nobel Prizes just mean more to them than Grammy's or Super Bowl rings.
Harley
