The Culture of Critique series comprises Kevin B. MacDonald's principal writings on Judaism and Jewish culture:

• A People that Shall Dwell Alone: Judaism as a Group Evolutionary Strategy, with Diaspora Peoples (1994)
• Separation and Its Discontents: Toward an Evolutionary Theory of Anti-Semitism (1998)
• The Culture of Critique: An Evolutionary Analysis of Jewish Involvement in Twentieth-Century Intellectual and Political Movements (1998)

A controversial trilogy

In 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.

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.

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.

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].

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]

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 "group-selection theory" – the theory that natural selection can occur at the level of a group as opposed to individuals – remains a minority view, although some scholars are working to bring group-selection theory back.

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]

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]

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

See also

• Ethnocentrism

References

• MacDonald, K. B. A People That Shall Dwell Alone: Judaism As a Group Evolutionary Strategy, With Diaspora Peoples, (Praeger 1994) ISBN 0595228380
• MacDonald, K. B. Separation and Its Discontents Toward an Evolutionary Theory of Anti-Semitism, (Praeger 1998) ISBN 0275948706
• MacDonald, K. B. The Culture of Critique: An Evolutionary Analysis of Jewish Involvement in Twentieth-Century Intellectual and Political Movements, (Praeger 1998) ISBN 0275961133

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