1
What about Jewish intermarriage rates? You say "the rate of
Jewish "outbreeding"—procreating with non-Jews—is half a
percent. That's the lowest rate of any population in the world
today." Not sure how that squares with the over 50% intermarriage
rate.... seems that Jews must be outbreeding at a higher rate than you
say.
2
More importantly, if we take a biological or biosocial view of
variation in human capabilities it may be the case that in
sociologically Jewish communities some traits have been favored, and
others kicked out or discouraged from breeding within the community...
but what of it? That only matters if you take a perspective that
values "intelligence" over other traits.
If you have children you
quickly learn that you love them regardless of their IQ. You love
them for who they are. Perhaps love... and access to resources and
the right to be part of a Jewish community... have been differentially
distributed to higher IQ individuals by Jewish communities across the
centuries. Is that anything to be proud of? Actually, it would mean
that any finding of Jewish intelligence should be a mark of shame for
all of us Jews.
I guess that's where this Jew parts with traditional Jewish
culture (and so should you William Saletan). That's nothing to be
proud of. Weep for the "not good enough" Jewish children we lost, and
make sure you don't repeat that Jewish mistake with your own children,
or imagine that the socio-genetic engine of past centuries (if it
worked this way... and it may have) is anything to be proud of.
I
own a "mutt" dog... I chose it for its hybrid vigor. Come to think of
it, I'm a mutt myself, one Jewish parent, one WASP parent... although
my religion is more Jewish than anything else.
Intellectuals,
Jewish and not, tend to think that intelligence is something to be
proud of. I suppose there is a nasty competitive world out there where
that is true, but don't be blind to just how nasty and competitive that
perspective is, or the generations of sadness and rejection that this
theory suggests any differential Jewish intelligence scores might be
built on. Think of those generations of rejected Jewish children.
3
Finally, a related issue to be considered in
the Jewish gene pool is the extent to which previous generations of
Jewish women may have been, as dispersed and vulnerable minority group
members, (and perhaps married to visiospatially compromised Jewish men
who were not
known to be warriors!), been subject to rape. Since the children of
Jewish women are considered Jewish, regardless of father, the genes of
those rapists are included in the Jewish gene pool. How were raping
Cossaks different from non-raping Cossacks? Were they more vigorous?
More "fit" in some way? Even more intelligent? Is part of any
differential Jewish genetic factors a function of rape and "foreign"
genes? Interesting to
meditate on. I don't know the answer. However, here too, we
would find that the Jewish difference is not built simply on some
cultural love of books and words... but is an inheritance of pain and
weakness.
-------
The bottom line is that genetic differences
do exist, but they are neither something to be proud of or ashamed of.
But we should recognize that the biosocial explanations we can
think of for these differences are not particularly ennobling. We
should all work to avoid repeating the painful cultural patterns of the
past. Being Jewish is not (or should not be) thought of as some kind
of breeding program for intelligence. That would be absurd and
obscene. If it ever was that, accidentally or intentionally, it's
time to move beyond it.
