Rishon Rishon

Free enterprise and anti-Semitism

Amritas says:

I'll just say that anti-Semitism is the sibling of anti-capitalism.

It is true, but anti-Semitism is the sibling of any ideology that seeks hidden manipulators as the explanation for why things are the way they are. Jews, visible but foreign, the eternal other, make a good hook on which to hang any accusation. So we are not just scheming capitalists, but also scheming communists. Back when Christianity was more important than either ideology, we were the anti-Christ. In the era of minority empowerment, we are unique in being the only minority not deserving special understanding. In the era of multi-culturism we are the only culture not worthy of protection.

It reminds me of a joke, which will be familiar to my Jewish readers:

One Jew says to another: Why are you always reading that anti-Semitic newspaper?

Answer: It’s always so full of good news. We’re rich! We control the world! But there’s one thing I don’t understand, how come I’m always the last to know?

Nevertheless, capitalism has a special place with respect to anti-Semitism not because capitalists are less anti-Semitic than others, and not because Jews are more capitalist than others, but because money is the great equalizer. Or, as the expression goes, “all money is green” (at least in the US, have they come out with colored money yet?). In other words, in contrast to all other systems, the ruler of the capitalist system is not a person, or group of people, but Adam Smith’s invisible hand. In a free-enterprise system (by the way, I far prefer the term “free-enterprise” to “capitalist,” because freedom and enterprise are much more important than capital to its inner workings) no human barriers can long resist the enterprise of a persecuted people. Why are there “Jewish” banks in the US? Because the non-Jewish old-guard bankers wouldn’t hire Jews, so they were forced to found their own banks. Why are there “Jewish” hospitals in the US? Because the non-Jewish hospitals wouldn’t hire Jewish doctors. Why are there so many Jews in Hollywood? Because it was a new industry at a time when a lot of Jews immigrated the US. Jews were attracted to Hollywood because it didn’t have an establishment to discriminate against them. What happened when Ivy League schools wouldn’t accept Jews? They went to City College (now City University of New York). The result:

At last count, there were 11 Nobel Prize winners among the alumni of what came to be called "the poor man's Harvard." Prominent graduates include Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter, Jonas Salk, Intel founder Andrew Grove, General Colin Powell, civil rights leader A. Phillip Randolph, former New York City Mayor Ed Koch, Ira Gershwin, novelist Oscar Hijuelos, U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, writer Walter Moseley, and entertainers Ben Gazzara, Paul Simon, Jerry Seinfeld, and Jimmy Smits. A Standard & Poor's survey found that more top corporate executives had degrees from CUNY than from any other single university; Yale came in second.

Like water building up behind a dam, free enterprise will find any crack in the system from which to burst through – the ultimate weapon of a persecuted minority.

Posted by David Boxenhorn at July 28, 2004 01:18 PM