Every 20 years or so I am reminded to reread Thorstein Veblen's essay, The Intellectual Pre-Eminence of Jews in Modern Europe, Political Science Quarterly (1919). With the war in Gaza raging and my belated reading of Michael Chabon's novel Moonglow nearly finished, this seemed to be another such moment. The Veblen essay is brilliant not only because it turns all the ambient eugenicist anti-semitic tripe of its time on its head, but because it offers a warning about the consequences to Europe of the Zionist project. Were this project to succeed and Jews were to find a comfortable homeland that allowed them to retreat into their religious heritage and lose their engagement and skepticism about science and society in the rest of the world the loss of their contribution would be a tragedy. Of course this dream is far from realization and for most Zionists opting out of world of science and culture was never the objective. Perhaps now it is time for me to read yet another Veblen opus, his Yale Phd dissertation in philosophy titled, "Ethical Grounds of a Doctrine of Retribution". Unfortunately, to the best of my googling this item appears to be lost in the ozone, just when we need it most.
