Rational Conservatism, formerly known as Humanism, sees Man as an Intelligent, Volitional Being whose Ideas, Values and Behavior must be viewed in that context. It is a perspective which by definition transcends superficial judgments based on Race, Gender or Sexual Orientation. Yes, there are racists, sexists and homophobes amongst us, but no one given to these proclivities is in any way a true Conservative. The duplicity of the contemporary Left is that any criticism directed at one of its revered, “persecuted” minorities, however warranted, intellectually or morally, is immediately condemned on the basis of its own demonstrably superficial criteria.
The issue of Antisemitism is especially relevant to the topic at hand. As a White, Italo-Canadian Conservative, I am both in awe of the impact Jews have had on Western Cultural History, as well as appalled at the persecution to which they have been submitted. As Richard Hernstein and Charles Murray’s 1994 book “The Bell Curve” asserts, their genes make Jews on average smarter than most other races. Michael Levin’s 1997 book “Why Race Matters” avers on pg. 132 that “in every society in which they have participated, Jews have eventually been recognized [and disliked] for their exceptional talent.” In this context, does not the envy which inspired Adolf Hitler’s hatred for the Jews have more in common with the emotions stoked by the contemporary Left than with Rational Conservatism which actually reveres Human Achievement? Indeed was the informing motivation of the Holocaust not similar to that of today’s “progressive” narrative which is perfectly comfortable with such hateful generalizations as the notion that all White people are inherently racist, all Men are inherently misogynistic, all Capitalists are inherently evil, etc., etc.? Does not the wanton abuse of terms such as “privileged” inspire the very sort of resentment that motivated the greatest monster of the 20th Century?
As I have pointed out in earlier blogs, Freud and Marx, both Jews, were two of the most influential forces in the evolution of 20th Century Western thought. This hardly means I agree with everything they said, Marx’s ideas in particular being grossly simplistic. Equally significant is the fact that Israel is the only nation in the Middle East today whose informing values are truly liberal, truly democratic, truly tolerant. That Israeli governments have hardly been perfect does not repudiate this fact. But as a lover of the Arts, what truly amazes me is the extent to which so many of the most wonderful, intelligent, witty, charming and entertaining productions in both the Film and T.V. industries over the last hundred years, have been produced, written and directed by those of Jewish parentage!
Our culture is in decline, 90% of what the entertainment industry is offering these days being geared towards a simple-minded public less interested in the works of Shakespeare, Dostoyevsky or Joyce than in the exploits of various Comic Book Heroes or the Real Housewives of Botox City. Intelligence imperils Inclusiveness as it must inevitably shed light on the Fact that we are not all equally gifted, that not all Ideas are equally valid, that not all Cultures are equally evolved. So with delicious Irony, the Left is perfectly comfortable in abandoning “elitist” intellectual standards which tend to separate people, even as its Mindless Ethos allows predatory Capitalists to flood our airwaves with trash in their pursuit of profit.
[Yes, one can admit there are ruthless Capitalists, without denouncing Capitalism itself. Given the nature of the species, Freedom inevitably comes at a cost.]
The wonderful cultural heritage bequeathed us by those of Jewish extraction active within the film and television industries from 1930 to the recent past is remarkable not only for its quality, but for the extent to which was dominated by this one racial group. While I cannot possibly do justice to this topic in a blog, let me cite just a few examples which might serve to illustrate that the thesis of The Bell Curve was in fact correct.
George Cukor’s The Philadelphia Story featured the wonderful Catherine Hepburn at war with her estranged husband, Cary Grant. A comedy whose opening scene always makes me laugh, it features Hepburn as a strong, intelligent woman fully capable of holding her own in the battle of the sexes. Cukor has in fact been cited as a “woman’s director.” His 1939 film The Women, in which no male at any point appears on screen, certainly supports that view at a time when, according to the contemporary “woke” narrative, our “patriarchal” culture did nothing but objectify and oppress the female sex. Cukor is of course responsible for a number of other wonderful films such as Adam’s Rib, Little Women, My Fair Lady, Born Yesterday, etc., etc., etc..
Friendly Persuasion, about the plight of a peace loving Quaker family caught up in the turmoil of the Civil Was, was directed by William Wyler whose ethnicity in no way deterred him from empathizing with his subject. It is one of the most charming films ever made. A winner of three Academy Awards for best director throughout his amazing career, Wyler was responsible for gems such as Mrs. Miniver, Ben Hur, Wuthering Heights, The Best Years of our Lives, The Collector, Funny Girl, etc., etc., etc..
Stanley Kubrick, born of Jewish parents in N.Y.C. in 1928, directed 1960’s Spartacus, a tribute to Man’s historical quest for freedom and one of my favorite movies of all time. In fairness, I must point out my beloved Jean Simmons might have entered a farting contest and I would have watched with rapt attention. Kubrick, apparently, was blessed with an IQ of approximately 200! Not surprisingly, he was responsible for other such iconic masterpieces as Dr. Strangelove and A Clockwork Orange.
I could go on and on citing Jewish producers, directors and writers who have blessed us with the proceeds of their brilliance. MGM, founded in 1924 by Samuel Goldwyn and Louis B. Mayer, conscripted many of the major talents of its day in producing its plethora of esteemed films. The inevitably ad hominem approach of the Left would be to point out that Mayer was a predatory jerk given to using his power to garner sexual favors from his female employees. But while this would seem to be true, it in no way diminishes the cultural impact of his company. It was for MGM that the brilliant Joseph Mankiewicz produced films for several years, including The Philadelphia Story and Woman of the Year, before going on to a directing career which yielded an Academy Award for 1949’s A Letter to Three Wives. Amazingly versatile, he would win an Oscar the following year as the screenwriter of All About Eve, which he also directed. The movie event of 1963, I vividly recall, was Cleopatra, which was once again a product of Mankiewicz’ amazing creative skills.
Gilmore Girls [20000-2007] is to me one if the most charming television series of all time. It was created by Amy Sherman Palladino who was both its preeminent writer and director. Born of only one Jewish parent, Amy insists she was raised with a typically Jewish focus on hard work, discipline and achievement. Subsequent to Gilmore Girls she was the creator/writer/director of the equally acclaimed The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel [2017-2023].
Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz cooperated in producing, writing and directing “thirtysomething” [1987-1991] which won 13 Primetime Emmys as well as 2 Golden Globes throughout its run. They were each subsequently nominated for and won various awards in both film and TV. The show focused on a group of middle to upper-middle class Whites struggling with life’s various challenges in Philadelphia 35 years ago. Its central characters, the Steadmans, allowed its creators to dramatize the inevitable difficulties born of a Jewish husband’s passionate love for his Christian wife. Significantly, Wikipedia says those who admired the show saw its characters as “sensitive, introspective adults,” while others who loathed it saw them as “self-absorbed, whiny yuppies.” No doubt those of the latter opinion share the prominent Leftist belief that anyone who is White and relatively affluent is by definition a “privileged” benefactor of Capitalism’s tainted benefits. Similarly they might conclude that inasmuch as the show dealt exclusively with Caucasians, a term often used with derision these days, its creators were mindlessly anchored in the harbor of White Supremacism. And yet I recall “thirtysomething” as a brilliantly written show featuring intelligent characters seeking to navigate life’s various existential challenges with compassion and integrity. To denigrate it because it failed to embrace the Left’s neo-Marxist narrative of oppression is to expose more about the superficiality of that narrative than the insensitive, “privileged” vision of its creators. This is but to say that “conservatives” see the remedy to society’s various injustices in the moral/intellectual enlightenment of each and every individual rather than in government edicts [i.e., “affirmative actions”] which arbitrarily impose outcomes which the Left has defined as Just on various public sectors, outcomes which both ignore the real diversity of Human Nature while entailing an abuse of government power which is anti-Democratic to its very core. This is but to say that “thirtysomething” was a wonderful show precisely because it failed to reduce the complexities of the human dynamic to the simplistic paradigm of Oppressor and Oppressed.
I am in no way idealizing Jews. There are good and bad amongst them as there are throughout the species. But the findings of The Bell Curve would appear to be correct, the genetic makeup of Jews and the Cultural Values which it spawns leading them to excel in most every society in which they have been granted their freedom. The point of this attempt to highlight their amazing contributions to the Western entertainment industry over the last hundred years is simply that as true “conservatives” revere Human Achievement, Anti-Semitism is in no way compatible with their ideology. But gee, isn’t resentment of Achievement implicit in most every aspect of the Left’s neo-Marxist worldview? Isn’t my sincere admiration of Candace Owens evidence that I am motivated not by the superficial criteria of race, gender, etc., but by human intelligence and integrity?