Polish-Jewish Relations: 1,300 Keyword-Phrase-Indexed Book Reviews (by Jan Peczkis)

Culture of Critique, by Kevin B. MacDonald. 1998. [Kultura Krytyki in Polish, 2019]

Jews as Critics of Gentile Societies. Origins and Manifestations of Neo-Marxism (Cultural Marxism). Implications for Polonophobia

By way of introduction, I am an independent thinker, and my review is unlikely to please either the fans or the foes of this book. My position is Judeorealist. This avoids the extremes of anti-Semitism (“Jews are bad people”) and philosemitism (“Jews are just victims, and Jews can do no wrong”).

This book is a tour de force. Whether one agrees with author Kevin MacDonald or not, one can be impressed with the depth of scholarship in this, and his earlier, books. It can serve as a reference book for further study.

JEWISH ELITISM: JEWS AS CRITICS OF GENTILE SOCIETIES

The title of this book stems from the fact that, in MacDonald’s view, Jews have assumed the role of critics and transformers of gentile cultures. (p. 110). For example, in assessing the roles of Jews in the Boasian school of anthropology, in various leftist movements, in psychoanalysis, and in the Frankfurt School, MacDonald comments, “The material in the previous four chapters indicates that individuals who strongly identified as Jews have been the main motivating force behind several highly influential intellectual movements that have simultaneously subjected gentile culture to radical criticism and allowed for the continuity of Jewish identification…Collectively, these movements have called into question the fundamental moral, political, and economic foundations of Western society…A palpable sense of intellectual and moral superiority of those participating in these movements is another characteristic feature…Regarding moral superiority, the central pose of post-Enlightenment Jewish intellectuals is a sense that Judaism represents a moral beacon to the rest of humanity…” (p. 213, 214).

MacDonald could have made the case for his “Jews in the role of critics” stronger, taking this to a Jew-on-Jew setting, where competition with gentiles cannot be an issue. As an example, 19th century Ashkenazi Jewish newcomers to Eretz Israel began, using MacDonald’s terms, to engage in a “culture of critique” of the native Palestinian Sephardic Jews. This was understandably resented by the latter. Please see my review of Real Jews: Secular Versus Ultra- Orthodox: The Struggle For Jewish Identity In Israel:

https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2019/11/04/minorities-can-be-wrong-effron/

JEWISH INFLUENCE: THE USE OF WILLING GENTILES

The author provides much historical information. For instance, Sigmund Freud strongly identified with his Jewishness (though not religion), disdained the Catholic Church, and he verbalized hope that psychoanalysis would subvert gentile culture. (p. 114). He chose Jung as part of his movement because he needed a high-profile gentile to broaden the appeal of psychoanalysis. (p. 114). At other times and in other contexts, influential Jews have attracted like-minded gentiles, in part in order to lessen the Jewish visibility of Jewish-initiated or Jewish-led movements. (e. g., p. 225, 240). [This can be seen even today in Holocaust-related attacks on Poland. (e. g, the inconclusive–probably German and not Polish–massacre of Jews at Jedwabne). That is why Jews can say that “Polish scholars” (usually the LEWACTWO) now support Polish guilt for Jedwabne.]

WEAKENING THE DOMINENT CULTURE

Much of what Kevin MacDonald writes is straightforward. Jews are a minority group, and they feel safer in a pluralistic society which has many distinctive groups, and where different kinds of behaviors are tolerated. For this reason, Jews work for the waning of dominant culture as their influence increases.

So how does weakening the dominant culture work? One way is through the atheization of societies under the guise of “separation of church and state”–as has been going on for well over a century. (pp. 244-245, 325). MacDonald believes that Jews, owing to their cohesiveness, do not need traditional cultural and religious supports for high-investment parenting. (p. 148). For this reason alone, any GOYISH decline of culture and religion is of net benefit to the Jews. (p. 148).

ORIGIN AND IMPLICATIONS OF NEO-MARXISM (CULTURAL MARXISM)

MacDonald elaborates on the Jewish-dominated Frankfurt School and on the highly-regarded THE AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY. Both attempted to throw religion, conventional sexual morality, and fascism into the same smelly bag. The author provides a series of studies that have now refuted the connection of fascism, religion, and sexual morality. (p. 189).

MacDonald then comments, “Jewish interests are also served facilitating radical individualism (social atomization) among gentiles while retaining a powerful sense of group cohesion among Jews–the agenda of the Frankfurt School.” (p. 215). It is for this reason that Jews push for ethnic and religious pluralism, for multiculturalism, for the emergence of alternative lifestyles, etc. (pp. 244-247, 311, etc.). One legacy of the Frankfurt School is postmodernism, which includes a rejection of the possibility of shared values or any sense of national culture. (p. 198).

On the international scene, Jews push for internationalism (nowadays called globalism), and for unrestricted immigration, notably into previously ethnically-homogenous nations (e. g, Poland). This is consistent with the destruction of the nation-state and the weakening of the ethnic homogeneity of traditional societies. (p. 317).

NOT ADDRESSED: HOLOCAUST SUPREMACISM

Kevin MacDonald hardly ever mentions the pre-eminence of the Holocaust in American media and the educational system. What purposes would the dominance of the Shoah serve according to his paradigm of Jewish-gentile evolutionary competition? Is it, in part, to shame gentiles into compliance with Jewish demands (the PEDAGOGIKA WSTYDU)? Is the directed forgetting of the genocides of non-Jews itself a form of Jewish elitism, and an everyday reminder to the GOYIM that Jews are at the top of the pecking order in American society?

NOT ADDRESSED: CHRONIC JEWISH ANTIPOLONISM, AND SHIFTING HOLOCAUST BLAME ONTO THE POLES

Now consider Jewish Polonophobia, especially when related to the German-made Holocaust. How would it fit-in with MacDonald’s reasoning? One clue is provided by his analysis of the legacy of the Frankfurt School and of postmodernism: “…there is also an implicit double standard in which cohesive groups formed by majorities are viewed as pathological and subject to radical criticism.” (p. 199). Could we think of a Jewish ingroup dynamic that needs an outgroup to attack and scapegoat (in replacement of the now-esteemed Germans)–with Poles as the ideal outgroup because they lack the political power to push back effectively? For a Jewish affirmation of the forgiveness of the Germans and the scapegoating of the Poles, please see my review of The Seventh Million: The Israelis and the Holocaust:

https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2019/11/04/german-guilt-diffusion-jews-endorse-segev/