Agnosticism / Atheism: What's Hot Now: Changing Face of Anti-Semitism

Agnosticism / Atheism: What's Hot Now These articles that had the largest increase in popularity over the last week Changing Face of Anti-Semitism 4 Jul 2011, 11:01 am Antisemitism has been a serious issue in Western culture for millennia. Although known in the ancient world, it became a significant aspect of Western culture because of Christianity; what started out as religious animus was eventually transformed into a pseudo-scientific bigotry against a so-called Jewish “race.” The development of Antisemitism continues today on account of Israel and Zionism and people’s criticism of those institutions. Title: The Changing Face of Anti-Semitism: From Ancient Times to the Present Day Author: Walter Laqueur Publisher: Oxford University Press ISBN: 0195304292 Pro: • Easy to read, short, and covers most of the important issues Con: • Analysis of modern Antisemitism is very flawed and ignores important issues Description: • Short historical overview of the history of Anti-Semitism in the West • Explains the different forms taken by Anti-Semitism over time and what distinguishes them • Explores how Anti-Semitism appears today and how it differs from the past Book Review Everyone has heard of Antisemitism and can offer a basic definition as “hatred of or bigotry against Jews,” but this doesn’t encompass the full scope of Antisemitism. People need to learn more about where Antisemitism comes from and how it has developed over the years. There are many books on the subject, but it is a complicated topic and some of these books are dense volumes on history and religion. Walter Laqueur’s The Changing Face of Anti-Semitism: From Ancient Times to the Present Day is helpful because it covers a large span of time in a short and readable book. Particularly important is his coverage of hostility towards Israel and Zionism because this will play a role in the nature of Antisemitism for the foreseeable future. Unfortunately, I don’t think Laqueur does a good job on this. He asks whether it’s possible to be hostile towards Israel and Zionism without also being antisemitic and allows that this may be possible, but concludes that in practice it isn’t plausible. His main argument seems to be that justified criticisms of Israel are not matched by equally justified criticisms of other nations: “...why concentrate on one specific underdog and ignore the others? There is no clear answer to this question; it does appear, however, that there must be a specific aspect or dimension to this case of injustice that the other cases do not have.” It’s fair to ask why people focus on Israel’s behavior but not other nations’ behavior and to suspect the involvement of Antisemitism. Laqueur is assuming that people are reacting rationally and sensibly â€" that they are focusing on Israel for some rational reason, even if it’s irrational Antisemitism. What Laqueur should have done is ask about other cases where people single out one thing for attention despite the existence of other cases where the same or even closer attention is warranted if they evaluated matters objectively. Why do people worry more about terrorism than other causes of death? Why do more people worry about dying in an airplane crash than a car crash? Scores of such examples can be listed; in fact, it may be the norm â€" when was the last time people equally divided their focus among all problems of equal strength or accurately proportioned their attention based upon an objective calculation of how serious all the problems are? I can’t think of any examples. Is it because there is some “specific aspect or dimension” to the problem getting the most attention “that the other cases do not have”? No. People focus on particular problems because they have known people affected by them (personal stories outweigh impersonal statistics) or because the media focuses on them. Why does the media focus on them? Because they make for compelling stories. The Changing Face of Anti-Semitism: From Ancient Times to the Present Day, by Walter Laqueur With Israel, we have a compelling story because it’s a long-running conflict in a region where we get a significant amount of our energy, it involves religions related to Christianity, terrorism against us often begins with this conflict, there are lobbies in America that are interested in the conflict, many are personally invested in it, etc. Some of these are good reasons to focus on this conflict more than others; some are not. Antisemitism is probably one factor at times and it would be foolish to think that it plays no role at all. It would be just as foolish, however, to imagine that it’s the only factor. I wonder if Laqueur’s focus on Antisemitism is an example of the problems inherent in overspecializing: he knows this topic better than most, but his work may cause him to become too unfamiliar with other issues, like the cognitive mistakes which people make when judging what issues merit time and attention. This aside, Laqueur’s book is a good introduction to the history and problems of Antisemitism. It need not be the first one you reach to â€" there are others equally good, though most tend to be longer and more detailed. If you want a short and easy to read introduction, though, this will fit the bill. You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed.