The Asians are often called the “model minority” in America. This is based on the fact that they have very low crime, very low welfare dependency, low social dysfunction and high academic achievement. Some mentally unstable Asian females have tried to rail against this as racist, but Asians make terrible social justice warriors. That and only a lunatic could construe what is an obvious compliment as racism. The thing is though, they are not the model minority. The most successful minority is the Jews.
If you are in an African tribe and your people are thinking about moving to the West, the group you would want to emulate are the Jews. They have figured out how to wildly succeed in all sorts of places, always as a tiny minority. This is in despite of some very serious efforts by majority populations to keep the Jews from succeeding. Then there was the bit of trouble in the middle of the last century. Asians can’t hold a candle to the Jews in this area. In the US, Jews have become the ruling class.
Steve Sailer has picked up on something that has been an internet meme for some time and that is “Jewish privilege.” This used to be a gag in response to the cries of “white privilege” by Progressive lunatics, but it is slowly becoming a legitimate topic for public discussion. Whether or not you buy into the whole “privilege” argument, the point is Jews have been wildly successful in America. The question that should follow is why? What group qualities have worked for Jews that are unique to Jews in America?
Now, this is usually where people will starting mentioning Kevin McDonald and The Culture of Critique. The more empirically minded will bring up the landmark study of Ashkenazi intelligence, by Gregory Cochran, Jason Hardy, Henry Harpending from a dozen years ago. Neither of those are going to help your African tribe make it work in the West. That’s like the Koreans reading the Talmud looking for the secret of Jewish success. A better approach might be identifying a few qualities and copying them.
One is something Steve Sailer picked up on during the short-lived Larry David flap. It used to be that Jews were obsessively self-aware. Thaddeus Russell touches on this in his book, Renegade History of America. Jews used to obsess over the quirks and flaws of their people, and tirelessly harangue the tribe about the flaws. Shame is taboo these days, oddly enough. but it makes for an excellent self-policing mechanism. In fact, it used to be the default way in which the American ruling class policed itself.
Related to the self-policing instinct is clannishness. A lot of alt-right people criticize Jews for being clannish. They call it nepotism, but they really mean clannish. There’s no doubt that Jews throughout the diaspora have always worried about what is good for the Jews, so much so it is a cliche. The thing is though, unlike, say, Arabs, Jewish clannishness defends the tribe against all threats, external and internal. Arabs will protect complete idiots, who cause the tribe trouble. Jews don’t do that with their members.
This is something that all identity politics should adopt. Going back to the African tribe at the beginning, if they have a member, who brings shame on the group or simply cannot pull his weight, the best course is to cut him lose. If you have talent and you are Jewish, the tribe is an enormous asset. if you’re a mediocrity or a loser, being Jewish is not going to benefit you in the least. Clannishness as a reward encourages loyalty, but it also boils off the losers who drag down the group. Along with shame, it makes for a better tribe.
Another quirk of the Tribe that could help any tribe is the unwillingness of Jews to self-marginalize in society. The Ultra-Orthodox do this, but they are the exception. Generally, Jews engage with the society in which they reside and are willing to engage at the highest levels. Gypsies in Europe, in contrast, live on the fringes. Asians in America tend to gravitate to a little Hanoi or a Chinatown. Jews don’t do that and when forced into a ghetto, and we have the word ghetto thanks to the Tribe, Jews resist it and try to engage.
This is not just something Jews have done in America. Italians and Irish are notable examples of groups that would not stay in the ghetto. Unlike Europe, America has never had a lot of rules about this stuff. We did not inherent Europe’s class structure. Still, the winning hand everywhere is to not settle for a quiet little corner of society. The winning formula is to embrace the greater culture and carve out a place in the center of it. The trouble last century in Germany not withstanding, it has worked very well for Jews.
Going back to the shame issue, there is a Jewish quirk that is a huge advantage and that is a form of shamelessness. That is, Jews are never ashamed of their efforts. You see this with the neocons. Guys like Bill Kristol have no problem walking around in public, despite the things he has done to the country. Anthony Weiner was out and about, even after he was caught in the “bing-bing-bing.” It’s not always an asset, but having the conscience of a burglar makes it easier to overcome failure and keep plugging.
The genesis of this post is a conversation I had with a black guy from Zimbabwe. We fell into conversation about his country and one of the things he said was that his people are the Jews of Africa . He thinks his people should come to America and follow the same path as the Ashkenazi. I did not think to ask if he was Lemba, but that’s my hunch. His general point was that inculcating certain group habits that have worked for other groups, is a good way forward for tribes, be they in identity politics on the African bush.
This post has already been linked to 732 times!
Well, Somehow I doubt that this strategy works nearly as well if your average group IQ is somewhere between 70 and 85, as opposed to 100-115, but it couldn’t hurt.
There are similarities with the Mormons out here in the West.Generally great people, but very clannish. Once a Mormon is in a position of authority any favors they have to dispense will flow to other Mormons. If you’re a supplier and your customer places a Mormon in a position to oversee the purchase of your service or product, you’re toast unless you’re Mormon. It’s virtually impossible to carve out a career in Salt Lake City if you’re not Mormon.
Lots of groups do that. Arabic people only give me work as a last resort.Blacks have no choice.
I always found it interesting in America how many Mexicans are in the back cooking in Chinese restaurants. Never saw a Black in the kitchen, except in Alabama. And it was an all Black run fried chicken place (very good too!).
And let me be clear – when I say Black run , it was only Black women preparing, cooking, and working the counter! Not a single Black male to be seen.
This is why I still maintain that culture is, ultimately, more important than biology. You can’t enculturate an 80 IQ guy to be a nuclear physicist, but you CAN enculturate him to do all kinds of things that benefit himself, his family, his tribe, and his nation. The Great Society is a good example of this. Before 1964, Americans Blacks were enculturated — by force of law in lots of cases — into “acting White.” The laws were removed, and overnight, “acting White” became the worst crime in the AA community… with exactly the results everyone who was paying attention… Read more »
Unfortunately we attempted to rid ourselves of that very same group some years ago in one of the worst chapters in our history. We Germans, and most of Europe, are now paying the price for our collective stupidity. As you so often say – this will not end well.
I’m more sanguine about the state of relations in America than the alt-right people. My sense is American Jews, especially younger ones, are rethinking Jewishness in the same way that younger whites are rethinking whiteness. If I had to bet, Jews are about to go through a big shift away from Progressivism toward nationalism and populism. Just a hunch.
Jewish conservative here. Really excellent piece. I will argue with your intuition that an embrace of populism is next up for us. No precedent for that in our history, we always seek out the elite, even when it is ultimately self-defeating, and we have a national allergy to what we term “Ahm Ha’aretz” or People of the Land.
“They have figured out how to wildly succeed in all sorts of places, always as a tiny minority. This is in despite of some very serious efforts by majority populations to keep the Jews from succeeding.” Despite? Or perhaps “because.” “if you’re a mediocrity or a loser, being Jewish is not going to benefit you in the least.” Well…not strictly true. The successful ones tend to prop up the losers. It’s not perfect security but it’s superior to a group of tribeless white dudes. “That is, Jews are never ashamed of their efforts.” Well, yeah. But maybe we should append… Read more »
“Historically (with some exceptions) the Jews knew better than to poke the gentile bear.”
No, the opposite is true. The very cycle of the Jews is to exploit and ruin gentile society and then get expelled. After some time, they wheedle their way back in to the high-trust gentile society (via the elite and some sympathetic Christian do-gooders) and the looting begins again. Christians need to make laws that prevent the *behavior* from happening again. Not go after the *people* because Jews have 100% weaponized their supposed victimhood.
I’ll offer that Jim Goad observed when Asians in America go SJW they go hard; in his words “take it to the hoop.”
BTW Edit button FTW!!!!
I had to look up the lemba thing. There were people living around us that we called Zionists. I’m going to assume that they are the same or similar. It was difficult to identify the men, but many of the women would occasionally dress in a distinctive red and white style of dress on weekends. We had a housekeeper who was one. In addition to English and Shona she spoke Portuguese. Unfortunately she was also an alcoholic.
It really is sad what has happened to Zimbabwe. It was one African country that could have made a go of it. Of course, there’s a lesson there for all of us.
Unfortunately, just about all of Africa has shown they are completely incapable of any form of democratic self-rule once the Whites have left. A few individual townships, perhaps, but as a collective peoples they have no chance. Unlike everywhere else where the British established bureaucracy under their Colonial rule, Black ex-colonies have failed miserably because they don’t value hard work or education. Now enter the Chinese. As clever as they are, they are about to learn what European’s learned from our Colonial experiences. It will be interesting to see how quickly they are despised by the locals just as former… Read more »
One problem in Africa is that you have a minority of high IQ people living in a low IQ environment. It is difficult to do well trying to operate “above board” in such a culture, and all too easy to bypass the whole thing and just seize the levers of power and the assets of the place. The lower IQ people emulate this behavior, and the whole joint becomes one big exercise in shaking down anyone who breathes and helping yourself to anything that is not tied down. Colonials in positions of authority often bring some of the discipline of… Read more »
No you really don’t want to be like the Jews. First of all, despite their success, they do not appear to be a happy people and live in fear and paranoia. Constant fear and paranoia despite the openness of our country to them and the natural philo- semitism of Americans.
I believe the liberal American Jewish community has completely lost the plot. The liberal Jews are all of what Zman says of them, but they have lost their children. The Mormon children are carefully brought up in the ways of their church, and most will continue the mission. But many children of the liberal American Jews see nothing in it, as the actual practice includes all the social elements but the complete loss of any real meaning in the religious and cultural traditions. The younger ones see an older generation that are selling out the youth in this country, and… Read more »
I hope you told this Zimbabwe gentleman once gen-z gets rolling they might not be very discriminating with the gas.
I think you’re looking for the word chutzpah. Bill Kristol is quite the chutzpahnik, and it has done him well.
That said, a touch of chutzpah is necessary but clearly not sufficient. Lots of criminals are loaded with chutzpah, but it only lands them in prison.
re: Bill Kristol
He has a facial expression that cannot be called a smile as it is the epitome of the “shit eating grin.” His at rest appearance demonstrates it. I hope to see it wiped off his face someday.
Dan Kurt
Insightful post. Well done.
The problem with Jewish clannishness is that mostly it serves to protect their criminals and other bad behavers. Normal good behaving Jews are shamed into supporting the economic exploitation and cultural subversion of their neighbors by the pornographers, hedge fund guys, barely disguised sex traffickers in Hollywood and Silicon Valley monopolists. Thus, their engagement with the society around them happens on their terms only, and they seem to feel entitled to subvert and mock others culture at will. They are getting more and more shameless about their mockery of the rest of us. We’d all be much better off if… Read more »
Don’t know about the Lemba, but the Igbo might qualify.
Moving to and working in Los Angeles red pilled me. Seeing Jewish bosses adoringly usher in their Jewish friend’s kid and giving him or her a plush position, better pay and plum projects was embittering, especially when Jew boss would introduce the latest pet chosen one and share that, “He’s one of the tribe” and all us goyim would be expected to smile and applaud in approval, because we could all see and embrace their superiority. It was sickening. And I never saw a Jew brought in that was above mediocre in talent, and though they were intelligent enough, definitely… Read more »
“Whether or not you buy into the whole “privilege” argument, the point is Jews have been wildly successful in America.” I’ve always hated the whole privilege argument overall. Its nonsense academic mumbo-jumbo that normal people are extorted into accepting. Its always some opportunistic lowlife or incompetent who uses it. (Sailer’s point was with Peter Beinart, who makes a good living trying to be the liberal Ben Shapiro but who’s whole position today is a flip-flop to an extreme minority position he did to get attention, sell books and make money.) “One is something Steve Sailer picked up on during the… Read more »
Does this emulation extend to getting circumcised? I am asking for a friend…
I agree white Christians should emulate Jews in their formidable networking. However, our goals should be directed toward nurturing a high-trust, prosperous society rather than the exploitation, degeneracy and gutting of societies that are the inevitable results of the Jews’ zero sum ways.