Monday, January 28, 2013

Are Asians the New Jews of American Intellectual Life?

Eliyahu Stern briefly raises the question in an article about Vilna Gaon, The Original Jewish Genius:
Are certain ethnic groups predisposed to excel in the classroom? The debate has heated up of late in academic circles. In a new book called Legacy, the geneticist Harry Ostrer of Albert Einstein Medical School argues that Jewish intellectual achievement is the result of genetic makeup and Jews’ fortuity to have lived among cultures that valued academics. Run Unz in the the American Conservative countered with an exhaustive study documenting that contemporary “Jewish students may be far less diligent in their work habits or driven in their studies than were their parents or grandparents.” While American Jews continue to value education, the percentage of geniuses among them seems to be dropping. Asians, Unz claims, are “the New Jews of American intellectual life,” outperforming their peers.

15 comments:

  1. Well this goes pretty contrary to Mises' explanation of praxeology. Sounds all like polylogism to me. Individuals perform according to their individual value scales, enough said. I knew plenty of Asians back in South Sacramento where I worked that seem to be taking advantage of the welfare programs like any other unemployed loafer. These types of racial studies make other racial or ethnic groups push for government programs to help their underperforming ethnic or racial group.

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  2. But I remember being taught that the predominance of Jewish "geniuses" is due to the fact that historically "laws barred Ashkenazi Jews from working most jobs, including farming and crafts, and forced them into finance, management, and international trade. Wealthy Jews had several more children per family than poor Jews. So, genes for cognitive traits such as verbal and mathematical talent, which make a person successful in the few fields where Jews could work, were favored; genes for irrelevant traits, such as spatio-visual abilities, were supported by less selective pressure than in the general population."

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashkenazi_Jewish_intelligence

    My point is: There is genetic evidence that Jews are chosen. They are INHERENTLY smarter.

    Hence I reject this article.

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  3. Everyone on my college campus knows this -- the Asians excel.

    Some classes I walk by are 12 Asians and 1 Anglo kid -- being taught by an Asian teacher.

    I thought this was common sense...

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  4. Speaking as a member of one of those traditionally elitist ethnic groups, I think they are indeed "chosen," except not by God but by men, or more precisely, by the Devil in men: any ethnic group that gets culled by 30-80% every 3rd generation would indeed exhibit higher average intelligence among the survivors and their immediate off-springs in the next 2 generations, before they recombine to average wits and beauty in the subsequent generations.

    It's only brainwashing from a very young age that would make an otherwise intelligent person to consider such a high risk proposition is worthwhile for his/her own off-spring, appreciating the mythical "group intelligence level" at the cost of very real brutal culling of the plurality if not the majority of his/her own off-springs. Brains so washed are also especially susceptible to central planning (including eugenics) as opposed to individual freedom and differences, making the next round of culling all the more brutal as the competitors entering the the ring will lack differing skills that can mutually complement and trade with each other.

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    1. I don't see any evidence to your sweeping claims.

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  5. They are also inherently more annoying

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  6. Please consider that Christians are the preeminent ones of intellectual and spiritual life; and that they present dispensationalism as the key to understanding life.


    Dispensationalism is the ideology that Jesus Christ is at the helm of God’s Sovereignty, Ephesians 1:1-15, working in covenant relationships with God’s chosen ones. Dispensationalism holds that in a former dispensation, that is in a previous epoch, God named the nation of Israel to be preeminent, that is sovereign. In the current dispensation, that is in the current age, it is the Church, that is the called out ones, that have inherited God’s blessings, through his Son, Jesus Christ. God has named these, the Israel of God, to be his presence and authority at this time. Being called Christians, they carry his name, that is His presence and authority. It is from this body of believers, the Prince of God, that all the blessings of God now flow. The Present Truth is that God’s elect, that is God’s chosen ones from Eternity Past, are God’s covenant people, experience Christ as their life, grow in His grace and truth, exist as intellectually superior, are seated with him in heaven’s throne room, sovereignly ruling with him, and are heralding His soon coming one thousand year reign over planet earth, where he will govern from a rebuilt Jerusalem, which will serve as the global city of peace, and be an undivided and sovereign headquarters of God’s world wide prosperity and peace.

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    1. Sorry but Dispensationalism is complete NONSENSE. Your eschatology is completely screwed up. Do some studying.

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  7. I think it is part of the family's value system for sure but all this racial superiority stuff makes me cringe.

    When WASP males have dominated a certain professional class, cries of racism and unfair privilege were the battle cry of those on the outside. However, when you look at how many Jews there are in the entertainment, academic, and the high tiers of classical music, it is claimed that is only due to that groups, "inherent gifts." Yet all of these have gatekeepers who make or break your professional ascendency at very early stages.

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