One special, unique aspect of the relation of the West with other civilizations remains to be noted. Through all the intellectual and technical development that has been barely sketched here, through all the turmoil of politics, one alien group lived physically in the midst of the Western peoples but almost aloof from their life, almost untouched by the strains and intellectual problems that beset the West: the Western Jews.
—Lawrence Brown, The Might of the West
The lead article in this issue, “Understanding Jewish Influence” by Dr. Kevin MacDonald, professor of psychology at California State University-Long Beach, is the first of a three-part series that analyzes Jewish political, cultural, social, and economic influence and the factors that contribute to the extraordinary Jewish impact on American life. As with Professor MacDonald’s other published work, particularly his trilogy on Judaism as an evolutionary group-based survival strategy, the treatment of the subject is meticulously thorough and systematic in its careful study of what is by any honest assessment the most untouchable of current taboos.
The first installment outlines the core traits of Jewish activism and why this combination of group-based characteristics is such a formidable ethnocentric force. Subsequent articles will assess the role of Zionism and neo-conservatism—both subjects of immense topicality in view of their role in forming America’s current policy throughout the Middle East—as political movements that consolidate Jewish influence over elite institutions in Western societies.
To thoroughly understand the dynamic of competition and interaction among societal elites one must accurately diagnose the causal relationships that often generate friction and group-based conflict. Despite the shallow rhetoric of his critics—conservatives who claim to be confused about the role of groups in evolutionary psychology—Professor MacDonald advances a compelling assessment of Jewish influence that updates and expands upon his other published work on this provocative area of scholarly research.