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The Fears Men Live By, by Selma Hirsh
- Abstract
Anti-Semitism may very well be endemic to rapidly changing industrial societies which remain at least nominally Christian in outlook. Yet its utility as a political weapon has diminished greatly since World War II. Even in a country as culturally and socially homogeneous as France, Pierre Poujade’s anti-Semitic outbursts appear to have hindered rather than helped his movement. And in the United States the sales of Marjorie Morningstar, Look’s much publicized article on American Jews, and the hypersensitivity of right-wing demagogues like McCarthy to charges of anti-Semitism are among the signs of the times. Perhaps it is just that, as Richard Hofstadter has put it, standards of hating are rising along with standards of living, so that demagogues eager to win a national following arouse a greater response by attacking groups that are considerably more powerful than ethnic or religious minorities, such as Harvard University, the Ford Foundation, and the State Department.
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