bobov (imported) wrote: Fri Feb 27, 2004 1:19 pm I have always noted the tendancy of some people to speak of "the Jews" rather than just Jews. This seemed offensive to me because the use of the article implies objectification. I thought I might be overly sensitive, so, just as an experiment, I spoke of "the Christians" while in the company of some Christian believers. They responded with instant anger. One of them even threatened to beat me up. It seems I wasn't wrong to see hostile intent among supposedly ecumenical people talking about "the Jews."

Human beings seem to have a hard-wired propensity to affiliate with groups. They create positive stereotypes of their own groups, negative stereotypes of rival groups, and cartoonish stereotypes to identify remote groups. Only active engagement ever helps, the sort that contradicts stereotypes with direct experience. But even this doesn't work well - the appeal of stereotypes as an intellectual shorthand is too great. When people meet individuals who don't match the stereotype, they just say "Joe is exceptional, unlike most XXX, he's OK." "Some of my best friends are XXX." And of course, the appeal of positive stereotypes about one's own group is irresistible, even though these imply a negative view of others. "We're so nice," suggests "unlike those others."

With enormous effort over many years, respectable opinion can be reoriented toward tolerance of particular groups, e.g., blacks, gays, Jews. But this tolerance is precarious, and any untoward event sees the rapid re-emergence of old hatreds. Much, much more can be said. For those with a serious interest, read Gordon Allport's "Psychology of Prejudice" and J.-P. Sartre's "Anti-Semite and Jew."