If anti-Semitism is a variety of racism, it is a most peculiar variety, with many unique characteristics. In my view as a historian, it is so peculiar that it deserves to be placed in a quite different category. I would call it an intellectual disease, a disease of the mind, extremely infectious and massively destructive.
Interpretation
This quote views anti-Semitism as a distinct form of racism that has unique and destructive characteristics.
Paul Johnson categorizes anti-Semitism not merely as a subtype of racism, but as an 'intellectual disease' that is both highly infectious and capable of causing widespread harm. He emphasizes that its specific traits necessitate a unique classification, as it extends beyond typical racial prejudice, impacting thought processes and societal interactions in profound and detrimental ways.
In practice
During a speech on cultural tolerance, one might quote this to stress the unique dangers of anti-Semitism.
Indeed it is the protean ability of Western civilization to be self-critical and self-correcting - not only in producing wealth but over the whole range of human activities - that constitutes its most decisive superiority over any of its rivals.
The study of history is a powerful antidote to contemporary arrogance. It is humbling to discover how many of our glib assumptions, which seem to us novel and plausible, have been tested before, not once but many times and in innumerable guises; and discovered to be, at great human cost, wholly false.
The image of the scientist who puts the pursuit of truth before anything else has been shattered and replaced by a man on the make or a quasi-religious enthusiast who wants to prove his case at any cost. Science is becoming the tool of campaigning warfare, in which truth is the first casualty.
What strikes the historian surveying anti-Semitism worldwide over more than two millennia is its fundamental irrationality. It seems to make no sense, any more than malaria or meningitis makes sense.
We all have a fundamental right to live free from fear, free from crime, and free from disorder - but while we share that right, we also share the duty to secure it.
I'm going to Graceland, for reasons I cannot explain. There's some part of me wants to see Graceland. And I may be advised to defend every love, every ending, or maybe there's no obligations now. Maybe I've a reason to believe we all will be received in Graceland.
The title of hero is bestowed by the survivors upon the fallen, who themselves know nothing of heroism.
Perhaps, after all, America never has been discovered. I myself would say that it had merely been detected.
The Behaviorist cannot find consciousness in the test-tube of his science.
The first attempt at a response: there must have been a fall, a decline, and the road to salvation can only be the return of the sensible finite into the intelligible infinite.
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