Contrast those pastoral and uncluttered days with the condition of our crowded planet today, with its poverty, ethnic cleansing, genocide, famine, and xenophobia; heaped on top of our increasing awareness of the destruction of our planet. The hair-trigger nervous systems that now characterize our species, only add to the conviction that living conditions for all people are clearly worsening, except as represented in our television ads. Under such circumstances, the Us-versus-Them mentality that is prerequisite to the operation of the Pecking Order, can only intensify.
For better or worse, we Jews are humans too. We ritually offer the toast, "L'Chaim!" - To Life! - acknowledging that life offers a far more desirable alternative than does suffering and death. It seems only reasonable, therefore, to try and hold on to it for ourselves and those we profess to love, for as long as possible.
But, after considering all the options, the only realistic way of being able to do so lies in a willingness to count the chips we actually hold, rather than to continue to wait for Lady Luck or the coming of a Messiah. If the only chance of escaping from the bottom of the Pecking Order necessitates that we blend inconspicuously into the universal majority, then so be it. That majority will probably survive over the short term, while we - or whatever poor souls are unlucky enough to inherit that tragic niche - are far less likely to do so, if we remain on our present course.
In summary, this monograph is being written, not in despair but in the acknowledgement of the fact that violence is an immutable characteristic of our species, and that hatred is its invariable precursor. As the objects of what has proven to be the world's oldest hatred, Jews have been struggling for millenia in the quicksand of false hope, shifting back and forth from reliance on divine intervention and the blind faith that this time humanity will really learn from history, in time to veer away from this lethal course.
This just hasn't happened, and we are no closer to the realization of that dream today than when Cain slew Abel. If the word, "sapiens" - or wise - is ever to be properly ascribed to our species, in the absence of some way to reprogram humanity through genetic engineering, we must at least stop our pursuit of illusions, and do what needs to be done in order to survive.
The Human Pecking Order exists; and all the piety and wit we have been able to muster has never succeeded in making it go away for even a moment. Either ignorance or arrogance on the part of our distant ancestors made them try to convince themselves that their puny superstitions and wishes were important in the cosmic scheme of things; that the Red Sea would part or the sun would stand still on their behalf.
By any set of criteria, there is nothing more "wrong" with Judaism than is wrong with any other identifiable religion. Accordingly, under any system of justice or fair play, Jews should be allowed the same rights granted to all others, to live in peace without the fear of Anti-Semitism. But the right or wrong of Judaism has never been a factor in the selection of Jews for persecution; and the persistent delusion that an era of justice and fair play lies in the future of the human race, is just that - a cruel hoax. The Human Pecking Order is not - and never will be - a respecter of justice and fair play.
Perhaps those genetic engineers may yet learn one day how to untwist that double helix, expecially those parts that carry the impulse toward Holocausts. But even as we scan our daily newspapers for words of hope, our history books are opened to the pages describing all those Holocausts that have already happened. We have been faced by this deadly enigma far past the time for us to realize that it can never be resolved - whether to save our religion, or our gene pool.
While our generation debates this issue for the thousandth time, never wavering in its hopes, the Pecking Order goes on inexorably, like the cycles of night and day.
Sanford A. Marcus
