I suggest reading this article before reading my post.
Does compulsory army service, which demands responsibility on all levels and provides great opportunities for making connections for the future, really explain how successful Israel's hi-tech industry is compared to its size? I am sure serving in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) is great training for a huge number of different jobs and scenarios. In fact, I am fairly sure that nearly everything said in the above-linked-article is accurate.
But, just how much does serving in the army affect Israelis success?
What about the culture in general?
To quote one Israeli-American; "Necessity is the mother of innovation." In the case of Israel and Jews, "necessity" brings to mind the horrors of the Holocaust and how the inmates had, essentially, nothing. I would hazard a guess that a lot of Israel's success can be traced to the mentality of Holocaust survivors; "no one's going to help us, so we had better just help ourselves." People absorb most of their parents' opinoins, values, behaviors, and general mentality on how to deal with the world, so the idea of "I don't have something, so I'm going to make it myself" could easily pass beyond just the Holocaust generation.
Okay readers, your turn. Is the article right to say that the disproportionate size to hi-tech industry success ratio is due primarily to the draft and army system? Or am I right? Can this success actually be traced back to Holocaust survivors and their attitude towards life? Are we both wrong? Are we both right? To what degree? Lastly, any other theories?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Shirley,
ReplyDeleteYour comment about writing without anger and opposition is interesting (though it's also true that differences of opinion spark many great posts).
This is a thoughtful post, but it's connection to American Studies is tenuous at best. Can you think of ways to relate this to Obama's American service programs, American military recruitment, American hi-tech. prospects?