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Even the little shocks of railway travelling, not perceived by consciousness, the perpetual noises, and the vanous sights m the streets of a large town, our suspense pending the sequel of progressing events, the constant expectation of the newspaper, of the postman, of visitors, cost our brains wear and tear.' I Max NordauAs a Darwinian, Max Nordau believed that the inhabitants of modern industrial cities would eventually adapt to the myriad of stimuli which incessantly assaulted their senses. He diagnosed all those who could not adapt to this commotion as 'degenerates, hysterics, and neurasthenics'. What Nordau mocked as a pathological hypersensitivity to the clamour of urban life, 2 Theodor Lessing praised as a 'criterion for the refinement of the nerves and the versatility of the brain' . 3 Lessing is usually remembered as the controversial German-Jewish intellectual who was hounded out of his teaching position at the Technical Institute of Hanover in 1926 by right-wing students protesting his opposition to Hindenburg's presidency, and who was assassinated in exile in Czechoslovakia by two local Nazis in 1933. This legacy, as well as the reputation of his books on historicism, Jewish self-hatred, and European and Asian culture, have obscured his role as a pioneer in the noise abatement movement at the beginning of the twentieth century. To Lessing, the din of the metropolis was an effect and a cause of the degeneration of the quality of life in Western civilization. The Deutscher Ldrmschutzverband which he founded represented not only a reformist crusade for quiet, but also a fundamental critique of the modernization process itself and of the ideas which promoted it.

The recent movie X-Men (2000) reflects the assimilationist aims, ethnic anxieties, and liberal idealism of the first-generation Jewish Americans who created the original superheroes featured in Marvel Comic Books. Their rejection of Nazi racism, abhorrence of the Holocaust, and support of the Civil Rights Movement motivated them to make Magneto, the antagonist of the X-Men, a Jewish Holocaust survivor who reasonably fears that a new race of mutants like himself may face persecution and eventual extermination if they do not mount a preemptive strike against paranoid humans intent on suppressing the threat posed by beings with special powers. The X-Men follow a mutant who advocates acculturation and the channeling of their superhuman abilities to defend humankind. Bryan Singer, the Jewish director of the movie, has retained the encounter with the Holocaust and the struggle against bigotry as key themes in his film. He also has associated these themes with other instances of past or present manifestations of mass hysteria and discrimination in American politics. Thus, the movie can be understood on two levels: superficially, it is a special effects, action adventure, science fiction movie that appeals to teenagers; substantively, it is an allegory about the continuing debate over whether the United States should promote ethnic, racial, and religious equality and diversity or whether it should become a more homogenous and less multicultural society.

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