The first several pages are complex but deserve careful explanation.
Discrimination is the essence of intelligence.
Invidious now means tending to cause offense for being unfair, whereas vicious means evil in itself and is thus more absolute. Vicious also means that malice is involved. Perhaps I should go back to invidious though there is little social discrimination that isn't regarded as malicious by whoever is damaged. The story of Esther is a marvelous summary of the waves of anti-Semitism over the millenia. With the increasing strains of upward mobility and an inevitable general decrease in the quality of living in America, anti-Semitism may really rise again.