Sunday, May 04, 2008

Do We Love Our Freedoms as Much as They Hate Them?


Chirpiness that'll be the death of us

"Multiculturalism" is a unicultural phenomenon. It exists only as a Western fetish, and we don't believe in it, not really. Most people, given the choice, want to live in an advanced Western society. That's why even impeccably PC lefties refer carelessly to other cultures as "developing nations": the phrase assumes they're "developing" into something closer to ours, because that's the direction of progress. Even hard-core multiculturalists only want to live in a Western society. For one thing, that's the only place you can make a living as a multiculturalist.

We are encouraging of certain forms of assertiveness: I am woman, hear me roar! Say it loud, I'm black and proud! We're here, we're queer, get used to it! But the one identity we're enjoined not to trumpet is the one that enables us to trumpet all the others: our identity as citizens of a very specific kind of society with a very particular inheritance, built on the rule of law, property rights, and freedom of speech. Heaven forbid we should assert any of that: I am Western, hear me apologize! Say it loud, I'm Dutch and cowed! We're Brits, we're s--ts, awf'lly sorry about that!

If you no longer know what you stand for, how can you know what you stand against?

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