October 25, 2010
Even in the self-loathing, culturally obsequious, crushed-and-bleeding former empire that is the UK, comments in response to Merkel’s proclamation were lopsidedly in favor of what she said. Most of the anonymous online whisperers, presumably British nationals, agreed that multiculturalism was a colossal failure in their country as well.
Reading the comments, I saw parallels between Europe’s brand of “multiculturalism” and the American product. Both hither and yon, there’s anger about racial job quotas, oppressive speech codes, and double standards regarding who’s allowed to show ethnic pride.
What’s important is the way multikulti has unfolded and where. You don”t see such sensitivity training being forced upon anyone in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, or South America. You don”t hear China, Japan, or Israel being lectured to swing open their doors to foreigners. Almost exclusively, multiculturalism is a psychological marketing program designed for majority-white countries. Often, it is sold with the idea that whites are paying a historic debt, are reaping what they”ve sown, that what goes around comes around, that the wheel has turned full-circle, the chickens are coming home to roost, and that it’s time to pay the swarthy piper his due.
Country by country, continent by continent, there’s a sense that the newer, darker arrivals are receiving preferential treatment over those who”ve been there for generations. In the UK, it’s called “Positive Discrimination.” In America, it’s called “affirmative action” and “amnesty.” And across every border where whites are a majority, there’s a creeping sense that politicians don”t give a fuck about how they feel. They never asked for these new waves of immigrants, and they had no choice in this odd social-engineering experiment that’s demolishing whatever they used to share as a common culture.
Suddenly, this doesn”t seem so much like a celebration of all cultures as it does punishment of a specific culture. And that doesn”t sound like such a swell recipe for having everyone get along.
We”ll be continually reminded that European satellite nations such as Canada, the USA, and Australia were settled atop indigenous skulls, so the land-grabbing descendants of those race-murderers have no right to whine about being gradually wiped out themselves by newcomers.
Once again, for Christ’s sake, whether he’s dead or alive: Two wrongs don”t make a right. If colonialism was wrong then, it’s wrong now. Multiculturalism is merely colonialism with a prettier name. I realize and concede the fact that it awards us with a dazzling array of ethnic restaurants unparalleled in their tastiness.
Under multiculturalism, we have a wider selection of food…and no one talks to anyone anymore. Many of us now speak different languages and wouldn”t even know how to talk to one another. Rather than erasing borders, multiculturalism has merely created new borders within borders. Rather than destroying nationalism, it creates mini-nations within nations.
If we”re going to push multiculturalism’s glories, shouldn”t we point out where has it worked in the past? If diversity is a strength, why did stretched-too-thin empires such as ancient Rome and the Soviet Union eventually fall from the weight of their own diversity?
Stop calling me a racist and shoot some believable answers at me. I really want to hear them.
As always, the “chattering classes” are working out their postcolonial guilt complexes at the lower classes” expense. Either they”ve known what they were doing all along or they haven”t, and I”m not sure which is worse.
It’s dangerous to ignore the fact that all the technology in the world, the ceaseless multicultural brainwashing that’s been laser-beamed into our eyeballs over the past 65 years, has not eradicated the basic human tendency to be tribal. If they didn”t fully murder such instincts in the Germans”and God fucking knows they tried hard with the Germans”maybe such instincts can”t be killed.
Yes, I realize we”re all human. If that’s your point, you”ve already made it”and, I might add, at a tremendous expense. What you fail to realize is that humans tend to be tribal. And if you get too many tribes, you don”t have a nation anymore.
I guess we should celebrate the fact that even though no one speaks to one another anymore, at least the people who aren”t speaking to one another are more “multicultural” than they used to be back when people actually spoke to one another.
What kind of newly enriched and suddenly empowered American culture do I see when I drive on the highway near my house? I see Wal-Mart, Chili’s, Motel 6, Wendy’s, and Home Depot. It could be Indianapolis. It could be Omaha. It could be Seattle. It could be anywhere in America. It happens to be Stone Mountain, GA, but you”d have no idea you were even in the South. In 2010, the only cultural landscape we share consists of familiar corporate logos. There’s no local flavor, no sense of indigenous culture. Things don”t seem richer, livelier, and more colorful; they”re empty, listless, and dead.
At least that’s how it feels to me. I don”t feel as if there’s any glue, cohesion, or sense of belonging in this society anymore. I”m feeling the anomie something awful. I don”t see the upside to our newer, more multicultural America. The only thing we share is the currency, and maybe that was the point all along.
Multiculturalism has failed, but it has only begun to fail. Now what? After constant states of flux, our society now seems fluxed-up beyond repair. How do we sort out the mess while avoiding more Trails of Tears?
Multiculturalism is dead, sure, but what do we do with the body? I”ve yet to hear a good burial plan, and I fear we may need one.
And what makes me most nervous is that I”m not even sure who “we” are.
