Mark Steyn: A victory for multiculti over common sense

The Telegraph (U.K.) ^ | 07/19/05 | Mark Steyn

[TFFKAMM]

The more I read by and about Chesterton, the more I'm convinced he is one of the great neglected genii of 20th Century English letters. THE FLYING INN is one of the few full-length works of his I *haven't* read, and from the description here, it sounds as if ol' Gil predicted the rise of both the Nanny State AND self-loathing multikulti nearly a century before they became the scourges of the West.

It's off to Bookfinder to grab some cheap, used GKC titles for this boy...

[SedVictaCatoni]

This is really shocking, when you think about it. England's counties have been geographic and administrative designations since before any European settlement of North America occurred, and long before any of our states was heard of. Imagine if the U.S. government tried to eliminate Texas or Alabama. ZOT!

A close analogue to what happened in Britain in 1974 would be if, in the United States (Constitutional issues aside), the federal government added Rhode Island into Massachusetts, put the two Carolinas together with a few bits of Virginia and called it "Tidewater", created a new state of "Delmarva" which included southern New Jersey, broke California into Northern, Southern, and Middle, amalgamated the Dakotas and Iowa into "Siouxland and Upper Missouri", and made Dallas-Ft. Worth its own state.

In short, a mess of unnecessary made-up geography, which annoyed everyone. And in 2001 it got even weirder. A modern map of Britain is just a mess.

[visualops]

Very interesting.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1445250/posts

[grey_whiskers]

it sounds as if ol' Gil predicted the rise of both the Nanny State AND self-loathing multikulti nearly a century before they became the scourges of the West.

It's off to Bookfinder to grab some cheap, used GKC titles for this boy...

While you're at it, look up "The Servile State" by Hilaire Belloc, GKC's brother-in-arms. That book, written prior to the Russian Revolution, correctly predicts the modern welfare state as a result of the clash between "capitalism" and communism.

Cheers!

[irv]

Is it "prejudiced" to suggest that in Britain a Muslim woman ought to reach the same sartorial compromise as, say, a female doctor in Bahrain?

The question is rhetorical, the answer obvious: To the multi-culturalism fasicsts, bigotry is anything that someone from a "traditionally underrepresented minority" might object to. Logic has no place in that type of argument.

[normy]

In other words, destroy any sort of patriotic link to your specific region. Turn a Texan into a DFWer. Divide and conquer.

[GOPJ]

Insightful:

...bomb us and we'll apologise to you. That's why in Britain the Anglican Church is in a death-spiral and Islam is the fastest-growing religion. There's no market for a faith that has no faith in itself. And as the Church goes so goes the state: why introduce identity cards for a nation with no identity?

[balls]

As the death of the Eurofanatic Ted Heath reminds us, in modern Britain even a "conservative" prime minister thinks nothing of obliterating ancient counties and imposing on the populace fantasy jurisdictions - "Avon", "Clwyd" and (my personal favourite in its evocative neo-Stalinism) "Central Region" - and an alien regulatory regime imported from the failed polities of Europe. The 7/7 murderers are described as "Yorkshiremen", but, of course, there is no Yorkshire: Ted abolished that, too.

This is a great slam of Maggie Thatcher hater Edward Heath who died this weekend. Former Prime Miister Heath single-handedly destroyed England as we knew it. It's a long story that stretches from the marginalization of Enoch Powell to the disassembly of the ancient counties referenced above, but anybody who's interested knows what I'm talking about.

[bitt]

qho might that be?

[Ethrane]

Can someone put me on the Steyn ping-list?

Thanks!

[Neophyte]

Try to find and read Anthony Burgess' "1985" - a novelette written and published soon after George Orwell's "1984" as a rebuke to the latter.

In it, Burgess shows Islamisation as much bigger threat to England then pure swing to the political Left. Its predictions, insights and warnings are incredible!

As to the predilection of the Left to the Islam, just consider this. In his memoir "Eringerunnen" (Frankfurt/M-Berlin, 1969) Albert Speer recalls Hitler - a national-socialist, in his villa in Obersalzberg, saying to the closest ring of his followers:

"In general, we have a bad luck to belong to a wrong religion. Why don't we have that of the Japanese, which treat martyrdom for the Fatherland as the supreme achievement? The Mohammedan religion, too, would suite us much better than Christianity with its flabby tolerance..."

[maryz]

Thanks for the reference -- I'll have to get that!

[Tax-chick]

Thanks for the additional information. Very strange stuff!

[alwaysconservative]

Thank you, thank you, and bless you for the Steyn ping!!! I love this man, I love his intellect, and I love the way he voices so clearly the clarion call in the war of civilization. Some might say I'm overly enthusiastic (okay, fawning), but this great man and great mind is one of the brightest jewels of our time!

[alwaysconservative]

I smell a great tag in your post!

[BlackElk]

If Islam is so bad (and it is), then the cultural eccentrics, port sippers and poetry readers at Chronicles ought to support war against the Islamofascisti as a defense of Western Civilization.

In our time, Iraq is Arabic for Lepanto.

[texasbluebell]

A quote from Chesterton that is particularly appropriate:

"These are the days when the Christian is expected to praise every creed except his own."

http://www.chesterton.org/acs/quotes.htm

[knighthawk]

Ping

[expatguy]

bumping for later comment