Let me know if you want in or out.
Links: FR Index of his articles: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=victordavishanson
His website: http://victorhanson.com/ NRO archive: http://www.nationalreview.com/hanson/hanson-archive.asp
French have a hard time smelling their own cheese.
...Instead, the United States should return to its former ideal of a multiracial society under the inclusive aegis of Western culture. True, Americans are enriched by cultural diversity in food, fashion and the arts. Yet our core American values of democracy, human rights, private property, a free economy, an unfettered press and unbridled inquiry are not optional or up for discussion. In others words, we succeed precisely because we are the antithesis of a tribal Mexico, unfree China, intolerant Islamic Middle East — or socialist and statist France.Yet large areas of central Los Angeles, rural California, New Orleans and Washington, D.C., have become de facto apartheid communities like the French suburbs, with segregated concentrations of either illegal aliens from Mexico, unassimilated first-generation Hispanics or impoverished African-Americans.
One remedy is a return to the assimilation, integration and intermarriage of the past that once characterized the success of most immigrants who arrived in the United States prior to the rise of ethnic separatism of the 1960s. Unfortunately, abstract deference in white America to racial tribalism often serves as psychological cover for an unwillingness to live among, or send one's children to school with, the "other."
...The English language is our common bond. More than ever it is the first bridge between widely diverse immigrants. Bilingual education and a multiplicity of languages in official documents have not only proved wasteful but also eroded first-generation immigrants' facility in English, the sole language that can guarantee them economic security.
...Our immigration policy is in chaos. We have millions of illegal aliens, thousands of whom are in our penal system. Our borders are less secure than France's. There is not even a Mediterranean Sea between America and the source of most illegal entrants.
Instead of allowing in so many illegally, and then ignoring them as they fend for themselves, America should take in far fewer immigrants, ensure that all come legally, and with rudimentary English and knowledge of the United States. And then we must all work together at rapidly making them into full-fledged fellow citizens.
There is a final lesson from France. Paris might proclaim itself a beacon of global liberality, but beneath that veneer it has been exposed as a simmering apartheid city. So take note: Everyday behavior toward one another — not utopian rhetoric or sloganeering about "diversity" — is all that matters in the end.
The United States is hardly France. But as a similarly affluent Western country where immigrants flock, sometimes fail and then often brood, we run the risk of becoming more like France if we don't return to the inclusivity that once worked and abandon the separatism that increasingly has not.
"A nation cannot exist without shared values and a sense of common mission."
This is incredibly true and it is probably even in our constitution. Our nation's population has gotten so out-of-control, very few remember this to be the reason for our existence as a nation. Is everybody, just tired of being, a free country? Well, that same attitude may have existed in the tyrrannical societies we know today.
The big lie about France is that it has diversity problems..... France has absorbed hordes of non-northern Europeans since forever. The Moorish influence in the mediterranean is visible in the genepool along the Riviera. France has a track record of cultural diversification.
The only reason the new groups can't fitin is that they refuse to fit in. The Muslims want to make France part of the greater Eurabian caliphate. Nothing less.
The unassimilated have been allowed to create their own caliphate within the suburbs of French cities.
The big lesson here is this: English proficiency needs to be mandatory at all age levels in the USA and potentially all of North America. Cultural connectedness to mainstream western civilization can't happen without English rpoficiency. We need a manhattan engineering district type project to make sure English is understood by all.
Aztlan is the vain hope of those who would enslave their own people for a socialist power grab at the expense of the living standards of the average joe.
ping
correct as usual ping
Great Hanson article, as usual.
It's not the first time the French have descended into catastrophe because of denial--the most dangerous thing there is.
The American Left is also in denial. That's one of the main reasons it's so dangerous.
During the Civil Rights Revolution of the 1960's and '70's, mainstream, white America faced a decision: (1) Complete the American Revolution and provide complete liberty and equality for all citizens or (2) Become Nazi Germany. I. e. : (1) Liberty or (2) Death". In fact, the demand of Black America was essentially: "Liberty or death!"
Wisely, mainstream America choose option #1: Liberty.
Since then, there has been no turning back.
The Revolution is not complete, but it is happening. A drive across America or a visit to any American city reveals the progress.
The decision was not only irrevocable. It also required that the liberty and equality be true, honest, and thorough. Mainstream America is not in denial about this; it is happening.
There's still quite a way to go.