Victor Davis Hanson: Western Guilt. Lord Multiculturalism

pajamasmedia.com ^ | March 12, 2008 | Victor Davis Hanson

[Tolik]

For forty years critics have attacked Western culture in general and its American brand in particular for an assortment of perceived sins. Minority groups have alleged America was singularly racist. Radical feminist have charged that it is sexist and male-dominated. Gays have complained about homophobia. Hard-core Leftists argued that the United States is exploitive and in thrall to a few elite capitalists.

...First, the charge was that our culture was inordinately dominated by white, heterosexual Christian men, who had systematically oppressed others to maintain their own privilege. Second, the solution was to enact affirmative action, change attitudes, pay fines, create new government programs to remedy the sin, and, in general, to begin ensuring that race, gender, and class “matter” more in American life.

But one doctrine united them all—multiculturalism. It preached that America is not a melting bowl of different races that are to be assimilated, integrated, and intermarried under a common culture, whose traditions, government, science, and laws derived from a singular Western civilization—one that began with the ancient Greeks and Romans and gave the individual far more freedom and security than did other indigenous cultures in Asia, the Americas, and Africa.

Instead, multiculturalism insisted that Western culture was the culprit for global inequality and the cosmic unhappiness of the individual. We all are to embrace distinct and different cultures, none of them inferior to any other, all meriting equal consideration and worth. No one dare suggest a foreign practice inferior, another country less successful than our own—especially given our supposed history of assorted sins.

...

[Tolik]

...The truth is that multiculturalism trumps all else. If Islamists, or people of the Middle East, express racist, or sexist, or homophobic sentiments, they usually get a pass from the West. So ingrained is the notion among our elite that there are no absolute standards of ethics and morality, that we have lost the ability to apply abstract moral judgment without exception.

...in short, Lord Multiculturalism trumps every left-wing critique, every –ism and –ology

[Tolik]

Combined ping to 2 ping lists

Nailed It! Moral Clarity BUMP ! This ping list is not author-specific for articles I'd like to share. Some for the perfect moral clarity, some for provocative thoughts; or simply interesting articles I'd hate to miss myself. (I don't have to agree with the author all 100% to feel the need to share an article.) I will try not to abuse the ping list and not to annoy you too much, but on some days there is more of the good stuff that is worthy of attention. You can see the list of articles I pinged to lately  on  my page. You are welcome in or out, just freepmail me (and note which PING list you are talking about). Besides this one, I keep 2 separate PING lists for my favorite authors Victor Davis Hanson and Orson Scott Card.

Victor Davis Hanson Ping !         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                 Pajamasmedia:   http://victordavishanson.pajamasmedia.com/

 

 

   

[lonestar67]

Its time to speak of it as it is:

Multi cultural fundamentalism.

It is killing people all over the world.

It is the absolute license to kill Americans and Israelis.

[RC2]

We have had over 200 years in developing our culture and in the process, have become the most powerful nation in the world and the one nation that everyone else wants to live in. There’s a reason for that. For those that don’t like the way America is............move out and/or don’t come here. You won’t be welcome. I believe people of this country will take America back and bring us back to what we once were. Ain’t all that bad.

[Reeses]

I never feel guilt for America's success. Is something wrong with me? I do feel the uncomfortable heat from international envy but that is not guilt. Envy is projected onto others as greed or guilt but it is a head fake and not really what's going on. The reason is people feel shame for envying, as well they should. I think the solution is to knock it right back to them as envy so they feel the discomfort they choose to incite.

Western Guilt is really Eastern Envy. And people who "feel guilty" are really attempting to deflect that resentment.

[pallis]

Remember what grandma said about the company you keep.

[smoketree]

They envy us and want to bring us down a notch or two or three.
Then when the next big disaster happens somewhere they EXPECT us to be there to bail them out. Of course they don’t have to thank us because we owed it to the less fortunate lazy folk.

[AZLiberty]

The truth is that multiculturalism trumps all else.

Multiculture = anti-Western culture, and especially anti-American.

[Billthedrill]

Both Multiculturalism and Marxism have a nearly contagious appeal for several reasons - they pretend to be an overarching metanarrative that explains the totality of human existence and proposes a changed, better world under a new set of rules. Both are zero-sum games; that is, inequities in the possession of material wealth or political power are explained by an uncritical accusation of theft by another party.

Greed and envy and lust for power, in short, punctuated by a certain sadism that is an unfortunate characteristic of the human condition. The thugs and the secret police are always convinced of their own rectitide.

Multiculturalism is partly an outgrowth of sociology and cultural anthropology, academic disciplines whose proper pursuit requires a sort of detachment, an attempt to step outside one's native culture in the hopes of providing a perspective on the subject. This has the unfortunate effect of persuading less knowledgable enthusiasts that they have risen above their native culture and are the initiates into a transcendental worldview. Similarities between this and a religious cult are not accidental.

And here we have a clue as to the reason for the seductive nature of both of these metanarratives - both of them provide absolution for actions that are otherwise forbidden by the native culture, especially violent ones. Burn down a building for oneself and one is an arsonist, burn it down in the name of The People and one is a hero. Shoot a fellow for his wallet and one is a robber and murderer; shoot a thousand of them in the name of the class warfare and one is a revolutionary. Moral absolution can be a heady brew.

Also common to these doctrines is the ability to ignore aspects of one's native culture that are deemed unduly restrictive. The appeal of sundry "liberation" movements was precisely this - all the sex and theft one wants is there for the taking if only the Oppressor weren't Keeping You Down. Have a problem with that? Invoke another culture that allows a certain license in those directions and claim grandly that it is equally valid to one's own and hence the prohibition has no validity. If it is a new People's Culture, then so much the better.

The veneer of moral righteousness plastered over this profoundly cynical approach to life is attractive but very thin. Beautiful words, intricate logic, distilled emotion are employed to justify the most sordid actions by attacking the very basis for declaring them sordid. In some cases those actions are declared right for some and wrong for others; in others there turns out to be no basis for moral judgment whatsoever beyond self-interest and the power to enforce it. The ultimate political expression of this is anarchism, the ultimate moral expression nihilism.

And neither of the latter, however theoretically appealing, has ever resulted or can ever result in the practical construction of a better world. And we all have to live in the one that they do create.

[bukkdems]

One aspect of Islam that hardly ever gets compared to Western culture is polygamy. Polygamy causes inbreeding and the necessity to get rid of extra young men at their most violent, sex-driven age. What better ruse than jihad to accomplish this? Ask your liberal friends how they feel about polygamy and bring up these indisputable consequences.

[cricket]

For those that don’t like the way America is............move out and/or don’t come here. You won’t be welcome.

Have you noticed any 'foot baths' in your airport bathrooms - yet? Been refused a taxi ride because you have alcohol on your breath? Does your District Elementary school have a 'prayer room' for it's Muslim students? Anyone of your City Council speaking of the merits of Sharia Law?

No?. . .Well, be patient; it will not be long, coming to your city/neighborhood. . .unless, of course; more of our population gets angry enough to affect 'real' change as well. And not Obama or Hillary style.

[expatguy]

I'm an expert on multiculturalism.

An American Expat in Southeast Asia

[Zionist Conspirator]

We all are to embrace distinct and different cultures, none of them inferior to any other, all meriting equal consideration and worth. No one dare suggest a foreign practice inferior, another country less successful than our own—

Actually, the "multicultural" Left does not believe all cultures are equal. It believed American culture (especially white chr*stian male Western European culture) is at the bottom and everyone else is equally superior to it. Not quite "egalitarianism," wouldn't you say?

Sounds like Pat Buchanan in reverse!

[gonzo]

#1 & #9 - Well said ................ FRegards

[GOPJ]

...there seems something especially disturbing about a middle-age male paying some 22-year old for sex, to such a degree that she must discourage the mature governor by reminding him that his proclivities are “dangerous.” Class is of interest as well. She was once a 17-year-old runaway and high-school drop-out. Wouldn’t the humane, the liberal Democratic thing have been, when learning of her circumstances, to say something like, “Wait, you don’t need to do this, here’s a better deal: I will pay you not for dangerous sex, but to finish high school?”

Dems dirty little secret is the poor and vulnerable they "protect" are often there to exploit. From black voters who never get "better" to welfare programs that breed sick dependency to exploitation of illegals... it's all there. The kindness is a lie that covers sickness.

[maica]

It believe[s] American culture (especially white chr*stian male Western European culture) is at the bottom and everyone else is equally superior to it. Not quite “egalitarianism,” wouldn’t you say?

######

This has been the message to American schoolchildren since the 1960s. So now we have a couple planning to live in the White House who are products of this indoctrination.

[TopQuark]

The truth is that multiculturalism trumps all else.

I beg to disagree. The truth is, what the Left institutes and aspires to is NOT multiculturalism. The dogma is that all cultures are equal, except the Western civilization. You see that everywhere, from the news reports to school textbooks. When the Bass family offered $30M to Yale for Western Studies, it was rejected by faculty, one member of which stated, to wit, "Why study Western Civilization? Its history is racism and war."

There is no Bach, Universities, science, medicine... Just racism and war.