Victim-Hood

TOULOUSE, France, Nov. 8 — On the broad concrete slab that is the main plaza in Reynerie, a neighborhood of Arab and black African heritage in this high-tech city, teenage boys with fibrous muscles debated housewives Tuesday afternoon about the riots that have swept the neighborhood and much of France.

“You’re scaring the children,” said one stocky woman, pushing her wide-eyed 3-year-old girl out front as an exhibit. “We also have to live here, and we can’t go on like this.”

“I am not a terrorist, I’m a victim,” responded one of the young men.

Alrighty then. Here is where multiculturalism and a enshrined "victimhood" leads us. I'm a victim, so it's ok that I kill, steal, & destroy. If only you understood my culture. It is my right. And basically, the Press and most of the Left blithely agree if you read their stories and comments. There is this avoidance of a moral judgement that there are just certain things you don't do, regardless of your circumstances. Because morality is ultimately a property of culture.

What multi-culturalism as adopted by the West (and to my knowledge nobody else has adopted it) really amounts to is "everybody's-but-ours" culturalism, which, in the end, amounts to "No-Culturalism".

The Multi-Cultural purist might look at this and think "Hey, but that's perfect. No culture held above another. If that means no common denominator, is that such a bad thing?"

Well, my position is "Yes."

Is one culture necessarily "better" than another? No. Are some cultures better than others? You bet. But most multi-culturalists would be loath to admit it and in fact would avoid an open discussion debating the merits and demerits of cultures that wouldn't make the cut as "acceptable". They, of course, would dismiss an invitation to such a discussion as "culture-phobic" (while openly deriding our own culture -- talk about hypocrisy) or some other equally dismissive but intellectual-sounding label. But, just as an example, does anyone truly think that a culture that incorporates, for instance, canabalism -- is on par with any major Western, Eastern, or Middle-Eastern eastern culture we have today?

But back to the main point, every culture that we value for its richness developed as a glue that held a people together and gave them a group identity. This group identity typically consists of a shared language and shared rituals that bond neighbor to neighbor, promoting an atmosphere where people value each other as something other than potential economic resources.

The logical end of multi-culturalism is, as I've postited, "No-Culturalism", where people share very little if anything in the way of common rituals, perspectives, and values. It doesn't take a Social "Rocket" Scientist to see that this will lead to a divisive society, in as much as someone could still call "it" a "society", where people do not communicate on a social level and have very little in common. In the end, it could very easily lead to Civil War.

Take a look at what is going on in France for a second. France has minority communities, but it doesn't officially recognize that it has them, because institutionally the very language would be "divisive". And in their multi-cultural zeal, they have a large and rapidly growing population that really don't consider themselves "French". Couple that with the fact that the population of actual French people, and by this I mean the culture the world recognizes as "French" will be outstripped by this foriegn population within a couple of generations, and you have the death of French Culture. What's so multi-cultural about that?

Do we really think a culture born of thuggery and lawlessness is going to turn into a shining example of cultural tolerance? Western civilization developed over many painful centuries where we made mistakes and learned from them. Multi-Culturalism is an idea born of Western Culture. It is not a value shared by Eastern or Middle-Eastern cultures (except as a tool to use against the West in its constant introspective self-doubt -- in that Al Queda is right. It is a weakness.) For those who consider Multi-Culturalism progressive, I ask you -- where will it be once the most assertive culture is Muslim-based culture? (With the Western Intellectual elite loathing Western Culture itself, it should be an easy takeover.)

We are therefore talking about a step BACKWARD even by Multi-Culturalist standards.

I love different cultures, but I love mine as well. The fact that many cultures are equal does not mean we should get rid of our own. I happen to love Christmas and Thanksgiving and the Fourth of July. And I'm happy to celebrate Cinco de Mayo with people who love it as well. I love ethnic food and music. But lets get real. What will American culture be once we decide that having one official language is racist, that celebrating Christmas is something to be done behind closed doors? Where will we be when celebrating Independence Day is off limits as well because it might offend native Americans (pre-America) and perhaps the British (after all, it was a military victory over them that won us our independence).

Right now, Multi-Culturalism says "Everbody else is cool. We suck."

And we'll "suck" ourselves right into our grave.