America’s Failed Cultural Policy
Will It Create The Next Afghanistan?
December 3, 2001
The famous British philosopher Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) once noted that, “The privilege of absurdity; to which no living creature is subject, but man only.” And, there is no better backdrop for the United States to reassess its absurd cultural policy than the present war against terrorism in Afghanistan.
As the social Reconstructionists in the American halls of influence skip merrily down their path of multi-culturalism, they are dragging the rest of the country with them right into a brick wall of civil war.
For some unknown reason, the left-wing intelligentsia of the United States believes that the replacement of Western Civilization with a hodgepodge of cultural balkanism best serves America’s future agenda.
Nothing highlights this point better than the ongoing attempt by the National Center for History In the Schools (NCHS) to eliminate the truth about the contributions of Western Civilization to the betterment of the human condition. Even a friendly party like Albert Shanker, president of the American Federation of Teachers, observed that, “It’s a travesty, a caricature of what these things should be—sort of a cheapshot, leftist point-of-view of history…Everything that is European or American, or that has to do with white people is evil and oppressive, while Genghis Khan is a nice sweet guy just bringing his culture to other places.”
If the NCHS wants a real peek inside the beneficial wrapper of multi-culturalism perhaps their executive committee should vacation in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan is very multi-cultural. A CIA overview of Afghanistan states some basic statistics. Ethnically, Afghanistan is populated by a diverse group; Pashtun 38%, Tajik 25%, Hazara 19%, minor ethnic groups (Aimaks, Turkmen, Baloch, and others) 12% and Uzbek 6%. And, as for a national language…take your pick; Pashtu 35%, Afghan Persian (Dari) 50%, Turkic languages (primarily Uzbek and Turkmen) 11% and 30 minor languages (primarily Balochi and Pashai) 4%.
Accordingly, the wonderful benefits of disjoint diversity have been bestowed upon Afghanistan. The Center For Defense Information (CDI) observes that, “Afghanistan is a tribal society. And a major victim of inter-tribal warfare is nationalism.” As a result of this inter-tribal warfare, the fighting among various factions divided the country into several independent zones, each with its own ruler.
A methodologically consistent CIA analysis finds that the ethnic composition of the United States is white 83.5%, black 12.4%, Asian 3.3% and Amerindian 0.8% (note: a separate listing for Hispanic is not included because the US Census Bureau considers Hispanic to mean a person of Latin American descent (especially of Cuban, Mexican, or Puerto Rican origin) living in the US who may be of any race or ethnic group (white, black, Asian, etc.).
Additional CIA analysis reveals that within U.S. ethnic groups there is a religious differentiation of Protestant 56%, Roman Catholic 28%, Jewish 2%, other 4% and none 10%. Thankfully for efficient communications the U.S. has a limited language barrier with only English and Spanish (spoken by a sizable minority).
And, herein lies the rub. In order for multi-culturalism to exist, there must first be cultures.
Culture is commonly defined as the beliefs, customs, practices, and social behavior of a particular nation or people. Note that this definition does not specify color, religion, language or ethnic origin. Culture is a way of life…a belief system…and in the American definition; it is not the racially discriminatory practice of proportional segmentation by color, sex or religion.
Unfortunately, there are absolute idiots in the United States who are hypocritical enough to camouflage their racism with meaningless feel-good phrases like multi-culturalism and diversity. Their true intent is to create separate cultural identities. This is dangerously close to the Nazi practice of Jew, Gypsy, Catholic and Aryan multi-cultural identification.
Hilariously, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) is one of the most blatant offenders. Elevating the ludicrous to new heights, the INS sponsors a Diversity Visa Lottery Program:
Each year, 50,000 immigrant visas are made available through a lottery to people who come from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States. None of these visas are available for people who come from countries that have sent more than 50,000 immigrants to the United States in the past five years. The State Department's National Visa Center holds the lottery every year, and chooses winners randomly from all qualified entries. Anyone who is selected under this lottery will be given the opportunity to apply for permanent residence. If permanent residence is granted, then the individual will be authorized to live and work permanently in the United States. You will also be allowed to bring your spouse and any unmarried children under the age of 21 to the United States.
What is the INS thinking? Do they fancy themselves to be a politically correct version of Noah and the Ark? In the land of multi-culturalism do they want to be the most successful collector with one of everything? How simple minded and dangerous.
Multi-culturalism is simple minded and dangerous.
It is simple minded because it seeks to replace America’s “melting pot” with an infinitely balkanized group of cultures, based on national origin, ethnicity, language and race, within an existing culture.
It is dangerous for the same reason.
Being an American is more than a nationalistic fervor. It is becoming part of a cultural fabric. It is a belief in a system of laws and behaviors that protects the natural rights of the individual. This historically unprecedented concern for individual liberties evolved from the philosophies of western civilization thinkers. It did not come from the likes of Idi Amin, Tiananmen Square, the KGB or Osama bin Ladin. It did come from Locke, the Enlightenment, the Founding Fathers and the character of the American people.
To persist in the deconstruction of a single American culture into an unstable confederation of incompatible and competing world cultures is ruinous. Just look at Afghanistan.
Who could possibly think there would be a benefit to such a course?
Who could imagine that a national entity as culturally dissimilar as the United Nations (which indeed is multi-cultural) would subsist, let alone thrive?
Again, remember that a culture is a fabric of beliefs, customs, practices, and social behavior of a particular nation or people…Not nations and Not peoples.
Official policy of the U.S. government, as enacted through the INS, should be the task of administrating immigration in a fashion that results in the assimilation of immigrants into the American culture…Not the introduction of separate cultures. On behalf of the American taxpayer, the INS should be in the business of educating prospective residents about their obligations as Americans rather than creating expectations of instant entitlement.
It is a virtue to promote the culture that binds this great nation into one people. It would be a sin if, as Henry James observed in his writings, America meanders through history with a perpetual inferiority and guilt complex as a result of its relative youth as a nation.
American culture, with its rich history of pioneering individual and human rights, should be celebrated. American culture is what has created this great nation. Promoting the tenets of this culture can only result in good. America should not tolerate those who only want its material riches while ignoring its true richness.
A culture is not the United Nations where every word must be translated into a myriad of languages and a dictator bangs his shoe on the podium while promising to bury a fellow member.
In the United States, the cumulative culture mandates that the individual be protected by the law to do as the individual pleases within the bounds of that law. To introduce multiple cultures is to introduce multiple legal beliefs…including the law of the Jihad.
In America, the Constitution is mightier than an AK-47 and an Irish family dining in an Italian restaurant is just "apple pie". We celebrate common success and mourn common loss. There is no room for a Pashtun shooting a Tajik and celebrating with a tribal dance.
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