And thus spake Zarathustra
August 21, 2003
When speaking of his family’s immigration experience to America, 1976 Nobel Laureate in Literature, Saul Bellow noted that, “The country took us over. It was a country then, not a collection of ‘cultures’”. Such candor...it’s surprising that our little friends in Stockholm didn’t send him to The Hague for prosecution.
Whether you like to think of yourself as a liberal or conservative, there is only one truth; America is dismembering itself into a collection of disparate cultural cells and the politicians of both political parties are playing into this nonsense. This isn’t a question of “is it Constitutional?”; it is a matter of self-mutilation.
Porous borders, economic greed, political chicanery, religious extremism and interest group selfishness are combing to create a harmonic imbalance which will tear Constitutional America apart. People are so concerned with milking the national cow that little consideration is given to nurturing it. You can have all the milk you want and still get none if the cow dies.
Much to the dismay of those who migrate to America, and the politicians who profit from subverting any notion of assimilating these immigrants into a homogeneous culture, being an American is not a “right”. The true wealth of America is not its material riches. Without the Constitution and Bill of Rights, this is just another land mass whose resources can be depleted faster than a Cote d'Ivoire mugging. And without assimilation, the Constitution is about as safe as an American soldier in Mogadishu.
The list of noted scholars, both liberal and conservative, who think it axiomatic that future world conflict will be based around religious and cultural differences rather than nation-state politics, is long and commonly accepted. Yet, there is the typical Pollyannaish résistance to applying these lessons domestically. Ah...the virtues of political correctness.
Samuel P. Huntington, Director of the John M. Olin Institute for Strategic Studies at Harvard University, has warned that, “The great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of conflict will be cultural.” Noted Israeli military historian, Martin van Creveld sees a world where domestic crime overwhelms the domestic authority as societal unrest commences to, “develop into low intensity conflict by coalescing along racial, religious, social and political lines.” Stated simply, South Los Angeles gangs have more in common with third world tribalism than with MTV.
And speaking of MTV. Without the assimilation necessary to create a common culture, America has a better than average chance of following the Medieval world’s lead back into a caste system; the paternalistic Last Man forever appeasing and manipulating the Hobbesian First Man. As Miles Williams Mathis held forth in “The Art of the Last Man”, “Nietzsche called the human product of cultural decadence "the last man." The victim of an atrophied will, this psychological resultant of an all-engulfing egalité would be incapable of art or polemic. The last man would demur, and blink.” Sorry for the likeness governor Davis.
Thomas Hobbes rationalized that, “Where there is no common power, there is no law, where no law, no injustice. Force, and fraud, are...the cardinal virtues.” Of course we all know that Hobbes is “intellectual lint” compared to the modern day truth-seekers like Al Sharpton or the editorial board at the New York Times.
The “common power” in America is the law. Respect for that law requires a belief in it. Believing in the rule of law is logically predicated on a belief in the country’s culture. And...that culture is built around the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. If there is a “single thread that binds” in the American system, it is the belief and unyielding dedication to the protection of individual rights from the tyranny of majority rule. These documents protect me from your tyranny today and, in turn, protect you from my tyranny tomorrow. This is the responsibility that enables the privilege.
Due to the ethnic diversity that is America, this country is particularly susceptible to the destructive potential of multiculturalism. American culture is an amalgam of global influences. But, its central artery is Constitutional protection. And...just like a legal contract, the paper is only as good as its signatories. Without the heartfelt passion of the populace, the Constitutional protection of the individual is a garble of meaningless words. Constitutional rights are the lifeblood of progress and opportunity in America. And these basic rights can only be secured for future generations by a common culture; not the institutionalization of religious, racial, gender or “national origin” city-states.
The political pandering to bi-lingualism, racially-based caucuses in the government, irresponsible anti-profiling guidelines and other politically correct nonsense simply enable those who seek to benefit from the segmenting of U.S. society at the long-term cost of the society itself. Of course members of the Congressional Black Caucus can point to the era of the Congressional White Caucus...when Senator Byrd and his cronies where members of the KKK. But imitation isn’t always the best form of flattery.
Just as the educational system might someday learn the reality that all the “bells and whistles” in the universe can’t compensate for a lack of fundamental skills, the political system might someday wake up to the fact that American security begins at home. There is more to productive immigration than green card lotteries. Without a common culture this country will digress into the rabble of tribal villages...each defending their turf. And that turf, without Constitutional respect, will be as paltry, chaotic and brutish as the Afghan countryside. It seems, after all, that it takes more than a village.
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