Soeren Kern
Soeren Kern of the Hudson Institute of New York has written a thought-provoking article on the massacre in Norway and the dilemma facing Europe today in a continent where "multi-culturalism" has failed.
http://www.hudson-ny.org/2301/norway-massacre-free-speech
It is a sad fact that this term, "multi-culturalism" has been a disaster in Europe. Here in the US, it is a politically-correct term that attempts to put various ethnic groups in favored categories rather than favor assimilation and a common identity as English-speaking Americans. We are fighting its spread here, and we have a good chance of success because (I still believe) most immigrants want to be part of America and contribute. All things considered, with all the problems, I still maintain that immigration in America is a positive force.
The problem in Europe is worse. While we in America have a plethora of minorities who would be most happy to assimilate if they weren't filled with the nonsensical ideas of the multi-culturalists, most of the immigrants in Europe have come from Muslim countries. The Europeans initially made no effort to assimilate them, and now it is too late. They have no desire to assimilate.
Human relations in Europe are not good and getting worse. Europeans are angry, and they are also angry at their leaders, who have let them down and are trying to silence their complaints. Now, in an age of Islamic militancy, it is an impossible dream.
5 comments:
Gary,
Regarding your "...and we have a good chance of success because (I still believe) most immigrants want to be part of America and contribute. " Aside from anecdotal evidence and perhaps some personal experiences, do you know of any studies or other data specifically about the Muslim immigrants that would support your belief? Absent that, we are really in the same soup as the Europeans, except we are a little behind them.
I hope you're right but I'm not as optimistic as you. Personally, I think the majority of Muslims bring their culture with them and it is only a matter of time and opportunity and they try to impose it on us. The only evidence I have for that is UCI's MSU of course and the other attacks by Muslims, physically and culturally, on the US for no other reason than their own over the last few decades. They are significantly different, IMO, than other immigrants.
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You hit the nail on the head this time.
The worst people are the politicians, either gutless or selfrighteous. Multi Kulti - a green party slogan failed miserably.
Europe has, at least since the disintegration of the Roman Empire, been made up of a variety of ethnicities, living at close quarters, and not getting along very well. However, until the 19th century, the patterns of governance weren't particularly ethnic in character, and few if any ethnic groups lived in nice, compact geography.
One reason this was feasible is that the ruling classes identified more with each other, than with their ethnic origins. That's how a sufficient army could be assembled at the gates of Vienna to turn back the last Ottoman invasion. French, German, Italian, they were all shining knights of a class that generally spoke three or seven languaged plus they all knew Latin.
When nation states arose, it was a serious problem, because there were pockets of Magyar in Rumania and Romanians in Hungary, Austria and Italy sparring over ethnic uniformity vs. defensible borders, Croats in Serbia and Serbians in Croatia, the Alsace-Lorrainers didn't actually care much if they were in Germany or France, as long as they could trade freely with both, etc.
Hitler used that very effectively for a time. Now, all the ethnicities are melting into a semi-united Europe, which is why Belgium can afford to dissolve into two component European statelets.
The U.S., on the other hand, started with a base of the dregs of British lower class society, added the despised Scotchmen, then some Palatine Boors, fugitive French Huguenots, imported African labor (servants for life), then the Irish Papist hordes, once it really got on its feet, imported all kinds of ethnicities, which all settled into little ghettoes where they threw rocks at each other and bloodied any man who stumbled into the wrong bar.
As they made enough money to move out of the cute little ethnic enclaves, they tended to homogenize in the suburbs.
There are several ethnicities of Muslims recently moving into both continents. They don't always get along with each other, much less their non-Muslim neighbors. Europe has the baggage that these Muslim immigrants are from "the colonies," so everyone feels a certain sympathy and guilt. But, they have to get over that, however much it may be poetic justice.
French and Germans can learn to appreciate each other's French and German=ness, but Muslims must assimilate to be one or the other, or perhaps Polish. Meantime, in America, we ARE "the colonies," or we were, and the Pakistanis, Moroccans, Algerians, Tunisians, Lebanese, Palestinians, are just another set of people getting their balance in little enclaves, then taking their chance wherever they find it. So we're way ahead. They are here for the same reason as all the other immigrants: to get ahead in the world.
Like the Irish who funded the IRB for generations, some of them fund their favorite cause "back home," sometimes legally, sometimes illegally. But this too shall pass.
Gary,
My sense of the Muslim immigration and how it is changing conforms to yours. I just wondered if there was any confirming data on it anywhere
I believe we have to insist on assimilation because it is only our common culture and ideals that binds us together. Otherwise, we are all in this religion or that, this nationality or that, this race or that and so on. If anyone wants to substitute their own culture than we can't have them.
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Yeah, and all those damn Catholic peasants have to send their children to Protestant-dominated public schools so their children will learn to be good 'mericans.
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