Misguided post-colonial multiculturalism - a lot is at stake
Leaders of Western countries are playing out a guilt trip. The new narrative is blatant denigration and denial of the value of Western Civilization. This may not end well.
In the December 16, 2017 article Multiculturalists Working to Undermine Western Civilization, Philip Carl Salzman of the Gatestone Institute reminds us of some of the misbegotten utterances of our so-called leaders:
"I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism."
- former President Barack Obama, Strasbourg in 2009
"I cannot figure out what Swedish culture is. I think that's what makes many Swedes jealous of immigrant groups. You [immigrants] have a culture, an identity, a history, something that brings you together. And what do we have? We have Midsummer's Eve and such silly things."
- Mona Ingeborg Sahlin, leader of the Swedish Social Democratic Party, 2010
"There is no native Swedish culture."
- Ingrid Lomfors, head of the Swedish governmental "Forum for Living History", 2015
"There is no core identity, no mainstream in Canada. There are shared values -- openness, respect, compassion, willingness to work hard, to be there for each other, to search for equality and justice. Those qualities are what make us the first postnational state."
- Canadian President, Justin Trudeau, 2015
"Is this a country that is owned by those who have lived here for three or four generations or is Sweden what people who come here in mid-life makes it to be?... For me it is obvious that it should be the latter and that it is a stronger and better society if it may be open... Swedes are uninteresting as an ethnic group."
- Former Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeld, 2015
Salzman points that this national self-deprecation derives from postmodern cultural relativism and postcolonialism:
Postmodernism has two key elements: cultural relativism and postcolonialism. Cultural relativism -- developed by American anthropologist Ruth Benedict, author of the 1934 worldwide best-seller Patterns of Culture, and her mentor, the "father of American anthropology," Franz Boas -- posited that researchers must set aside their own cultural values and biases, and maintain an open mind about those of other peoples' cultures, in order to understand them. In the second half of the 20th century, anthropological theorists extended this to the field of ethics, arguing that judgements arising from one culture could not be applied to others -- thereby rendering all cultures equally good and valuable...
Postcolonialism holds that peoples across the globe all got along with each other comfortably and peacefully until Western imperialists invaded, divided, conquered, exploited and oppressed them. Unlike postmodernism, which sees Western culture as no better than other cultures, postcolonialism considers Western culture inferior to other cultures.
... Germany, a late and marginal imperial power, seems still guilt-ridden over the Holocaust. Ironically, admitting countless newcomers to Europe as if they were the "new Jewish refugees" of this century has caused the second flight of Jews...
Salzman observes that the demand for cheap labor has resulted in a massive influx of foreigners into Western nations. This has resulted in political parties downplaying national interest in order to curry favor with the immigrant class. The five leaders quoted above have a common postmodern ideology coupled with a need for immigrant and minority votes. Thus, multiculturalists engage in the destruction of their own culture. Salzman writes:
While they encourage diversity of race, religion, and heritage, they forbid diversity of opinions, particularly those that do not conform to the postmodern narrative that rejects that the West. They also seem not to want to acknowledge that the West, even flawed, has nevertheless afforded more freedoms and prosperity to more people than ever before in history.
This skewed view of the West is only possible if one stubbornly refuses to see who, historically, the real colonizers were. How do they think virtually all of the Middle East and North Africa and the Middle East became Muslim -- through a democratic referendum? Muslims invaded and transformed the Christian Byzantine Empire, now an increasingly Islamized Turkey; Greece; the Middle East, North Africa, the Balkans; Hungary; northern Cyprus and Spain...
If Western civilization is to survive, we need to extricate ourselves from the multiculturalist morass and the idiocy of civilizational self-deprecation. Salzman points out that:
If Western civilization is to survive this defamation, it would do well to remind people of its historical accomplishments: its humanism and morality derived from Judeo-Christian traditions; its Enlightenment thought; its technological revolutions; the agricultural and industrial revolutions of the 18th century, and the digital revolution of the 20th century; its political evolution into full democracy; the separation of church and judiciary from state; its commitment to human rights and most of all its gravely threatened freedom of speech.