January 20, 2010

The Exception That Tests the Rule

Hatched by Dafydd

For anyone who still denies either the rightness or existence of "American exceptionalism," consider this appalling story:

Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders sat in the defendant's dock Wednesday, nodding his head as prosecutors read aloud a hundred remarks he has made condemning Islam, Muslims and immigrants -- notably one comparing the Quran to Hitler's "Mein Kampf."

Wilders' criminal trial for allegedly inciting hate against Muslims has resonance across Europe: He is one of a dozen right-wing politicians on the continent who are testing the limits of freedom of speech while voicing voters' concerns at the growth of Islam.

For the tendentious phrasing, "the growth of Islam," read the more accurate "the growth of Islamism." If Moslems were coming to the Netherlands and assimilating, as they do for the most part in the United States, I honestly doubt Geert Wilders would have such a problem with them. But because of the liberal socialism of Western Europe, a member of the Dutch parliament is now on trial for properly representing his own constituents.

Here is the philosophical sequence:

  • Liberal socialism ("Stalinism lite") has infected Western Europe for many decades. (One could make a good argument that Otto Eduard Leopold prince von Bismarck, the "Iron Chancellor" of Prussia, invented it in the latter half of the nineteenth century.) Note, this is not liberal fascism; it's the internationalist version. Hence the European Union, the first step on the liberal-socialist (lib-soc) road to global government.
  • A primary element of liberal socialism is atheism; lib-soc governments persecute Judeo-Christian religions and to a lesser extent frown upon all other religions: Their religion is "secular humanism" -- that is, the First Church of Fundamentalist Materialism, as Robert Anton Wilson used to put it.
  • A secondary effect of official and widespread Fundamentalist Materialism is a dramatic and frightening drop in the regional fertility rate. We can explore the "whys" in more depth another time if folks find the connection puzzling; suffice to say that Western Europe is not replacing its population, hence must import truly staggering levels of immigrant labor.
  • Since Europe must draw from those cultures that have a high fertility rate for their foreign labor pool, they tend to draw disproportionately from Moslem populations in Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Turkey, and Morocco. For example, in the Netherlands, six percent of the labor pool are Moslems from the latter two countries. (If the same ratio applied in the United States, we would have 9.25 million Moslem immigrants in the civilian labor pool, or about eight to ten times the level we actually have.)
  • Another primary element of lib-soc is authoritarianism; socialist states are authoritatian by definition.
  • One secondary effect of authoritarianism is that the government not only does not encourage immigrants to assimilate, it typically doesn't allow them to. Instead, immigrants are shunted into enclaves and ghettos and generally treated as "the help," rather than as full citizens... even those who were actually born in the "host" country. Generation after generation can be born in some European countries, but none is considered a full citizen.
  • Such "apartness" leads inevitably to a great many immigrants seeing themselves as transients and foreigners in the land of their birth; they often turn against the "host" with a vengeance, rioting and looting, sealing off areas and declaring them "liberated" from the host and instead under the laws -- or the imagined laws -- of the rioters' ancestral countries. For the most obvious example, Moslem "immigrants" may seal off the Moslem enclaves and declare them under sharia law, instead of French, Dutch, or Spanish law. (The same dynamic of separation from the rest of society leads to criminal behavior among native-born full citizens.)
  • Yet another aspect of authoritarianism is that, for all their high-minded hectoring of the rest of the world, socialist countries do not actually protect freedom of speech. (This claim should not even be controversial.)
  • Ergo, put everything together, and we have the situation in the Netherlands, which applies in a great many other European countries as well: The country has a real, serious, and growing problem with estranged and disaffected Moslem youths; but hate-speech codes make it a criminal offense to discus the disastrous failure of the government's social policy, even by members of parliament.

It's a prescription for catastophe. It could never happen in Ronald Reagan's or George W. Bush's America because of individualism, assimilation, and community; I fear it may be all too plausible in Barack H. Obama's America.

The solution to this terrible dilemma is quite beyond the capacity of any socialist country; but it's the essence, the very core, of American exceptionalism (or simple Americanism):

  • Allow immigrants to assimilate;
  • Encourage, urge, and demand that they assimilate;
  • Require that they be assimilable before letting them immigrate in the first place;
  • And treat them exactly like every other American citizen when they do assimilate and naturalize themselves.

This is the ideal, however imperfectly it can be applied in the real world. Alas that we have an immigration system biased against assimilation; and we have two prevailing ideologies, neither of which is geared towards assimilation for different reasons: The Left doesn't want aliens to assimilate because lib-socs tend to dislike America and all it stands for; while the Right doesn't want aliens to come here at all, by and large, because they understand assimilation is a two-way street.

Like the Borg, when we assimilate an immigrant, we add his cultural "memes" to American culture. That's one reason we're such a powerful and irresistable force for social change throughout the world... and it's a positive characteristic, not a necessary evil.

But I think I fight a lonely war on this issue.

Cross-posted on Hot Air's rogues' gallery...

Hatched by Dafydd on this day, January 20, 2010, at the time of 9:00 PM

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Tracked on January 20, 2010 8:33 PM

Comments

The following hissed in response by: Sabba Hillel

I find it interesting that Muslims using Sharia law are not "assimilable" while Orthodox Jews (the only religion with its own law code that I know about) are considered "assimilable". We have our own laws involving food, personal status (such as marriage and divorce), and business contacts, as well as a court system that is maintained parallel to the United States Court system.

One of the reasons for this is that we have a law which can be expressed as

The law of the Country is the Law

This means that if something is forbidden by the secular law, but permitted by the Torah, we are not allowed to do it. If something is permitted by secular law and forbidden by the Torah (such as nonKosher food), we are also not allowed to do it. The only time there would be a conflict would be if something was mandated by secular law and forbidden by the Torah. Since I cannot think of anything for which this is true, I will have to make up a ridiculous answer. If the government passed a law that everyone must eat a cheeseburger from McDonalds, I would be required to not eat it. Similarly, if the government passed a law requiring me to violate the Sabbath, I would not be allowed to do so. While there are those who attempt to redefine circumcision (which is mandated by the Torah for Jews) as "child abuse" or attempt to ban kosher slaughter (though it is among the most humane methods) this country has, so far, recognized the antisemitic motives behind those efforts and refused to allow them to succeed.

As part of Torah law, I am forbidden to attempt to force nonJews to abide by my law. I would absolutely be forbidden to attempt to prevent other citizens of this country from eating nonKosher food, or performing "work" on the Sabbath. The Torah recognizes that nonJews are not subject to Torah law, though they are subject to the rules of their own religions.

Thank G-d, that this country has recognized freedom of religion and that people are allowed to sign individual contracts according to whatever standards that they desire (as long as they do not break the law). I also thank G-d that this country allows mediation panels to be set up independent of the court system that can adjudicate matters as long as both sides agree in advance. The religious court system will first have both parties sign a separate agreement to abide by the final decision, just as they would for any independent arbiter. That contract is then enforceable in court if needed.

On the other hand, the Muslims are attempting to force every one else to abide by Sharia law and raise any dispute to a frightening level. An example would be the Muslim taxi drivers who refuse to carry anyone with liquor (even though that is not forbidden to them) because the passenger would be drinking. Another example might be the female genital mutilation and "honor killings" being carried out by the Islamists.

I think that is why the problem is arising with the Muslims.

There is also the problem of the definition of assimilation. THose who define it as the total abandonment of the original culture and religion, would not accept me and my views at all. Those with a saner definition would understand that my views conform to the ideals that this country was founded on.

The above hissed in response by: Sabba Hillel [TypeKey Profile Page] at January 21, 2010 11:59 AM

The following hissed in response by: Dafydd ab Hugh

Sabba Hillel:

I think you're right. When I write "assimilable," I mean the person is capable of interacting with existing American culture without demanding too many compromises on either side.

For example, if you needed a new car, I'm sure you would have no problem buying it from a Christian car salesman, or Buddhist, or even an assimilated Moslem. Similarly, I'm not bothered by Christmas crèches, even though I'm a secular, agnostic Jew.

When I used to work for a living, I had an Orthodox Jewish friend; he arranged that he would leave work about three o'clock every Friday, so he would be sure to be home before sundown. He came to work an hour earlier, so he was there the same number of hours as everyone else.

Once he and I, plus a girl I didn't know, all won "employee of the month." The company decided to celebrate this by forcing us all to come in for a celebratory breakfast.

Now I was already in a foul mood, because I don't "do" early mornings -- and I certainly don't eat (ugh!) breakfast. But they insisted we be there at 7:00 am... which meant I had to leave before six, which meant I had to arise at 5:30!

But when I arrived, I was so amused by the utter stupidity of the dolts who arranged the event that I decided it was worth the inconvenience just to be able to tell the story...

See, Joe is a Kosher-keeping Jew. The girl was a vegetarian. And I am allergic to egg whites.

Naturally, the awards breakfast comprised eggs scrambled with bacon.

The VPs and managers all ate heartily ("shoveled it down their throats like starving wolverines" is more accurate); I don't think they even noticed that not a single award recipient had so much as one bite of any of the food!

But none of us made a big scene: We had all already been assimilated.

Resistance is futile.

Dafydd

The above hissed in response by: Dafydd ab Hugh [TypeKey Profile Page] at January 21, 2010 9:28 PM

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