The present of “the city of white sepulchres” present is the future of the West, if we continue to allow it:
Brussels’ failures are emblematic of Europe’s failings. The city that hopes to govern a post-national Europe has been made impotent by the petty jealousies and nasty rivalries of two ethnic groups barely large enough to qualify as tribes in much of the world. Brussels is in some ways a satire of the European project: committed to transnational goals, hobbled by unresolved ethnic spats. A city dedicated to universal secular human values is now threatened by fanatical death cults that have grown up in its miserable, insecure slums.
The West as a whole these days is cursed by moral grandiosity and failing performance. Our self-esteem has seldom been more robust, or our performance more pitiable. We busy ourselves with what we think is the last unfinished work of implementing universal egalitarianism, by for example tending to high school students who identify with a gender other than that into which they were born, ensuring that they can use the restrooms toward which their aspirations lead them. We see ourselves as courageous warriors even as the foundations of our world are beginning to crack. We claim that tolerance and diversity are the touchstones of our civilization, and have raised a generation of weaklings who cannot bear to be exposed to unorthodox ideas or to the bustle and collisions that life in a diverse society inevitably brings. To cite another of Jesus’ condemnations of hypocrisy, we ‘tithe mint and dill and cumin, and neglect the weightier matters of the law.’ That is, we busy ourselves obsessively over small bore issues, and ignore the graver challenges that face us on every side.
Because reality is too harsh.
[Afternoon update]
Related: When will our “leaders” own up to the fact that the EU is a giant scam?
I think that ISIS has fatally exposed it.
After reading that article, the proverbial phrase “They that sow the wind, shall reap the whirlwind.” comes to mind.
I’m amazed at the racism in WRM’s essay. Because… Diversity!
It is interesting how “diversity” has changed over the years. It was sold as diversity of background, that bringing in people of different backgrounds would allow groups to get different perspectives that might help in solving problems. Which sounds pretty reasonable as there was supposed to be elements of cultural exchange and assimilation. But then it became about race and background was no longer important. Skin color trumped life experience and assimilation was viewed as racist.
Now, diversity means that the races can’t mix, engage in cultural exchange, or even assimilate into American culture. Its all rather nutty. Native Americans have to remain hunter/gatherers and live a life of stereotype in harmony with nature and other humans, unlike their actual cultural history, and always attached to the strings of federal intervention. Black people have to identify as former slaves, even if that isn’t a part of their heritage, that are perpetually victimized. Muslims have to retain the messed up cultures that they flee. The list goes on. Each racial, ethnic, and religious group now has to remain apart and view themselves as portrayed by Democrats narrow stereotypes.
Something is deeply wrong with our friends to the left. Everyone should want to be Americans. Our form of government isn’t “white”, it has a pedigree that traces its roots back through several distinct cultures and was adopted by people who came from even more separate and distinct cultures. Skin color does not genetically determine culture or the form of government different groups practice.
Democrats seem to be saying that races, cultures, ethnicities can not mix. That everyone must remain separate, hold onto historical grudges, remain loyal to ancient allegiances, and never adopt American culture. This goes against the very nature of our country and replaces out of many one with out of many many.
There is one thread that unites all of these groups, the way all of these different ethnic groups are supposed to gain power, respect, equality is always a destruction of our current form of government and the adoption of socialism. Apparently some forms of government created by white people are OK.
It is all very depressing but if anyone is interested in how people from different cultures assimilated into Americans and engaged in the give and take of cultural exchange, The Search for General Tso was a fairly entertaining documentary. Nothing says USA like an asian speaking with a mixture of asian and southern accents while talking about the melding of Chinese and Southern cuisine.