Pace Inimitable Ibbitson of the Globe (a fellow who truly loathes non-metropolitan Canada, must be a reaction to growing up in small-town Gravenhurst, Ontario), Publius destroys multiculti in a superb essay–a few excerpts, do read it all (hint: Pierre Trudeau was not the fons et origo of all our woes):
As regular readers will have noticed, this blog has dedicate a fair number of electrons in recent weeks to multiculturalism. We are at the beginning stages in Canada of a cultural war, between those seeking to maintain the Big Lie of multiculturalism, and those seeking to defend Canadian culture and tradition. The former is – at best – a dangerously naive idea that all cultures are of equal objective value. The latter is a system of values that upholds individual rights, separation of church and state, free speech, rule of law and a basic market economy.
What is going on in Canada is only one small episode in a wider struggle across the western world. It is as if, on its deathbed, the nations of Europe and North America began to question the path that had lead them hence. In Germany, France and Britain there have been official rebukes to multiculturalism. So far these have only been pro forma declarations of what the general public had already come to understand, but was often afraid to say openly.
It will take decades of fighting to remove multiculturalism, and its fountainhead moral relativism, from the sinews of western nations…
What began as a plea for those most western of values, equality before the law and objectivity, is now ending, decades later, in the quagmire of affirmative action, and calls for Sharia law being supported by the Archbishop of Canterbury. There was a subtle shift in the justification for our immigration policies. Instead of trying to seek out the best immigrants for Canada, our policies transformed themselves into a quest to remake Canadian society. There was nothing special about Canada or the Canadian way. We were just another country. Our values were not better than anyone else’s values. Discrimination on the basis of cultural values, then, was no different than discrimination on racial grounds.
The philosophical idea at the heart of multiculturalism is relativism. It is a complete rejection of objectivity. There is no truth in this view. No right and wrong…
Once enough of the western ruling class had accepted the idea that objectivity was impossible, that all values were subjective to the individual or perhaps a particular group, the West became deaf and dumb. It could not object to barbarism abroad (a foreign policy based on appeasement), or barbarism at home (immigrants from primitive cultures unwilling to integrate). Faced with crises after crises, the West’s response has been apology and retreat…
…It’s easy enough to say that all cultures are equal, if you live in an area surrounded by civilized men and women. Just like it’s easier to be a socialist if you’re rich [that means you, Jack and Olivia]. You don’t pay the price. Someone else does, usually the poor and the middle class, or the generations that follow…
Update: More from Publius along similar lines:
The WASP Suicides
