Paris riots--a great excuse to start talking about the end of the West
Pat Buchanan, who's normally so apeshit I don't even listen to him, is calling the Paris riots the beginning of the end of Western (or at least European) civilization--in the sense of a distinct culture with basically a single long tradition stretching back to Athens. The thing that scares me is that many other people are actually saying the same things, in perhaps less batshit language.
I've posted more about this on Little Green Blog, but my point is this:
The type of xenophobia and obsession with racial purity that was prevalent in America and Europe in the 1920s and 1930s is not dead. It did not die with Nazi Germany, it was merely culturally discredited for awhile. This is the face that it will take--the face of a clash of civilizations, of Arab (and Hispanic) immigrants who won't assimilate and who detest the West and who are secretly waiting for our fall. The War on Terror will be--and already is--used to justify "cultural protection"--merely code for virulent racism. Minorities of all types are likely targets--such powerful prejudice is ironically not very discriminatory.
We're going to have to kick the shit out of these fear-mongers intellectually and socially.
I've posted more about this on Little Green Blog, but my point is this:
The type of xenophobia and obsession with racial purity that was prevalent in America and Europe in the 1920s and 1930s is not dead. It did not die with Nazi Germany, it was merely culturally discredited for awhile. This is the face that it will take--the face of a clash of civilizations, of Arab (and Hispanic) immigrants who won't assimilate and who detest the West and who are secretly waiting for our fall. The War on Terror will be--and already is--used to justify "cultural protection"--merely code for virulent racism. Minorities of all types are likely targets--such powerful prejudice is ironically not very discriminatory.
We're going to have to kick the shit out of these fear-mongers intellectually and socially.