Traditional Western Humanism sees Man as more than just another animal, that which distinguishes him from the rest of the natural world being his very beautiful Mind, his capacities for Reason and Volition ultimately rendering him a “Moral Being.” Culture is the result of how he evolves as such and is therefore a fundamental concern of the Humanist.
But the Left’s infatuation with Multiculturalism, its insistence that all Cultures are equally valid, indeed that any criticism of the culture of “the other” is by definition Racist, ultimately rests upon the assumption that we are really just animals whose capacity for Reason and Morality are mere comforting fictions. That those who see the world this way fancy themselves “progressives” blows my mind.
John Cleese famously said in a television interview in 2011 that London no longer seemed to him an English city, referring to the massive influx of Muslims resident there due to England’s membership in the European Union. Savaged by Boris Johnson, London’s mayor at that moment, as well as by mayor Sadiq Khan when he announced in 2018 that he was leaving England, Cleese insisted his disenchantment with his homeland was based not on racial but on “cultural” issues. His critics, of course, seeing all cultures as equally valid, said England’s “diversity” was in fact its greatest asset. It is a valuation which literally eliminates discussion of the quality of the inner life of Man from the political/academic/ intellectual arena and it is ridiculous.
Tayyip Erdogan recently invoked Muslims from around the world to flock to Europe with the goal of ultimately Islamizing the entire continent. Having left the European Union, England now has control of its borders. But what might it have looked like 50 years from now had Erdogan’s plan been allowed to proceed. In a country whose Muslim population holds the reins of political power, would Chaucer, Shakespeare, Donne, Milton, Dickens, etc. still be standard aspects of the educational curriculum? Would the evolution of England’s Democratic principles stemming back to the Magna Carta still be honored? To those simpletons who might insist these are merely the questions of a closeted racist, I would point out there are already Sharia courts operating within Great Britain. Once again the dementia of “doublethink” comes into play, “progressives” in England perfectly willing to tolerate Islamic courts harboring Medieval attitudes towards Women, while they would go berserk should any traditional British court display similar inclinations.
In a tweeted apology for his 2011 statement, Cleese asserted that it was his affection for his “Englishness” that had inspired him. Is his “Englishness” a mere cover for racism or is every aspect of English Culture from its political and intellectual traditions to its literature, music, art, architecture, humor, etc., radically different from that of much of the rest of the world and a treasure, however flawed, eminently worth preserving? Of course if you are the product of a “progressive” education, you may know little of such things. Indeed ignorance of both History and Human Nature would seem to be the sine qua non of the Leftist world-view.
On a daily basis I read articles in various Canadian newspapers written by individuals of Asian/African origin lamenting their sense of alienation from Canada’s Culture, that by its very existence it is somehow oppressive. But how, one must ask, can people from Nations wracked with lawlessness and racial and religious intolerance have the audacity to impugn the Culture of Canada simply because it is different? Is the sense of outrage that informs these articles legitimate or the product of a childish, self-centered dementia? Are Western countries morally bound to sit idly by and Not support the values upon which they were founded or is the very idea absurd?
Were I, a White Canadian Male, to tell new immigrants to the West who find our cultural norms “oppressive” to go back to where they came from, I would of course be mocked, cancelled, excoriated or perhaps beheaded! But Candace Owens, a Black woman, did the very same, whimsically suggesting she would gladly finance the journeys homeward of those who had fled countries rife with political/racial/religious mayhem only to complain that American culture made them feel uncomfortable.
The Brexit vote in Great Britain, however racist the views of some who supported it, was utterly, intellectually justifiable. Ibram X. Kendi’s so-called anti-racism, a degenerate vision of the species which is racist to the very core, keeps people apart. The amazing progress made on genuine issues of social justice in the West over the last sixty years is in fact a testimony to the efficacy of its informing Humanist Culture. No one is suggesting putting an end to immigration, but we have every right to defend our fundamental Principles and Values, including respect for the integrity of our borders, and that does NOT make us RACISTS! As for those “liberals” who have bought into the Marxist narrative that Western Civilization is the most evil in all of history, and those of other origins whom they have convinced are its helpless victims, they each need to take both a long hard look both in the mirror and at the ignorance, violence and hatred that continues to plague so much of the non-Western world.
No reaction to the unequivocal dynamics of multiculturalism more dramatically illustrates the Left’s superficial vision of the species than Angela Merkel’s 2010 admission in a BBC interview that her attempt to build a cohesive multicultural Europe had in fact “utterly failed,” the only solution to transcending the radically different Principles and Values separating various cultures clearly being the submission of those Principles and Values to rational, critical discussion.