Left Behind
"We prefer to say the 'youths' instead of 'blacks' or 'Arabs.' But the truth cannot be sacrificed, no matter how noble the reasons. ... This isn't about blacks and Arabs as a whole, but about some blacks and Arabs. And, of course, religion -- not as religion, but as an anchor of identity, if you will -- plays a part. Religion as it appears on the Internet, on the Arab television stations, serves as an anchor of identity for some of these youths.
Finkielkraut coins the term 'Islamization of the race issue' to describe how current grievances are retrospectively given a meaning that they never had.
"one mustn't forget that the integration of the Arab workers in France during the time of colonial rule was much easier. In other words, this is belated hatred. Retrospective hatred ... It was Louis Farrakhan, in America, who asserted for the first time that the Jews played a central role in creating slavery ... He wants a 'Holocaust' for Arabs and blacks, too. But if you want to put the Holocaust and slavery on the same plane ... slavery ... began long before the West. In fact, what sets the West apart when it comes to slavery is that it was the one to eliminate it. The elimination of slavery is a European and American thing. But this truth about slavery cannot be taught in schools. ... Suddenly, they look around, and they see all the 'bobo' (French slang for bourgeois-bohemians) singing songs of praise to the new 'wretched of the earth'"
... I think that the lofty idea of 'the war on racism' is gradually turning into a hideously false ideology. And this anti-racism will be for the 21st century what communism was for the 20th century. A source of violence ... apparently it's already too late to make them feel ashamed, since on the radio, on television and in the newspapers, or in most of them, they're holding a prettifying mirror up to the rioters. They're 'interesting' people, they're nurturing their suffering and they understand their despair.
Commentary
What Finkielkraut may be describing, from another point of view, is the birth of a nation, a separate nation within the bosom of its parent, a process that Tom Paine would have been familiar with. Finkielkraut was right to wonder whether the criminalization of French history, as taught to immigrants, has "dealt a decisive blow to the France I loved". Surely that was the intention, because it is impossible to understand the recent riots in France except as a joint product of the Left and of Islamism. The one point on which both are agreed is the hatefulness of the West and the program of action that flows from that. The Finkielkraut interview ends with two questions, to which he answers in despair.
And what will happen in France?
"I don't know. I'm despairing. Because of the riots and because of their accompaniment by the media. The riots will subside, but what does this mean? There won't be a return to quiet. It will be a return to regular violence. So they'll stop because there is a curfew now, and the foreigners are afraid and the drug dealers also want the usual order restored. But they'll gain support and encouragement for their anti-republican violence from the repulsive discourse of self-criticism over their slavery and colonization. So that's it: There won't be a return to quiet, but a return to routine violence."
So your worldview doesn't stand a chance anymore?
"No, I've lost. As far as anything relating to the struggle over school is concerned, I've lost. It's interesting, because when I speak the way I'm speaking now, a lot of people agree with me. Very many. But there's something in France - a kind of denial whose origin lies in the bobo, in the sociologists and social workers - and no one dares say anything else. This struggle is lost. I've been left behind."
posted by wretchardthecat at 11/24/2005 02:37:00 PM
40 Comments:
Social Suicide.
Amazing to behold!! How can these people do it to themselves?
The same way we are doing it to ourselves. We forget our past. Our history is either evil or not worthy of our interest.
Wretchard: "Surely that was the intention, because it is impossible to understand the recent riots in France except as a joint product of the Left and of Islamism."
Sir, it is possible to understand the recent riots as one specific example of a more generalized dysfunction in the process of humnakind's coming of age, maturing.
Baha'u'llah calls us to the one-ness of humankind; when we turn instead to racist concepts, He isn't wrong, WE are.
Baha'u'llah calls us to Justice, the Best-Beloved of all things in the sight of God; when we turn away, we get riots, systemic and endemic injustice and widespread discontent.
The coming of age of humanity, foretold for 7,000 previous years of written history, is only 161 years into its course; men get angry that women want to be 'equal', blacks get angry at whites and yellows, poor get angry at rich...
There IS another way, a valid interpretation, of the events in France although they ARE leftist-Islamozoid also, Sir.
The Frenchies nihilism; so easily defeated. Nothing to hold onto.
W
As you have often said, intelligence is gathered by contact with the enemy.
In the case of the Francofada the side which initiated the contact stood to gain the most operative intelligence.
If it was 20 or so days of French and other isolated European insurrections, combusting spontaneously across Europe's landscape, well, no one would have been there to take notes.
But if the 20 days of rioting were "guided", "encouraged" or "led" by Mohammedan Jihadists or sympathizers, well then....
Watch out for Phase II.
Timed to coincide when pressure is put on Iran or Syria.
Notice that talk of a Security Council referal for Iran has died.
The Russians have been added, a new seat at the negotiation table.
Now we are engaging in 5 party talks with Iran.
I have tried to figure out the genesis of this tendency to hurl the epithet "racist" in an effort to win an argument. You see it being done both by our Left here in the U.S., and by young Arab men in Iraq, France and England when they've been caught red-handed and busted.
I had thought it to be an attempt to win a politically correct argument by applying a guilt trip, or to play the "race card" such as OJ Simpson did. And evidently, in some Yurp countries, there are "hate laws", although I'm not quite sure if "hate laws" have anything to do with racism, per se.
But if I'm reading Finkielkraut correctly, what he is positing is this concept of "racism" will be used by black and brown people to hide behind while they are busy massacreing white people (and Jews).
Since there seems to be virulent and on-going racism in most of the rest of the world, including in England, France, Germany and all of the Middle East, do citizens of *those* countries try to win arguments and prove themselves correct by calling each other racists? Since they all are racists, what would this accomplish? I'm thinking now especially of countries like Saudi Arabia where their racism towards the Pakistani's, Filippino's and Indians who actually *run* their country is a point of pride.
Or do the Europeans save the racist threat to hurl at Americans, and the brown people only hurl it at the white people? This gets down to the crux of my previous dissection of this issue: That the rest of the world watched as American culture since the 1960's came to terms with racism, legislated against it, and began to evolve out of a situation where skin color made any difference.
And in doing so, has the rest of the world thereby concluded that the issue of "racism" is somehow the soft underbelly of America, and that if any un- (or anti-) American wants to gain a toe up in an argument, all they need to do is call us a "RACIST!" and we'll melt in a puddle of guilty sobbing jelly?
But given Finkielkraut's theory, what I had been thinking seems too benign, and that use of the word "racist!" (always with the exclamation point) will not be used to guilt-trip us into submission, but will be used as a form of giving of permission that will allow the Them to kill the Us ... preferrably by beheading.
This is a conundrum which I'm still puzzling over, because I don't get a sense of how Yurps and others react when they themselves are called racist. It just seems like the most stupid thing to allege if you're trying to browbeat the other guy ... so WHY do so many of the commenters on this site do it?
Incidently, I agree that "normal" French people don't give the riots any importance at all. They are all breathing a sigh of relief, and getting back to hating America while telling us how much they want us to go to France and spend our tourist dollars, on the grounds that no one was killed (much) so what difference does it make?
ooops - in the comment above, the final line should have read "commenters on the web", not "site". I meant absolutely no imputation that commenters on Belmont use the "racism card". Fingers typing of their own volition again.
Here's another graph of the carbeques:
Carbeques
it's been said recently
that the Left's #1 battle
is the "Attack on Language".
and also,
that the Left's language
is not about Problem-Solving,
or even about Communication,
but simply about>>>More Language.
Finkielkraut is ready,
and willing to give up,
because in a a nation of "intellectuals",there is
no one to discuss "ideas" with.
"For men awake,there is one common cosmos, but men asleep turn away,
each one into a private world."
-Heraclitus
to add:
"Finkielkraut is ready,
and willing to give up,
because in a a nation of "intellectuals",there is
no one to discuss "ideas" with."
surely this is the definiton of the
"death of France".
in a way,"the youths"
have little to do with it.
Most of the Chinese that US Forces battled in Korea were not, themselves, dedicated Communists.
Not all German soldiers in WWII were Nazis.
I would not submit that the riots were initially instigated by the Mohammedan Jihadists or foreign agents. I would submit, though, that those Jihasists and agents took advantage of the situation when it presented itself.
Twenty days of "spontaneous" disorder is a nonsensical, as the rioters were using electronic communications, requiring known adressees.
There WAS an organization to the French disruption, the question is WHOSE organization it is, and to WHAT purpose it is operating.
Stalin found "useful idiots" were just that, useful idiots.
How better to describe youthful rioters of the Francofada.
Much like the aQ criminals in Iraq that are both being "backpacked" by and "hijacking" the "legitimate" Sunni Insurection, the Jihadists will use a similar strategy in Europe.
No Catastrophic Event Required
What Finkielkraut may be describing, from another point of view, is the birth of a nation, a separate nation within the bosom of its parent, ....
I hope I do not offend anyone by noticing that somehow the American Civil Rights movement for equality led to our current state of difference.
Somehow the good-meaning energy of Self-awareness in a self-defined community led to differentiation and separation. The message devolved into a concentration upon the worst of the past, to create a lasting separation in the future.
In America, the original goal of every one freely joining the American opportunity free of discarded racist shackles, ie, EQUAL RIGHTS, devolved into an obsessive concentration on reparations for the 150 year old sins that were fought against and decided in America's bloodiest war.
Sound familiar? Fighting over ancient wrongs against generations long dead.
Even in America, we birthed a sort of separate nation. These same "irreparable" harms must be so much worse in less free societies, where rancor and rumor rule.
What Finkielkraut may be describing, from another point of view, is the birth of a nation, a separate nation within the bosom of its parent,
"Definition of cancer (noun forms plural: cancers)
disease where cells divide at an excessive rate and become abnormal in function; malignancy; neoplasm"
http://www.english-test.net/pcat/vocabulary/words/071/pcat-definitions.php#cancer
Maybe Sharon was right.. France is no place for Jews..
and maybe Frenchpeople....
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
"That which is, is. That which is not, is not is."
The normblog profile 114: Gerard Van der Leun
Funny, where I live, here in the Philippines, "bobo" means stupid or dunce. Coincidence?
We called our relatives in Paris last night. My brother-in-law had every window broken out of his shop. My niece's laundry was burned out, a total loss. They also lost both their cars. Years of work down the drain, and she hasn't stopped crying in despair.
It's easy to feel disconnected and "indifferent" UNTIL it's YOUR car, and YOUR business.
Nice theory Finkielkraut, a minority in Europe is destroying it from within by not letting go of the past, and instead of concentrating on recent Western achievements, they are emphasizing past “evils” perpetrated upon defenseless minorities by the white European. Mr. Pot let me introduce you to Mr. Kettle and boy isn’t he black.
Now I might be slightly more sympathetic to Mr. Finkielkraut’s point of view if he hadn’t spent almost the entirety of his career writing about how important memory is and that we must never forget the holocaust. Future of a Negation: Reflections on the Question of Genocide reminds us how important it is to “never forget”. But isn’t this just an emphasis on Europe’s evil past? It now seems that shorter “new Finkielkraut” is “Don’t worry, be happy”. Applied to Jews, it seems his message would clearly be: Western society struggled with anti-Semitism, and if we want to be subversive, to create divisions and destroy our sacred institutions we could concentrate on past blunders; but wouldn’t it be better to emphasis the fact the Europe and America have become the first societies that have ever wiped out anti-Semitism? According to “new Finkielkraut” instead of Auschwitz, French schoolteachers should emphasis the four Jewish Prime Ministers of France, Leon Blum, Rene Mayer, Pierre Mendes-France and Michel Debre. And look how many great Jewish nuclear physicists “anti-Semitic” Europe created pre-WW2; you didn’t see many coming from Palestine back in the day; if Europe had hated Jews so much why were 50% of Hungary’s lawyers Jewish back in the 20’s when Jews only made up 5% of the population. And since it is obviously so destructive to discuss racism, it is surely even more harmful to write essays concerning anti-Semitism. Perhaps it’s just me but somehow I get the funny feeling that “new Finkielkraut” doesn’t apply to Jews.
My son recently started at an ultra conservative school here in Belgium (filled mostly with upper-class French kids for some reason) and he has become obsessed with drawing Leopold II, over and over again(and he sleeps with a Belgian flag in his bed!). Should I tell him about the 10 million Congolese that Leopold helped butcher? Actually I already have, surely Mr. Finkielkraut wouldn’t approve. I recently found a booklet written for children that explains the Belgian “adventures” in the Congo. I bought it to see how well contemporary Belgium was dealing with its past, and I can tell you, Mr. Finkielkraut would be quite proud, because there was nary a word about any unfortunate side effects of Leopold II gallant crusade to free the Congo of all those evil Arab slave traders. It hardly even mentioned the forced labor collecting rubber. It did say Belgian colonialists struggled to instill a good work ethic into the natives and that Belgians were no more racist than any other Westerners at the time. No problems here, Mr. Finkielkraut, concerning the Congo, Belgium society is still comfortably floating down that famous river in Egypt called denial. But they do still have a few holocaust museums though.
It is so sad to see Finkielkraut -- who has spent his entire career fighting the good fight against holocaust deniers and historical revisionists – imbibe their vile talking points and then redeploy them against his new enemies, the Blacks and the Arabs.
"Years of work down the drain, and she hasn't stopped crying in despair."
---
I'm sure M. Chirac and the Hair Guy feel her pain.
---
I keep seeing parallels of problems w/"immigration" between the Euros and the USA,
namely:
DENIAL.
(Most profoundly in the Governing Class.)
Kevin,
It sounds reasonable to argue that if the Jews have the right to resent the Holocaust, then surely the blacks have the right to resent Leopold. One problem with the analogy of course, is that the there were very few Arabs in the Belgian Congo in Leopold's day, and the protesting youths did not burn cars in Brussels but in Paris. In fact there are hardly any Muslims in the Congo today and probably fewer when Leopold killed ten million of them. So if the Muslim youth were burning cars in France for what the Belgians did to animist and Christian blacks a century ago in the Congo it would be more out of sympathy than due to any direct resentment, such as the Jews might bear against France, which handed them over to the Germans because they were Jews, their being French citizens notwithstanding.
Finkielkraut seems half ready to quietly leave France, a policy more readily understandable than those who profess to hate it then proceed to emigrate there. Israel started out as a place where the Finkielkrauts could go, but that now seems like a bad idea to Europeans. Too bad, because if you wanted to deport Algerians you could always send them to Algeria. Where would you deport a Jew, given that Israel is illegitimate?
One day the press may notice that half of Saudi Arabia's workforce is expatriate; that unlike France's minorities they are not allowed to practice their own religion, unless it is Islam; nor are they allowed to transgress on the Saudi mores, on penalty of being whipped or worse. I guess that's the problem with comparisons; the relation of inequality goes round in a ring and eventually we arrive at an absurdity.
W
Comparing the KSA's situation with foreign workers and the French discrimination against "browns" is as you say, circular absurdity.
Your link refers to a deportation of 100,000 foreigners sent home by the KSA. Deportations from France after the Francofada, hundreds at most.
The foreigners in the KSA are just that, foreigners. In France the "others" are "French". Born and bred natives.
The interesting thing about the Mohammedan Wars is while even those that believe that Mr Newt's 10% military - 90% other means formulation of the Battle Plan cannot agree on the ground the ground battle will be decided.
When US military ground troops are no longer the driving force of US response to foreign terrorism, will there be any reponse at all?
The "youth" practice the same snobbery they have been exposed to in their adopted country. Still they remain apart from the mainstream for all the reasons - real and imagined - illiterated here.
The biggest danger I see is that they consider themselves apart from the society of which they still long to partake.
Their stature, being this grey area, could find a home in any place. When they seek to find it, they may choose to identify with their ancestral roots rather than their new home that has forsaken them.
The place they choose, however, espouses violence toward all that do not submit to its mores.
Maconachy, a slight correction. The French ambassador was heard to describe Israel as “a shitty little country”. Obviously he has never been to Israel or he wouldn't have ever made such a remark. Hope your recollection of the remark isn't a Freudian slip. ;)
Wretchard,
Although I am at a loss to explain why mostly Arab and Black French youths would burn their own cars, shops and pre-schools (I’m inclined to agree with Emmanuel Todd’s analysis referred to in Gabriel Gonzalez’ post above), I agree that it most certainly had little or nothing to do with King Leopold II’s genocide in the Congo. I was trying to refute to this statement by Finkielkraut when I brought up the special little bit of colonial history:
But in France, instead of fighting his kind of talk, they're actually doing what he asks: changing the teaching of colonial history and the history of slavery in the schools. Now they teach colonial history as an exclusively negative history. We don't teach anymore that the colonial project also sought to educate, to bring civilization to the savages. They only talk about it as an attempt at exploitation, domination and plunder.
Your comment about Saudi Arabia’s policies towards guest workers gave me pause. Surely what we see going on there is the result of the complete rejection of multi-culturalism by the Saudis. But this is the exact same advice often given to Europeans; reject multi-culturalism. But isn’t the necessary result of any society taking such path a country that looks a lot like Saudi Arabia? Is a middle ground possible? I don’t know.
I mean at the end of the day, if we are going to teach the positive aspects of colonialism, shouldn’t we also educate our children on the positive aspects of terrorism? Is there really that much difference between the two? I’m sure the Saudis that crashed into those twin towers wanted our woman to cover their shameful bodies, our men to stop acting like savages by drinking, swearing, etc., they wanted to bring us their God to worship, and I am sure they would have wanted to impose their language on us.
So Wretchard The Cat,
I think we know what winning in a particular theater of the GWOT looks like:
'The End of the Beginning'
and very presumptuous of me:
'Winning the War on Terror'
I now think we know what losing in a particular theater of the GWOT looks like...
Is France French enough to withstand militant Islam?
"I mean at the end of the day, if we are going to teach the positive aspects of colonialism, shouldn’t we also educate our children on the positive aspects of terrorism?"
---
duh,
Sure, ...if we're writing for the Daily Kos. ;-)
---
Perhaps the Belgian Congo has no similarities whatsoever, but I use the "Civilizing Christians" as an example of the absurdity of throwing out all the positives of a situation while revising History in order to promote the pc notions of multiculturalism which are no more than a rejection of everything "western," or more precisely a total rejection of the very best of the west.
You seem to have a more idealized notion of the meaning of multiculturalism, Kevin.
To me IN PRACTICE it is nothing more than a smokescreen behind which it's promoters tear down this country block by block, brick by brick.
In Hawaii, the "Invaders" saw to it that many natives (those fortunate enough to be living near missionary schools) received excellent educations.
Even the public schools here were excellent prior to "liberalization" which consisted of bringing in all the "latest ("liberal"-secular) improvements in education" from the mainland.
Nahncee writes,
"Has the rest of the world thereby concluded that the issue of "racism" is somehow the soft underbelly of America, and that if any un- (or anti-) American wants to gain a toe up in an argument, all they need to do is call us a "RACIST!" and we'll melt in a puddle of guilty sobbing jelly?
But given Finkielkraut's theory, what I had been thinking seems too benign, and that use of the word "racist!" (always with the exclamation point) will not be used to guilt-trip us into submission, but will be used as a form of giving of permission that will allow the Them to kill the Us ... preferrably by beheading"
Wretchard writes,
Finkielkraut was right to wonder whether the criminalization of French history, as taught to immigrants, has "dealt a decisive blow to the France I loved".
Surely that was the intention, because it is impossible to understand the recent riots in France except as a joint product of the Left and of Islamism.
---
"The Criminalization of French history"
"Victimology"
---
I submit that the key issue here is SUBMISSION,
and although the Islamists are focused on submission, and find fertile fields in the West, the West was practicing submission to a suicidal degree long before we were generally aware of the Islamist threat.
Nahncee rightly points to the Civil Rights Movement as important in shaping opinions others have of us here, but without that movement and without the Islamofascists, the west was still embarked on a suicidal course fueled by "liberal" "insight" into our less than perfect history.
With this insight, they feel empowered to throw out all standards which have worked through the ages.
This has multiple payoffs for the enlightened, some of which are:
1. NOT HAVING TO LIVE UP TO ANY TRADITIONAL STANDARDS.
a. Assuaging of Guilt by Projection of all their denied human impulses onto the "other."
(Racist, Male, Homophobic Wasps, and etc)
b. Feeling good about themselves for being so "caring about the oppressed."
c. Empowered by Govt Edict to steal from others (taxes) in order to minister to the oppressed while being both empowered and relatively well paid.
...on and on.
...and the exquisite masochistic pleasures of cultural suicide, and the denied but evident nihilistic accomplishment of destroying the future for your offspring, while feeling superior to the lesser enlightened.
Yes, "liberalism" is indeed a mental disorder, involving the lifelong acting out of unresolved problems with parental, religious, and authority figures.
...as well as the sheer ease of going along with the impulse to simply carry on, sheep like, with whatever is happening.
Ignorance is bliss.
Greetings y'all, far and near.
Thank you Wretchard for another interesting post.
The kurrent kerfuffel in France can be seen two ways: conquest or surrender, but which is which? Are the French surrendering to the "got nothing to loose" Islamees? Or has the die been cast by the parents of these "youths" when they decided to leave Islamidom and move to France? And all we are seeing is the two getting comfortable with this transition to secular/pagan France accompanied by some regrettable incidents; foo foo foo. And the bobos as usual don't get it and who cares besides Finklekraut.(That name is precious.)
Secular is just the modern term for Pagan. Paganism has reemerged with a vengeance. It is not a pretty sight.Pagan means worldly wise.The Bible locates the center of Paganism in the ancient Roman Empire. From Rome this "spirit" conquered the world. All the tin pot dictators around the world are little Caesars: whatever it takes to be on top. Wild Bill Clinton is a classic indiginous example.
(America is different. The question is can it remain.Can it survive the bloody Clintons and the Kennedys et al.)
Therefore inasmuch as Islam is a Pagan/worldly wise religion and the dominant culture of "secular" La Belle France is the same they should be as happy as peas in a pod. Of course they are not. There is no honor among thieves. And if history is any indicator these two particular pagan cultures do not mix very well. So long as one or the other has the upper hand they can relate but once there is any question as to who is the stronger they bloody one another.
If the French are wise they will either imprison or kill or deport the ringleaders and all those who follow them will leave France and the remainder will become Catholics.
Here in America we need to hold the Judeo/Christian line: stop murdering the innocents in the womb, realize there is no evidence for evolution and laugh at "Sir" Elton John getting married to another man. This will do more to stabilize France than marching armies in the Levant.
Happy Thanksgiving one and all.
I'm with Desert Rat regarding France...
It is the comming organized and guided Phase II that is of most interest.
How can the leadership of the militant Islamic movement miss this weakness. And this opportunity.
To create a new nation within a nation. To grow and nurture within your adversaries midst. To use their society to implement yours.
I don't think I'll be spending much time in France for the forseable future.
Weakness is provocative.
Only a country well practiced at grabbing their ankles would invite/allow/encourage this kind of open disrespect for the things that made this country great:
The meddling starts with Mexico's comic book-style guide to breaching the border safely and evading detection once across.
Mexican consuls routinely denounce U.S. law enforcement efforts against illegal immigration as biased and inhumane.
Back in Mexico, politicians blast any hint that U.S. legislators might obstruct illegals' free pass.
In May, the U.S. Congress passed the Real ID Act, which rendered driver's licenses issued to illegal aliens inadmissible for aircraft boarding and at other federal security checkpoints. Then-Mexican Interior Minister Santiago Creel lashed out. The law, he said, is "absurd; it is not understandable in light of any criteria."
The gall of Mexican officials goes further. After pressing us to educate Mexico's citizens, give them food stamps, deliver their babies, provide them with hospital beds and police their neighborhoods, the Mexican government also expects us to help preserve their loyalty — to Mexico.
The Mexican sixth-grade history book celebrates the troops who fought the Americans during the Mexican-American War. But "all the sacrifices and heroism of the Mexican people were useless," recounts the chronicle. The "Mexican people saw the enemy flag wave at the National Palace." The war's consequences were "disastrous," notes the primer: "To end the occupation, Mexico was obligated to sign the treaty of Guadaloupe-Hidalgo," by which the country lost half its territory to the U.S.
But a student in the U.S. could easily find himself confused about his allegiances. Is his country Mexico or the U.S.? Study exercises that include discovering "what happened to your territory when the U.S. invaded" don't clarify things. The textbook concludes by celebrating Mexican patriotic symbols: the flag, the currency and the national anthem.
The Bush administration winks at such Mexican intrusions with the same insouciance with which it refuses to enforce the immigration laws. The result: an immigration policy that often appears to emanate as much from Mexico City as from Washington.
Gabriel Gonzalez,
When the question is asked 'when did another nation emerge within France' the answer might be 'at the moment when white Frenchmen refused to accept immigrants as their equals'. And those who understand that's the situation shouldn't have the slightest desire to move to France, not because they hate it, but because they accept it for what it is. Many nations are as 'racist' as France, except that they don't pretend to be anything else. Few go to Japan with the expectation of becoming Japanese. And as I pointed out elsewhere, nearly half the workforce of Saudi Arabia is foreign without the slightest hope of ever becoming one of the Saudi tribes.
The Left uniquely holds out the visiion of a multicultural society while making it in practice impossible to achieve. And it talks out of both sides of its mouth on a variety of subjects. It demands peace without allowing resistance to aggression; it wants environmental cleanliness and advocates the most wasteful economic models in the next sentence. It promises social security for the aged and offers abortions to the young. So why, in the roots of this riot, should Left play no part?
Come right down to it, the proof that the Left is part of the problem is the observation that it can never be solved while its prescriptions are followed.
Wretchard notes,
"the answer might be 'at the moment when white Frenchmen refused to accept immigrants as their equals'."
---
In this country, the malicious effects of the paternalistic attitude of liberals toward "minorities" become ever more apparent.
Using multiculturalism as cover for their programs failings, they continue to contribute to the failures of blacks and others who buy into, or are in some way trapped on the liberal plantation.
On another blog there is currently a post relating to the failure of No Child Left Behind in terms of spending precious resources on unmotivated students at the expense of more gifted or motivated students.
The writer's opinion is that you can't expect improved results despite improvements on the teaching side when students aren't motivated.
Any number of Black Conservatives educated in an earlier time know this is poppycock.
At the schools they attended, unmotivated students weren't cajoled into doing their work:
It was simply DEMANDED of them!
Most students benefited, and those that refused to co-operate were simply removed.
Entertainment venues regularly show a variety of blacks of questionable character, but don't expect to see a conversation between Dr. Walter Williams and his good friend, Dr. Thomas Sowell on Ophra!
Liberals act like such men lost their status as minorities for not being dependent on the Govt's Largess, not to mention openly discussing things from a conservative pov.
The nearly complete blackout on Justice Clarence Thomas is stunning, but predictable.
In Singapore, the government imposes racial quotas in housing estates to ensure that integration happens rather than hoping for it to happen naturally.
It's coercive, it's quite forceful, but our leaders don't offer apologies and state that it's for our own good. They probably reasoned that if we were angry enough, we could always vote them out, and the fact that it didn't happen meant that we just weren't that worked up about it.
And they're right. They almost always are. A multi-cultural society run by engineers. Ideology doesn't enter into the equation. Doesn't matter if it's an idea from the right or the left. If it works, take it. If it doesn't, toss it. Theories and ideas are fine, but they don't matter. Results do. If something works, we take it.
Evolution? Great stuff. We're hoping to pull in more genetists and bio-engineers. If people like sparks_fly don't want 'em due to their support for a 'hackneyed' theory like evolution, we'll take them, and the fruits and money from their work. Abortion? Tough choice, but necessary. If Christians and Catholics don't support it, they can live by it themselves, but they can't force others into their narrow set of beliefs.
We laugh at the French!(and we did) Multi-culturalism can work. You just have to know which buttons to push and when to push them. And have leaders with balls and the brains to push them.
"The Sky is Falling! The Sky is Falling!"
Shops will be rebuilt. Cars will be replaced. Societal and governmental attitudes will change. Cultures ebb, flow, and adjust.
Violence and upheaval is prevalent throughout the history of countries that subject themselves to the chaos of modern democracy. Its how we adjust and change. It’s painful, but it’s a good thing. When the status quo becomes untenable to a portion of a free society, the “ugly beauty of a free civilization” is that it has mechanisms that “shakes the rug,” and causes transformation.
I hear a lot of American pundits smugly pointing at France and almost gleefully proclaiming, “See!” They ignore that our own past overflows with riots and demonstrations. WE survive it, we change and become the better for it, and France will to.
There are places in the world where the status quo is not allowed to change. There are no safety valves. Those countries lack liberty and the people who suffer under those systems find ways to get to free countries—like the United States and France—WHERE CHANGE IS POSSIBLE.
Calm down Henny, they’ll work it out.
"So, it's OK if your daughter marries a Muhammedan?"
My head of department's a muslim malay, and he married a chinese wife. Apparently her parents thought it was ok.
But then again, he's not a hardline muslim, and his wife is the epitome of the modern working woman with children.
So I think it depends on what sort of Muslim the guy is.
French philosopher Alain Finkielkraut apologizes after death threats
By Daniel Ben-Simon
Last Update: 27/11/2005 01:33
[...]
Thursday, after receiving death threats, the philosopher decided to respond and repent. In an extensive interview in Le Monde yesterday, he said he "despised" the man who appeared in the article (in Le Monde). "He is he and I am I. To my shock, since Wednesday, it appears that he and I share the same name."
Finkielkraut, who went out of his way to praise the immigrants, said his original statements had been an attempt to force the political echelon to take responsibility for what was happening in the poor suburbs. "Integration is our obligation," he said.
Following the apology, lawsuits and police complaints were dropped. But even after his apology, one Jewish organization condemned Finkielkraut, calling him the pyromaniac of the Jewish community.
Yeo,
Good to find out you're in Singapore.
The place fascinates me.
Needless to say, the demographics of your city vary immensely from those of the folks being discussed in France.
Both the French and the Immigrants! imo.
Don't the people of Singapore mostly have:
Strong Work Ethics
Strong Cultural/Familial Ties
High Educational Levels
Optimistic Attitudes
etc etc ?
Quite Dynamic and Prosperous, compared w/France in decline.
What I enjoy about the young people's blogs that I have read their is their outspokenness on subjects that are sometimes taboo here.
The ones I've seen openly discuss their prejudices and feelings about prejudiced people, and "others" in general.
They also seem to have a healthy cynicism about some of the Governments Edicts which look great in the abstract, but per usual, reality intervenes.
dfp,
Maybe Larry Summers of Harvard can consul Finkielkraut on the dangers of too much free speech!
The meanings of Multicultural in Singapore vs France are impossible to reconcile, far as I can tell.
(Unless you're Kevin:
All things are possible when you exclude reality.)
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