tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16821859.post114772487036293247..comments2024-03-26T16:03:42.608-06:00Comments on Flares into Darkness: Paul Belien of The Brussels Journal is also under attackambisinistralhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03836786826294202405noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16821859.post-1147733824274926802006-05-15T16:57:00.000-06:002006-05-15T16:57:00.000-06:00Multiculturalism is a tough ideology to peg down a...Multiculturalism is a tough ideology to peg down and I'm not sure I've done it in the comment above; on the one hand, we are told by the multiculturalists to celebrate differences, but on the other it's clear we are not to make too much of them, that they are not to be the basis for any form of preference or exclusion; the net impact of this contradiction is that order and rights, the definitions of truth and heresy, must be imposed from above, and people cannot rule themselves in local democracies. <BR/><BR/>And this fits the European temperament to some extent. It fits the patronizing elitism of those who identify with a cosmopolitan culture more than with their "provincial" nations. But the provinces also have their heros who sometimes get the political upper hand. What I guess I am saying is that the Euro temperament could take Europe in many directions; the one in which it should go is the one that promises the greatest degree of freedom for people. And it seems to me that a world order in which strong independent nations negotiate the terms and business proper to the world scene, and when that scene must give way to the business proper to national and local scenes, promises the greatest freedom. It is better to have scenes within scenes that to seek purification and just one world scene. Multiple scenes contain differences and conflicts. Trying to include everyone equally in one cosmopolitan scene is a recipe for chaos and unbounded, senseless conflict and violence.truepeershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16401984575637492845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16821859.post-1147732159370168992006-05-15T16:29:00.000-06:002006-05-15T16:29:00.000-06:00on the political and certain cultural levels we sh...<I>on the political and certain cultural levels we should be talking about integrating immigrants into renewed national "races", and not denying our differences, which only leads to confused nihilism.</I><BR/><BR/>Oh, I agree. But when membership in a country depends only on blood and race then there is little hope for integration. Especially when the whole problem is denied. I think Europe has bitten off far more than it can digest; the problem is both in the number of immigrants and the traditional insularity of the European nations. The EU elites wave the magic wand of moral purity and good intentions, but the problem remains. Someone needed to make a more realistic evaluation of the European temperament.chuckhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15164145672293455823noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16821859.post-1147731718097763532006-05-15T16:21:00.000-06:002006-05-15T16:21:00.000-06:00Chuck, yes, the current Vlaams Belang party is the...Chuck, yes, the current Vlaams Belang party is the reborn version of the party they banned. <BR/><BR/>I have no doubt there is a lot of racism in Belgium and elsewhere in Europe, much of which we would condemn. But the denial of race as part of a given human reality - especially the denial of the need for the cultural particularisms and political or social boundaries by which, among other things, a racial connotation has been ascribed to particular populations and to the national identities that are today condemned because they have had historically some such racial connotation, is equally dangerous. It is the road to the death of self-ruling peoples and towards a new era of elitist one-world imperialism.<BR/><BR/>While globalization is inevitable and necessary at the economic and, to a lesser extent, cultural levels, at the political and at certain cultural levels, we should be talking about integrating immigrants into renewed national "races", and not denying our differences, which only leads to confused nihilism. A young person can only model his life on models that are bounded, part of specific, historical traditions, and not on what is common to humanity as a whole. One might, without much evidence, speculate that the failure to provide such models was part of this Belgian school's failings. People who over-react to things like smoking (if this was truly the sole reason for his expulsion) tend to be people who would purify the world in other matters and leave little of the civilized haze in which us fallen creatures are able to recognize and make proper use of our differences, and choose our own boundaries with which to live.truepeershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16401984575637492845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16821859.post-1147726413576036662006-05-15T14:53:00.000-06:002006-05-15T14:53:00.000-06:00Hasn't Belgium already outlawed one party on the ...Hasn't Belgium already outlawed one party on the grounds of racism? The country sounds thoroughly screwed up what with three factions competing for power: Muslims, Flemings, and Walloons; all sorts of underhanded politics results. As to Hans Van Themsche going postal, it wouldn't surprise me if he had heard racist remarks at home, folks tell me that the amount of acceptable racism in such places as France, Germany, and Switzerland is shocking to an American. Then again, we may just be getting a fortaste of a developing European youth movement reacting to the breakdown of European culture. The Belgian government is probably mistaken if they think they are holding the reins of history.chuckhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15164145672293455823noreply@blogger.com