"Multiculturalism" and the West

It is becoming increasingly recognized that the changing demographic caused by large-scale immigration and the declining birthrate among the peoples of the West is challenging the long-term continued existence of Western civilization as we have known it. This challenge is given voice today by the ideology of multiculturalism, which deflates Western culture while exalting the perspective and ways of life of non-European peoples who are coming to live in the West. This article explores the historic forces that provide the larger context for this challenge, the facts about the demographic shift that is occurring, and many (though by no means all) of the nuances and implications of multiculturalist ideology. Key Words: Multiculturalism; Intellectual alienation; Slavery; Colonialism; Globalism; Demographic changes; Immigration; Balkanization; Classical liberalism; Neo-conservatism; Political correctness; Ethnic perspectives. The word multiculturalism had no special ideological connotation until recently. As a name given to an ideology, it has come into existence since the 1960s. In its more strident forms, the ideology expresses a reservoir of alienation against the cultures, ethnicities, religions and mores of Europe and of peoples who derive their origins from Europe (such as those of the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Canada), while championing the perspectives and ways of life of non-European peoples. When expressed less stridently, it praises diversity as a high value and supports the substitution of non-European customs for those that have heretofore prevailed in the West. This is a diversity that is advocated for Western nations, but is not at the same time pressed upon other cultures such as those of China, Japan or Latin America. The ideology does not exist in a vacuum. It is accompanied by, and encourages, a vast demographic shift that is rapidly bringing non-European peoples into the West. This provides the ideology with numbers and on-the-ground realities that give it substance, making it far more than merely academic. Moreover, the ideology has become the conventional wisdom of the world's governing academic, managerial and professional elite. All of these things together make it an almost irresistible force. As Patrick Buchanan argues in The Death of the West, what is at issue is the continued existence of Western civilization.1 The geographical locations now occupied by European peoples will, of course, continue to exist; but the human content of those places will be very different. For those who prefer to speak in terms of race, it is not too much to say that the same forces pose an existential challenge to the Caucasian race, which may cease to be identifiable within the coming century. Our tasks in the present discussion will be to gain some perspective about the historic forces that have come to bear on the present situation, to grasp the fact of demographic swamping, and to explore some of the facets and implications of multiculturalist ideology. Needless to say, much that is pertinent must necessarily be omitted. Historic Forces that Provide the Larger Context 1. The Many Implications of the Alienation of the Modem Intellectual The modern world cannot be understood without taking into account a force that has provided the motive-power for much that has occurred since before the French Revolution: the intense dislike (alienation) that the intellectual subculture of the West (the intelligentsia) has felt toward virtually every aspect of modern Western society. Rousseau captured its scope well in his Discourse on the Origin of Inequality Among Men when he argued that men lived in contented simplicity in a state of nature, but thoroughly messed things up when they entered into civilization. It is not too much to say that, beginning with Rousseau, the social critic has stood outside the predominant civilization voicing dissatisfaction with all its essential features. …

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