Monday, September 23, 2013

Ethnicity must Form to Become Exceptional

An example of how the Jewish culture of self-loathing and insecurity is permeating the American culture of self-confidence and satisfaction, can be detected in an article written by David Satter and published in the Wall Street Journal on September 23, 2013. It has the title: “Russia's Anti-American Foreign Policy” and the subtitle: “Putin needs high oil prices and a distraction from his domestic troubles.” Already, you can hear in the “anti-American” of the title an echo of the often repeated anti-Semitism accusation. You can also hear in the subtitle of the article an echo of the Jewish refrain: They hate us because they have problems and they need money.

After an introduction that is nothing more than a cheap diatribe, Satter says something which tells you he does not have the logic of even a child. Here is how that goes: ”Mr. Obama described Mr. Putin as 'sincere, just and deeply interested in the welfare of the Russian people' … The praise was never reciprocated because Russian leaders fear and distrust their own population.” What on earth is he talking about? Is he saying that if, in return, Putin had described Obama as sincere, just and deeply interested in the welfare of the American people, the Russian population will rush forward, serenade Obama and clamor to emigrate to America? What kind of juvenile nonsense is this? Who pays this guy to propagate ideas like these, anyway?

Because you want to assess how much damage an individual like this can cause the culture, you hold your nose and read the rest of the article. When done, you conclude that yes, this mentality could only be of a caliber that doesn't rise above that of a child. You then take a moment to catch your breath and reflect; and you ask yourself what a work like this could do to the sense of exceptionalism that some Americans believe they are endowed with. And this query reminds you of an article that was published a week before, on September 16, 2013 in National Review Online.

That article has the title: “E Pluribus Bonum.” Actually, it is a review written by John Fonte of two books, one of which was written by James C. Bennett and Michael J. Lotus, and the other written by James S. Robbins. The Bennett and Lotus book has the title: “America 3.0: Rebooting American Prosperity in the 21st Century – Why America's Greatest Days Are Yet to Come.” As to the Robbins book, it has the title: “Native Americans: Patriotism, Exceptionalism, and the New American Identity.”

To me, the most interesting point that John Fonte makes about the Bennett and Lotus book is when he quotes them as saying: “Our American culture today is part of a living and evolving organism, spanning centuries.” As to the most interesting point he makes about the Robbins book; it is when he quotes him as saying: “dividing citizens into antagonistic ethnic boxes [leads to] individuals being labeled as members of either a 'victim group' or the 'oppressor class.'” Fonte goes on to say that “Robbins rejects all of this. He argues that we need a definition of American ethnicity that is based on American culture and values.”

And so, if what is forming is an ethnicity that is based on culture when culture itself is viewed as being an evolving organism, a work such as that of David Satter published in a prestigious publication such as the Wall Street Journal, can have a profound effect on society. Indeed, this is how the American sense of feeling exceptional is slowly made to soak in the Jewish schizophrenic sense of being a victimized group wallowing in self-loathing while at the same time facing the accusation of being a member of the class of oppressors.

And so you ask yourself if a way can be found to halt that trend and have it reverse itself. To see how this can be done if at all, we need to do a thought experiment which, in reality, is not too far from how the actual history of this planet has unfolded.

Imagine owning a large piece of real estate that is lightly populated but rich in natural resources and agricultural potential. You put out a notice to the world stating that you seek settlers who would come and help you develop the place. You sit back and watch to see who will respond to the invitation. You find that those who take up the offer will fit into one of two categories of people. There will be those who left behind a war, a famine or an oppressive regime that was gripping the land from which they came. And there will be the adventurers who had grown too large – spiritually if not in materially – to remain in a place that could only hold them back.

The first group will behave like huddled masses happy to work long hours in exchange for the bare necessities of a life they could not have in the old country but missed so badly. The second group will behave like the risk takers who keep trying till they get something done, and done well. What they accomplish may be a small thing or it may be a big thing but will be the sort of thing that will occupy a place in the grand scheme of things. And together, the two groups will have created a society that will project the image of exceptionalism by what it has achieved.

However, if it is true that the tendency exists for people to divide into victims and oppressors as observed by James Robbins, the question remains as to whether or not a society such as that can accomplish exceptional things for too long without deteriorating. And so we must ask: What did actually happen on Planet Earth?

The thing is that the above description applies in Australia and North America (comprising Canada and the United States) only to some extent. It does not apply as well in Central or South America where the indigenous populations were denser and less accommodating; a situation that forced the settlers to mingle with the locals. This created the opportunity for mixed marriages to occur; a development that gave rise to a new ethnicity called Latino. Something like it did not happen in North America where the two groups were kept apart – the natives in reservations, and the immigrants everywhere else. Yes, there has been a number of mixed marriages resulting in a Métis population. But that remained too small to be considered the North American answer to the South American Latino ethnicity.

As to the colonies of Africa and Asia where the indigenous populations were very dense, the description has failed to apply almost everywhere. It is that the locals rejected the invading settlers and fought against them bitterly. The result has been that the settlers were forced to leave in most of the instances, or an accommodation was worked out between the two groups as it happened in South Africa and Zimbabwe. At this time, a new ethnicity seems to be developing in South Africa but things remain unclear in Zimbabwe.

Things remain unclear in America too because the promise that the existing “Melting Pot” was going to create a new American ethnicity is dissolving with the encroachment of a Jewish culture that is permeating it in all of its parts. And so, unless the American people find a way to halt this trend, the long term prospect for America is that of a Balkanized giant that will look exceptional only in the small accomplishments it will score from now on.