{\pwd2\ansi{\*\pwdcomment ************************************************************************ * * This is a Microsoft WordPad document.

* * For further details visit the Microsoft Windows CE web site, at * http://www.microsoft.com/windowsce * Or search MSDN for 'Microsoft WordPad' * ************************************************************************ }\ansicpg1252\deff0\deflang1033{\fonttbl{\f0\froman\fprq2\fcharset0 Times New Ro man;}} {\colortbl ;} \viewkind4\uc1\pard\cf0\b\f0\fs28 The Background of Multiculturalism \par \par \par \par The noted blogger Fjordman is filing this report via Gates of Vienna. \par For a complete Fjordman blogography, see The Fjordman Files. \par \par This post is a continuation of two of Fjordman\rquote s previous posts on Multic ulturalism and \par Political Correctness. \par \par \par I\rquote ve been trying to analyze the roots of Multiculturalism and Political C orrectness. The \par conclusion I\rquote ve come up with so far is that it needs to be understood as a combination of \par forces and influences, different but not mutually exclusive. \par \par One view is that Multiculturalism \ldblquote just happened,\rdblquote an accide ntal result of technological \par globalization. Although global migration pressures and modern communications \pa r definitely contributed, this thesis is, in my view, almost certainly too simplis tic. There is \par mounting evidence that Multiculturalism was deliberately encouraged by various \ par groups. If anything, it is an indirect result of globalization through multinati onal \par corporations and the creation of an international political elite whose mutual l oyalty \par increasingly supersedes national interests. \par \par I\rquote ve heard some commentators say that all the most destructive ideologies of the \par modern era have originated in Europe. But frankly, I\rquote m wondering whether \par Multiculturalism is the one stupid idea that was actually exported from the Unit ed States \par to Europe. Danish writer Lars Hedegaard claims Multiculturalism comes from the \ par United States following the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s. After thinking a bout it, \par I find this to be a plausible explanation. \par \par \page\par

Perhaps \par Multiculturalism \par partly is an anti-\par European \par ideology, with \par the United States \par \par \endash and later \par Canada, Australia \par and New Zealand \endash distancing themselves from their \par European heritage, whereas Europe has distanced \par itself from itself. I noticed on one conservative \par American blog that it was perfectly permissible to \par trash European culture in any way possible, but \par when I carefully asked some questions about whether the cultural impact of massi ve \par Latin American immigration would be exclusively beneficial, I was accused of bei ng \par \ldblquote racist.\rdblquote \par \par Some readers of my essays have suggested that Multiculturalism originated in Can ada. \par Author Claire Berlinski even believes that it was invented in Switzerland. But, with all \par due respect, the impact of Swiss or Canadian cultural influences abroad has been rather \par limited. The United States, however, has exerted powerful cultural influence all over the \par world since WW2, and has been in the position to export such an ideology. \par \par The Civil Rights movement took place against a backdrop of a Western youth rebel lion \par with Marxist influences. Although Multiculturalism may not be directly rooted in \par Marxist teachings, which helps explain why it has received support by some right wingers, \par its anti-Western attitudes and radical Egalitarianism are at least compatible \p ar with ideas of forced equality, and aspects of Multiculturalism are sufficiently similar to \par Marxism to explain why its most ardent supporters are left-wingers, and why Poli tical \par Correctness, the soft-totalitarian form of censorship employed to enforce \par Multiculturalism, is so appealing to them. \par \par If we postulate that Multiculturalism and Political Correctness were initially b orn out of \par a Western loss of cultural confidence, but have since been largely utilized by t he \par Western Left, this would explain why it exists all over the Western world, but s trongest \par in Western Europe, which has had a more powerful Marxist influence and a greater \par historic loss of self-esteem than the USA. It would explain why Eastern European s, who \par have just experienced decades of Marxist indoctrination, are somewhat more resis tant to \par it than are Western Europeans. Eastern Europeans have also been much less expose d to \par the Eurabians of the European Union, who champion Multiculturalism for their own

\par reasons. \par \par The best summary I can come up with thus looks something like this: Multicultura lism \par originated in the United States during the Civil Rights movement in the 60s, whi ch \par triggered a complete re-thinking of American cultural identity in favor of repud iating \par the European aspects of its heritage to transform into a \ldblquote universal\rd blquote nation. \par Multiculturalism was exported to the rest of the Western world through American \par cultural influence, and was picked up by a Western Europe, still with deep emoti onal \par scars following its near self-destruction during two world wars, which was then in the \par process of leaving its colonies and suffered from a post-colonial guilt complex and the \par identity crisis associated with this. \par \par \par \page\par Multiculturalism thus originally had its roots in a \par cultural identity crisis in the West, but it was quickly \par expropriated by groups with their own agendas. This \par period, the 1960s and 70s, was also the birth of the \par Western Cultural Revolution, a hippie youth rebellion \par against the established Western culture and institutions \par that was deeply influenced by Marxist-inspired \par ideologies. The anti-Western component in \par Multiculturalism suited them just fine. Following the \par end of the Cold War in the late 1980s and early 90s, \par when economic Marxism suffered a blow in credibility \par although it didn\rquote t die, larger segments of the Western \par political Left switched to Multiculturalism and mass \par immigration as their political life insurance, and wielded \par the censorship of Political Correctness and \ldblquote anti-racism\rdblquote as an ideological club to beat \par their opponents and continue undermining Western institutions. \par \par On top of the Marxist influences, in Western Europe we had another groups of Eur ofederalists \par and Eurabians, with a different but overlapping goal of breaking down the \par national cultures through the promotion of Multiculturalism in favor of a new, a rtificial \par identity. The process of globalization didn\rquote t create these impulses of We stern self-\par loathing, as indicated by the fact that non-Western countries such as Japan have not \par been overwhelmed by immigration to the same extent as the West, but it reinforce d \par some of them. \par \par Technological globalization has increased migration pressures to unprecedented l evels, \par but it has also enabled a global political and economic elite of individuals, in cluding \par some centrists and right-wingers, who no longer feel any close attachment to the ir \par

countries, but mainly to the international elites who provide them with career \ par opportunities. \par \par These centrists, rightists and Big Business supporters may not be as actively ho stile to \par Western culture as some left-wingers are, but they don\rquote t do anything to u phold it, either, \par and use Multiculturalism to hide the fact that they have lost or abandoned contr ol over \par national borders. Globalization has thus simultaneously created more migration a nd less \par political will to control migration. \par \par The combination of all of these factors, in addition to the resurgence of a glob al Islamic \par Jihad, is gradually creating a demographic and democratic crisis in the West. Ma ny \par Westerners sense that their media and their politicians are no longer listening to them, \par and they are perfectly correct. Those who feel a loyalty to their culture and th eir nation \par states feel betrayed, because they are. \par \par \page\par \par }