That Utter Failure Multiculturalism

In a speech to members of her Christian Democratic Union party in Potsdam on October 16, German Chancellor Angela Merkel drove a stake through the heart of European Utopian fantasies. Referring to the influx of foreign workers to Germany since the 1960s, Merkel said,

“And of course, the approach [to build] a multicultural [society] and to live side-by-side and to enjoy each other… has failed, utterly failed.”

These comments from the Chancellor of the leading country of Europe, with the largest and most robust economy and one of the strongest proponents of EU post-war unity/Utopianism, mark the beginning of the end of multiculturalism and its protector “political correctness.”

With the increasingly intense debate about immigration in Germany and across Europe, specifically regarding Islam, raised by the publication of Thilo Sarrazin’s book, Germany Does Away With Itself, Chancellor Merkel’s comments indicate that a significant shift is rapidly occurring in Germany. Indeed, according to The Australian, Joachim Herrmann, the Interior Minister of Bavaria said the following politically incorrect statement several days before Merkel’s speech:

“There is no reason to integrate Islam into our system of values. Germany does not want to integrate Islam, but to retain its own cultural identity.”

The terror attack alerts of early October that centered around a Muslim terror cell in the German city of Hamburg may be behind this significant reaction to Islam in Germany. The US State Department warning to Americans in Europe issued at that time remains in effect.

Multiculturalism is built upon the concept that all cultures are equivalent. The suggestion that one culture is superior to another (in any respect) is unacceptable. This radicalism of equivalence demands an unnatural self-censorship which is enforced by the anti-intellectual tyranny of political correctness.

The illogic of multiculturalism asserts that since all cultures are equivalent then any criticism of a culture by someone of another cannot be founded in fact and can only be motivated by hatred or bigotry. (The firing of Juan Williams by NPR is a case in point.)

In fact, the Islamic member states of the OIC would have it so that any criticism of Islam will be illegal. While these ideas are antithetical to freedom of speech and contrary to our American Constitution, they are typical of multiculturalism and totalitarianism.

Geert Wilders, a Dutch politician and possibly the next Prime Minister of Holland, is undergoing a ridiculous fraud of a trial in Amsterdam mainly because of his film “Fitna” which criticizes Islam. Wilders has said that the Koran should be banned in Holland and has compared it with Hitler’s Mein Kampf.

On October 15th, the prosecutors in this bizarre, anti-intellectual “trial” stated that they believe that Wilders is not guilty of “incitement” to hatred and requested that all three charges relating to incitement to hatred and religious discrimination be dropped. On October 22nd the panel of judges was dismissed for bias and a new trial ordered. While it is possible that a new trial may not actually occur, there is no assurance whatever that this ridiculous anti-free speech kangaro court will be cancelled. According to the UK Guardian,

Last night (10/21/10), Wilders, who has remained silent throughout the trial, tweeted that Dutch justice was like the mafia.

The fact that such a trial occurred at all should be cause for great concern among all lovers of freedom across the West.

The absurd and profoundly dangerous “trial” against Wilders is fueled in large part by multicultural/totalitarian thinking. It is totalitarian to prevent the criticism of an ideology, worldview, religion, or culture. This is the core of multiculturalism – the embrace of anti-tolerance.

It is a strange upside-down situation in which multiculturalists, who claim that everything they do is to foster tolerance, are themselves the most intolerant of those with differing views. How then did multiculturalism, now acknowledged by the highest political official in Germany as an “utter failure”, apparently morph from supposed total über-tolerance to totalitarian intolerance?

Multiculturalism was never about tolerance though it masqueraded as the only path by which disparate (and often oppositional) groups could live together. It is false to suggest that “multiculturalism” is equivalent to “tolerance.”

The facade of multiculturalism crumbles when a group will not assimilate into a host culture. Ongoing Islamic terrorism and growing Muslim agitation against European host laws, cultures, and systems in favor of the cruel, hatred and violence of Islamic Sharia law are the stones that have finally shattered the empty glass house of multiculturalism.

It is ironic perhaps that Sharia law and its proponents – the most intolerant and cruel “legal system” in the world – should be so tolerated in western democracies. There is nothing whatever democratic or tolerant in Sharia law.

There ought to be no suggestion anywhere that our levels of tolerance for those ideologies that are intolerant are somehow a measure of the quality of our cultures.

Chancellor Merkel’s speech in Potsdam marks a critical moment for the western democracies. We all ought to have the intellectual and moral “spine” to be able to accept, allow, and withstand criticism, and have the skill and knowledge to defend what has been criticized if we believe it worthy of defending. Those who are offended by such criticism and believe that others should not have the right to make statements that they might find “offensive” neither understand nor appreciate the democratic and open character of the societies in which they live.

Merkel’s bold rhetorical offensive against the dangerous absurdity that is multiculturalism comes none too soon and hopefully not too late. The deconstruction and diminishment of our western democracies, societies, and cultures will be the result of an ongoing acceptance of the legitimacy of multiculturalism and political correctness.

Can there be a greater societal self-loathing than that encouraged by the multicultural notion that our democratic, open societies are corrupt failures because some who come to our shores do not like what they see and will not assimilate? The unwillingness of some groups to assimilate tells us nothing about ourselves or our culture but most everything of importance about such newcomers.

Assimilation of immigrants is the foundation of the concept of the American “melting pot” and one of our greatest strengths as a nation. The deconstruction of this concept is the essence of multiculturalism. A society that neither values itself nor its core ideals can survive under the pressure of masses of non-assimilating newcomers.