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Title: The Utter Normality Of Ethnonationalism—Except For Whites
Source:
Vdare
URL Source: http://www.vdare.com/macdonald/080327_muller.htm
Published: Mar 27, 2008
Author: Kevin MacDonald
Post Date: 2008-04-02 12:49:06 by Tauzero
Keywords: None
Views: 228
Comments: 9
Jerry Z. Muller’s Foreign Affairs article, Us and Them: The Enduring Power of Ethnic Nationalism (March/April, 2008), is a grim and timely reminder of the power of ethnicity in human affairs. It has explosive implications for the future of the United States and the West. Muller demonstrates that, over the last 150 years or so, the general trend in Europe and elsewhere has been has been toward the creation of ethnically-based states—“ethnostates”. This trend did not end with the close of World War II. In Europe, the war was followed by a forced resettlement of peoples—mainly Germans—to create ethnically homogeneous states. Indeed, the high point of ethnic homogenization in Europe was in the two generations in the immediate aftermath of World War II. Muller writes: This point is crucial. While the recent spreading of the European Union imperium has given rise to a great deal of “post-nation” rhetoric, it has in fact been accompanied by an astonishing multiplication of ethnostates, split out of Yugoslavia and the former USSR — not to mention, of course, the Czech/Slovak division Ethnic conflict is apparent as well throughout the developing world, and will likely lead to more partitioning and nation-creation. As Muller notes: “In areas where that separation has not yet occurred, politics is apt to remain ugly”. But a huge anomaly has arisen. Recently, Western societies have embarked on a public policy project in which the ethno nationalism of white people is officially proscribed as an unadulterated evil. Multiculturalism only is encouraged and viewed as morally superior. As Muller notes: “Americans … find ethnonationalism discomfiting both intellectually and morally”. As a social scientist who takes the biological component of ethnicity seriously (although I readily agree that there is a cultural component as well), I can speak from personal experience about the hostility and moral disdain one faces from other academic social scientists when one points to these unfashionable facts. Although World War II marked the defeat of the ethnonationalist National Socialist movement, Muller is clearly correct that it resulted in a Europe that was more accurately divided into ethnostates than ever. But World War II also saw the triumph of the political and cultural Left. These two cultural facts have been at odds ever since. German National Socialists remain the bogeyman of the political and cultural Left to this day. The Left is utterly dedicated to eradicating any vestiges of European ethnonationalism. Opponents of immigration are routinely labeled “racists” or “Nazis” for advocating policies that are, in fact, the norm in the rest of the world. Thus Israel favors Jewish immigrants, Spain favors people from its former Latin American Empire, India its “Non-Resident Indians” (NRIs), China favors the Overseas Chinese. As Muller notes: “In a global context, it is the [Western] insistence on universalist criteria [for immigration] that seems provincial.” And, Muller points out, the anomaly whereby Western nations have sought to turn their backs on ethnic homogeneity is quite modern: In attempting to account for this trend in opposition to ethnonationalism in Western societies, my own writing has emphasized the triumph of the Left and particularly the role of some Jewish intellectual and political movements and certain elements of the organized Jewish community as the vanguard of the left and the most important force in passage of the 1965 immigration law (PDF). As Muller’s essay observes, Jews were major victims of the ethnonationalism of others. Anti-Semitism was a general force throughout Eastern and Central Europe, culminating in the slaughters of World War II. And Muller notes that a prime motivation was that Jews dominated areas of the economy and segments of the social class structure to which others aspired—a principal theme of my book Separation and Its Discontents. This history of loss as a result of others’ ethnonationalism doubtless goes a long way toward explaining the main thrust of Jewish intellectual and political movements in the 20th Century—a principal theme of my book The Culture of Critique. For example, the Jewish opposition to immigration policies favoring the European majority of the US dates back to before the immigration cut-off of the 1920s and spans the entire mainstream Jewish political spectrum, from the far left to the neoconservative right, to this day. However, Jewish opposition to the ethnonationalism of Europeans and European-derived peoples is in remarkable contrast to their unswerving support for the Jewish ethnonationalist state of Israel — a rather glaring double standard, to say the least. There is a rather straightforward analogy of Jews as victims of nascent ethnonationalism in Europe and Palestinians as victims of nascent Jewish ethno nationalism in Israel. (And ex-President Carter, in his recent Peace Not Apartheid, triggered much hysteria by noting the similarities between the policing techniques of Israel and the Afrikaner ethnonationalist state of pre-1990 South Africa.) As Muller notes: “Social scientists go to great lengths to demonstrate that [ethnonationalism] is a product not of nature but of culture, often deliberately constructed. And ethicists scorn value systems based on narrow group identities rather than cosmopolitanism. But none of this will make ethnonationalism go away.” (My emphasis –KM) Indeed, a mainstay of the intellectual left since Franz Boas and his disciples came to dominate academic anthropology beginning in the 1920s has been a rejection of any theories that allow for biological influences on culture. A corollary is that different peoples and different cultures do not, therefore, have legitimate, biologically-based conflicts of interest. But the data are quite clear: There are genetic distances between different peoples and different peoples therefore have legitimate conflicts of interest. And: there are deep psychological roots to ethnocentrism that make us attracted to and more trusting of genetically similar others. (PDF) These biological realities will not simply disappear, no matter how fervently social scientists and other political and cultural elites wish they would. But that does not mean that these realities cannot be repressed—at least temporarily. The response of the Left has been to entrench a culture of “political correctness” in which expressions of ethnocentrism by Europeans are proscribed. Organizations such as the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League seek draconian penalties against such expressions by Europeans—and only Europeans. Many European countries and Canada have savage legal penalties that enforce intellectual conformity on these issues. In America the sanctions are more informal—but nevertheless similarly effective. Whatever the drawbacks to ethnic nationalism (and the most obvious is the bloodshed that sometimes accompanies the creation of ethnostates), it has at least three overriding advantages expressed or implied by Muller: Political correctness in the West cannot be maintained without constantly ratcheting up the social controls on individual thought and behavior. Western societies will experience increased ethnic conflict. Their governments will increasingly be obliged to enact draconian penalties for deviations from political correctness. And probably also to “correct” ethnic imbalances in social status and political power—much as the Hapsburg and Ottoman empires of old were forced in their declining years to constantly bargain with rising ethnic pressure groups. Democracy, representative government, and freedom will be likely casualties. Finally, Muller’s essay is interesting in that it highlights how normal ethno national strivings are, even among Europeans. In a very short period, Europe and European-derived societies, which had achieved an unprecedented level of ethnic homogeneity following World War II, have developed a stifling political correctness, in which any tiny vestige of ethnocentrism on the part of Europeans is crushed with all the power the ruling elites can muster. This is taking place while the rest of the world continues to undergo modernization via the creation of ethno states. Muller’s essay makes one realize that this multicultural fad really may be just a phase—and a backwardly echoing phase at that, recalling the failed multicultural empires of the pre-modern era. The climate of anti-ethnocentrism in the West is utterly anomalous, and set against the rest of the world. In my own writing, I have emphasized biologically-based European tendencies toward individualism and relative lack of ethnocentrism as flaws that have predisposed European whites to these tactical blunders. And I have emphasized how political correctness works at the psychological level (PDF) to suppress the legitimate ethnic aspirations of Europeans. However, Muller’s essay reminds us that Europeans have a long history of ethnic conflict. Ethnic nationalism was a precondition of European modernization. It also reminds us that, whatever their tendencies toward individualism, Europeans certainly also have sufficient levels of ethnocentrism to assert their interests and to establish ethnically homogeneous states of their own. As Muller points out, though, the process can be ugly. Just ask the Israelis—and the Palestinians. Finally, as Muller notes, ethnic homogeneity is compatible with—perhaps conducive to—liberal democracy. At a theoretical level, this is because ethnic conflict produces deep, frequently irreconcilable divisions within a society and ultimately, causes group-based competition for resources and political power. These can be very hard to mediate. The difficulty of establishing democracy and the rule of law in societies divided by ethnic conflict is a major theme of the contemporary world. So is the campaign to bully European-stock whites, alone of all the world’s groups, to forswear ethnocentric politics and consequently to fatally disable themselves in an unchangingly ethnocentric world.
The Utter Normality Of Ethnonationalism—Except For Whites
By Kevin MacDonald “As a result of this massive process of ethnic unmixing, the ethnonationalist ideal was largely realized: for the most part, each nation in Europe had its own state, and each state was made up almost exclusively of a single ethnic nationality. During the Cold War, the few exceptions to this rule included Czechoslovakia, the Soviet Union, and Yugoslavia. But these countries' subsequent fate only demonstrated the ongoing vitality of ethnonationalism.”
“The ethnonationalist view has traditionally dominated through much of Europe and has held its own even in the United States until recently. For substantial stretches of U.S. history, it was believed that only the people of English origin, or those who were Protestant, or white, or hailed from northern Europe were real Americans. It was only in 1965 that the reform of U.S. immigration law abolished the system of national-origin quotas that had been in place for several decades. This system had excluded Asians entirely and radically restricted immigration from southern and eastern Europe.”
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#1. To: Tauzero (#0)
The NWO goal is to remove all those with strong nationalist ideals. That's why the NWO is out to get Putin & Chavez. It's not about ethnicity, it's about Nationalism of any kind getting in the way of the NWO's plans.
'Individuals should not take responsibility for their own defense. That’s what the police are for. ... If I oppose individuals defending themselves, I have to support police defending them. I have to support a police state.”' Alan Dershowitz
There are then three larger obstacles for them to overcome. All three are extremely nationalistic and make up a good chunk of population as well as economic prowess. So....what's the plan to deal with them? Haven't seen one yet.
America is not at war. The military is at war. America is at the mall and the Congress is out to lunch.
Thanks, I forgot about them, I don't know how.
'Individuals should not take responsibility for their own defense. That’s what the police are for. ... If I oppose individuals defending themselves, I have to support police defending them. I have to support a police state.”' Alan Dershowitz
No worries. With a lot of this stuff, cynicism and skepticism calls me to look for holes; these are some pretty big holes. Additionally, the Scots and Welsh are standing up and screaming. The English are busily trying to placate them. Belgium is falling apart as well. Odd how Brussels is the EU capital and yet the country is looking to cut itself in half. We shall see how this works out. Northern Ireland will be resolved demographically in the next 50 years. Catholics are now more numerous than Protestants and actually reproduce. It will be interesting to see how all of this works out; there are more wrinkles in an NWO plan than I personally can see solutions for, thus, I remain skeptical and cynical and recommend skepticism and cynicism. If you can see a hole in it, chances are there is one. Will it derail things? Maybe, maybe not, but its still a hole. The larger the hole, the longer it takes to smooth over. In an "NWO vs Tribalism" battle, I'll put my money on tribalism for at least the next decade.
America is not at war. The military is at war. America is at the mall and the Congress is out to lunch.
I didn't know about the Welsh but I'm aware of the recent success of the Scots.
'Individuals should not take responsibility for their own defense. That’s what the police are for. ... If I oppose individuals defending themselves, I have to support police defending them. I have to support a police state.”' Alan Dershowitz
The Globalists I'm afraid are preparing to liquidate much of the planet's population...the population controllers have their machine in place.
As is the case with Iran, their banking systems don't fit the NWO model either.
We will have to wait and see what happens. Unfortunately, they're not advertising very well.
America is not at war. The military is at war. America is at the mall and the Congress is out to lunch.
I'm getting an eyeful/earful of "DIVERSITY IS OUR STRENGTH!!!" at the local community college this semester. An overwhelming white majority is being marginalized while our tuition dollars fund every ethnic group EXCEPT the white majority. I puke every time I look at a bulletin board on campus.
"If the Union was formed by the accession of States, then the Union may be dissolved by the secession of States." ---Daniel Webster, US Senate, Feb. 15, 1833
#2. To: robin (#1)
it's about Nationalism
#3. To: mirage (#2)
#4. To: robin (#3)
#5. To: mirage (#4)
the Scots and Welsh
#6. To: mirage (#4)
What North American Union? STOP the North American Union!
~~~~~> Have you seen THIS yet? TIME IS RUNNING OUT!
#7. To: robin (#1)
The NWO goal is to remove all those with strong nationalist ideals. That's why the NWO is out to get Putin & Chavez. It's not about ethnicity, it's about Nationalism of any kind getting in the way of the NWO's plans.
#8. To: FOH (#6)
The Globalists I'm afraid are preparing to liquidate much of the planet's population...the population controllers have their machine in place.
#9. To: Tauzero (#0)
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