The vast emptiness to our north

David Warren writes about the post-Dominion, post-national nothing that Canada has become, thanks to the liberal politicians who deliberately emptied it of all specific content. Commenter number 9 in the Free Republic thread on the article makes some sound points about the necessities of nationhood:

A nation requires a shared culture, and shared loyalties. In simple terms, people have to love and admire one another or there is no nation.

For most countries, this common culture and common regard for one another comes out of common ethnicity and common history.

For a multiethnic country like the US, it comes from a shared set of values, coupled with an ethic that leads people to generally care about one another.

If you purposely turn your back on cultural homogeneity, or if your reality makes that impossible, you must nevertheless have a common set of values that a critical mass of the people ascribe to, which is the basis of their common loyalty. Attack that, abandon that, and you disintegrate as a nation.

If Canada chooses to believe in nothing, the result is disintegration. If the US follows in her path, and fully half the country wants to, the result will be the same. Turn your back on the spiritual basis for your own existence and you will vanish and no one will miss you.

9 posted on 08/02/2005 11:46:56 AM PDT by marron

Posted by Lawrence Auster at August 03, 2005 09:25 AM | Send