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The irresistible self-degradation of liberal society
Politicians and immigration advocates keep repeating self-importantly that America “honors its immigrant heritage.” Indeed, for many Americans immigration is the very center of what America means, our highest ideal and achievement as a nation. Yet in the last few years, and especially in the aftermath of the vast illegal alien demonstrations around the country this month, liberal America has begun routinely referring to illegal aliens as “immigrants.” The word immigrant—this sacred word, this shining symbol of all this is good and great about America—has been redefined by its own liberal devotees to mean a lawbreaker. Why would people who honor the immigrant heritage want to degrade the concept of immigration into the act of sneaking across the border into America, evading the law, remaining here illegally and in contempt of the laws of the United States? Why would they trash their own highest value? The answer lies in the nature and dynamics of modern liberalism. Modern liberalism has redefined America as a system that has no other function than the protection of individual rights and the fulfillment of individual desires. The redefinition has emptied America of its concrete historical content as a nation, a culture, and a way of life. The emptied-out society can thus no longer serve as a source of cultural and moral standards, and can impose no limits on the reach of desire and the demand for rights. In a traditional state of society, rights get their meaning and validation from the culture and the moral values of the actual society. But if the culture and its traditional values are removed, leaving only the rights, the rights are no longer validated—or constrained—by anything outside themselves.
This has directly affected the way people feel about immigration. In former times, immigration got its special value and respect from the fact that there was an actual, esteemed society, with its history, language, political principles, and myriad other qualities, that the immigrant was joining. It was the existence of the nation that made the act of becoming a citizen of that nation meaningful. But by deconstructing the nation, liberalism has removed the source of the value that was once bestowed on the process of immigration and naturalization. Immigration no longer derives its sanction from the (now spiritually defunct) nation that the immigrant is joining; it derives its sanction from its own ontological status as an assertion of individual will and desire, which now includes an aggressive claim of rights. Further, just as there is no longer a larger society to give meaning to the act of immigration, there is no longer a society to give meaning to, or enforce, the rule of law. Allegiance to the rule of law, that quintessential liberal attitude, is cast aside to make possible the fulfillment of more and more desires and the granting of more and more rights, in particular rights for illegal aliens. So all that’s left of immigration is the act of choosing to come to America, regardless of whether one comes legally or illegally. Moreover, since the identity, institutions and laws of the United States are now of such little value, illegal immigration in defiance of the laws of the U.S. is now seen as a truer fulfillment of the immigrant ideal than legal immigration. Email entry |