Why homogeneity is good and excessive diversity is bad

Philip M. writes from England:

There has been an interesting debate on Peter Hitchens’s blog at the Daily Mail following his withering dismissal of the BNP. I compared an ethnic group to a family as a way of trying to get across the importance of lineage etc. After I got some criticism I responded with this comment:

Peter Preston writes:

“The day that people start leaving their front doors open and the police start advising them that there’s no longer any need to lock them is the day I’ll start believing in the tribe as an ‘extended family’.”

I was not trying to argue mono-cultural societies are perfect, or that there would be no crime committed by British people—but at least what there was would be properly punished. Your argument reminds me of the way that left wing people bring up child abuse etc within families when traditionalists defend the family. No-one would suggest the family unit is always perfect, but it is still better than any alternatives. It is also a bulwark against excessive state power—as is a strong, united ethnic group. Does ‘divide and rule’ mean anything to you? This is what multiculturalism is for, what it does. Multi-ethnic societies (e.g. Iraq) lack the trust and unity to challenge tyranny and can be played off against each other by the ruling elite.

Culture manifests itself in thousands of small ways—body language, facial tics, idiomatic use of language, what people will laugh at, when they will raise their voices, how they behave in groups etc, etc. All this means that when you live in a multi-cultural area you are constantly around people who’s body language, voices and languages it is impossible to interpret as friend or foe. As a consequence you are permanently on your guard, unsure of how to interpret the intentions of the many groups you live around. This leads to a constant tension in the streets. This is why an American researcher (Putnam) found there were lower levels of trust and community activity in multi-cultural areas. This is what is inflicting on me on a daily basis, together with all the disgusting manifestations of political correctness (Marxism) and for what? So that people like Peter Hitchens can hold on to a belief that all races MUST live together in one country—a belief which has no biblical or historical basis.

LA replies:

I glanced through this 3,700 word article by the thick-headed Hitchens who imagines himself the ultimate right-winger but who in fact is incurably liberal on race, diversity, and immigration, so much so that he puts vastly more energy into denouncing the BNP, the only party in Britain opposing British suicide, than he does into proposing anything to turn back the Islamic tide. He’s hopeless.

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Hannon writes:

Philip M. put it so well in his summary of some of the little things that allow us to recognize—and maintain—our own groups: “Culture manifests itself in thousands of small ways—body language, facial tics, idiomatic use of language, what people will laugh at, when they will raise their voices, how they behave in groups etc, etc.”

If the level of multiculturalism in the local society is saturated then I think the distrust and awkwardness extends equally to one’s own kind, even if they are or were the predominant, founding culture. In such an environment the peer pressure to accept blindly any member of the citizenry as part of the same seamless polity is quite strong. Strong yet brittle perhaps.

Robert B. writes:

I read through both the recent post and the one it linked to. All I can say is, who cares what these morons think? Neither one disproves anything you have to say. Neither of them has a counter argument. What I found most interesting, though, was his calling you a racial collectivist—excuse me, but isn’t that what Liberation Theology is? Race based communism? Except that, rather than whites caring for themselves as would be the case if you were to actually be a race collectivist, Liberation Theology is all about whites giving up their collective wealth in favor of the world’s non-whites.

The hell with them, Lawrence, they are not smart enough to look the other when they see leftist propaganda staring them in the face. That’s part of my new theory on Western Meltdown syndrome—that those of us who get what’s going on are simply immune to the constant barrage of propaganda the Left spews forth. This obviously includes the MSM. But, as times get harder, my guess is, is that more people will wake up to reality. Want a job? Then force the government to cut off immigration. Want to be able to afford to eat? Then force the government to deport any immigrants on public subsidies.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at February 27, 2009 03:13 PM | Send