The “new society” that the elite unhesitatingly embraces
Dan R. writes:
It appears that Mark Steyn has something in common with Angela Merkel (“Merkel tells Germans to accept the Islamization of Germany”): both agree that the Islamification of Europe is inevitable. What a great conservative, that Steyn, but one might assume that, unlike Merkel, he does not see it as something positive, if that’s any consolation. The posts about Steyn and Merkel reminded me of an interview I heard on September 15 on WJR (Detroit) radio with former prime minister Tony Blair, conducted by Paul W. Smith. It reminded me that the attitude of Western elites is to accept unquestioningly our “new society,” the consolation for them being self-congratulations on their tolerance and general wonderfulness.
Paul W. Smith is the leading personality on WJR and an occasional guest host for Rush Limbaugh (Detroiter Debbie Schlussel calls him a “faux conservative”). Blair now runs a foundation, described as trying to help peoples of the world’s different religions live peacefully alongside each other. Smith, after getting up in arms about Pastor Terry Jones, otherwise nodded along with Blair’s response about problems with Islam, not asking any follow-up questions, and at that moment it dawned on me that both Smith and Blair unquestioningly accept the idea that the West is now a multicultural society, along with open immigration that is the unspoken source of, again, our “new society.” Separationism? The furthest thing from their minds! Steyn, despite objections he may have, otherwise blithely accepts this inevitability, and you’ve been the only one to puncture that balloon. It’s worth listening to the actual podcast, to hear the passion in their voices which is not conveyed by a transcript, but here’s my transcript of this portion of the interview, which begins at about 4:15:
Smith: … One of the things you did was you founded the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, which promotes respect and understanding between the major religions and makes the case for faith as a force for good in the modern world … you must have been a bit perplexed on some of the things happening on this side of the pond, most recently with all of the concern about building a mosque within a few blocks of Ground Zero, and for that matter this crazy guy who got worldwide attention—a nobody!—who as one of our writers, Nolan Finlay, wrote, “put down his snakes long enough to pick up his matches to threaten to burn a Koran.” That must have got your attention.
Blair: It certainly did, and—it’s extraordinary though, how this is happening right around the world now, so obviously here—and your focus has been on the Koran, the issue to do with the center in NY and so on—but in Europe at the moment you’ve got major issues in France about whether it should be lawful or not for them to wear the burqa. You’ve got major, major issues to do with Islam and the rest of the world which are gripping several European countries at the moment. So it’s … one of the reasons why I started this foundation is that I think the key to today’s world is can people of different faiths live alongside each other, co-exist peacefully, or are we actually about to embark on an era where there’s conflict between people of different faiths?
[end of transcript]
LA replies:
Liberals basically have two ideas in their head: how to end poverty and inequality, and how to encourage tolerance and co-existence among different peoples. Those two ideas are almost the sum total of their mental life. Yet, amazingly, they are not bored by their incredibly stunted mental life—not at all! These two ideas have for them the ever-renewed allure of spiritual truth. So even though every prominent person in the Western world and his brother have formed a foundation to foster toleration among peoples, Blair doesn’t feel his idea is old-hat. To him it’s deeply exciting.
Paul K. writes:
This fatuous exchange reminds me of an interview I recently heard with the egregious Christopher Hitchens. Asked to name a political figure he truly admires, he paused for a moment, thought deeply, and said, “Tony Blair.”
And I had thought my expectations of Hitchens were already at the lowest possible setting.
LA replies:
Well, it makes sense. Blair, like Hitchens, is a man of the left who went against his tribe and supported Bush’s Iraq policy, yet continued in all other ways to be a lefist.
Posted by Lawrence Auster at September 26, 2010 04:13 PM | Send