"In Praise of Xenophobia"

The way we were

It's been calm seas for more than a week here after some welcome travel and family events, but the winds are blowing again with this, the final installment of my immigration trilogy.

This one comes courtesy of Graybrook. It's a killer, well-researched piece on the subject largely free of the rabid hyperbole and rabble rousing you'll find on other sites...like the one you're reading right now.

"Today’s multiculturalist and xenophoric 'Americans' deny that there is such a thing as a uniquely American world view or at least that there should be such a thing. Yet their unflagging exertions to destroy the 'citadel of our liberty and sovereignty' only prove that it exists or once did..."

Good point. I've always thought it funny that the same people who claim we're merely a changing nation of immigrants without any fixed culture are the same people who take to the street en mass whenever we allegedly try to "impose" it on other cultures via commerce or war.

The essay goes on to outline the differences between our Protestant-based system of government and both Islam and the Latin American mindset.

On the latter:

"..Again, as always, this world view has its basis in religion, and at its heart is the concept of sacerdotalism, a doctrine basic to the Roman Catholicism which has molded Latin American culture. "Sacerdotalism is the establishment of a rigid hierarchy that separates man from God, the interjection of a ‘priestly’ class between man and God, through whom the ‘layman’ must go to reach God" (William A. Simpson). Carlyle viewed this doctrine as the polar opposite of Puritanism.

A sacerdotal mindset gives rise to a polity in which a hierarchical government is the foundation of society. It is predisposed to the maternalism of the socialist state. 'In Latin America, the female runs the household. She educates the children and manages the finances. As a result, the Latin American family is matriarchal. Whereas the father is distant, the mother is ‘linked with love and proximity’ and has a greater influence on the children" (One Hundred Years of Solitude/Cien Anos de Soledad : The Buendía Family).

This is what I was talking about regarding the "strong man" tendencies toward demagoguery and "benevolent" man-of-the-people dictatorship often found in political history south of our borders.

"...This foundational aspect of Latin American culture has vast implications for change as its influence spreads throughout traditional North American culture. It is a foreign element which can elementally altar this nation..."

...if we are to preserve our admirable character as an American nation and culture, we must be vigilant in examining the influences and impulses which may be anathema to our common spirit. For this reason, we may rightly be xenophobic. We must hasten to say that we do not fear foreigners per se. Indeed, we may welcome foreigners who yearn to embrace our founding principles and contribute their own hues to our already colorful national complexion — those immigrants who, in Eric Hoffer’s words, will 'love and cherish it.' "

Be sure to take the time to read this. Link again here.


"We speak only English from now on, mama. We are Americans now. "
--A Tree Grows in Brooklyn