LIBERAL ARTSrnFraud and deception among society’s heroes draw attention torncontradictions and inconsistencies in its value systems. BecausernAmerican culture applauds entrepreneurship, independence,rnand ambition, for example, scientists have been encouragedrnto develop iirdependent imaginations and innovativernresearch, to engage in intense competition, to strive for success.rnIronically, Americans also want their whitecoated heroes to bernhumble and generous in success, to share credit where credit isrndue, not to steal credit falsely. The discover}’ that a scientist hasrncalmly and rationally cheated, lied, and deceived his colleaguesrnand the public contradicts the common image of how scieirtistsrnshould act. It also creates doubt about the reliabilit}’ of scientificrnadvice—a disturbing uncertainty in a world where that advicernis so pervasive.rn—Marcel C. LaFoUette, “The Politics of Scientific Fraud,”rnSeptember 1993rnNATIONALISMrnOne of the things that has blurred the bitter, present-day reali-rnHes of French society and politics has been the stupid habit ofrncalling Jean-Marie Le Pen’s National Front a “right-wing” party.rnIn strict fact, the National Front, which is now in numericalrnterms France’s leading workers’ party, is no more a “right-wing”rnpart}’ than was Adolf Hitler’s NSDAP—the National-Sozialistische-rnDeutsche-Arbeiter-Partei—which to the very end of thernThird Reich proudly advertised itself as both a “socialist” and arn”workers’ party” in order to emphasize its popularity with the laboringrnmasses of Germany. The reason why French workingrnmen and women have been abandoning the traditional partiesrnof the so-called “left” and flocking to the National Front inrndroves is because they are fed up with the shopworn rhetoric ofrn”Libert)-, Et[ualit}’, Fraternity,” which has no relevance today tornthe conditions of everyday life in their once-tianquil suburbs.rn—from Curtis Gate, “The Revolt of the French Masses:rnThe Smoldering Fires of Immigration,” ]uly J 997rnPatriotism grows from a sense of belonging to a particular country;rnit is confident rather than self-conscious; it is essentially defensive.rnNationalism is self-conscious rather than confident; itrnis aggressive, and suspicious of all other people within the samernnation who do not seem to agree with some of the popular nationalistrnideology. Patriotism is traditionalist; nationalism is ideological.rnPatriotism is rooted to the land; nationalism to thernm}’thical image of a people, of a community that so often is notrna real communit)’. Patriotism is not a substitute for religion,rnv’hcreas nationalism often is. It may fill the emotional needs ofrninsufficiently rooted people. It may be combined with hatred—rnand, as Chesterton said, it is not love (which is always personalrnand particular) but hatred that may unite otherwise very disparaternmen and women. Or, as Duff Cooper once put it, “thernjingo nationalist is always the first to denounce his fellow countr)rnmen as traitors.”rn—from ]ohn Lukacs, “The Patriotic Impulse,”rnJuly J 992rnBy the end of World War II, the federal government had largelyrnsucceeded in replacing the various European-Americanrnidentities with a “universal” American nationalism, and newrnimmigrants were forced to abandon their national identity andrnnative language and sign on to the “American way of life.” PostwarrnAmerican nationalism—built on democracy, capitalism,rnthe Pledge of Allegiance, hot dogs, baseball, and Rotary—mayrnhave been sufficient to drive the Cold War, but it was insufficientrnto bind the nation or to act as a bulwark against alien cultiires.rnPeople long for roots, for a sense of belonging. An abstractrnconception of democracy and capitalism can only displace,rnnot replace, the songs and stories, faith and food, languagernand kinship that compose a true national culture. Byrnalienating European Americans from their national cultures inrnthe interwar period, the federal government replaced an emergingrnAmerican national identity with a false nationalism, and underminedrnour ability to withstand assault from Third World cultures.rnWhen Lyndon Johnson signed the Immigration andrnNationality Act of 1965, removing the national preference forrnEuropean immigrants and opening the floodgates to ThirdrnWorld immigration, he signed the death warrant of postwar nationalism.rn. . .rnWhat can be done? To say that America stands at a crossroads,rnwith one fork leading to Europe and one to a global ThirdrnWorld culture, would be incorrect. America reached thatrncrossroads in the early years of this centiiry, and . . . our rulersrnchose the fork leading to the Third World. If we desire to revitalizernour educational system and to reaffirm America’s status asrna European country, we must, like the Prodigal Son, acknowledgernour error (and our bankruptcy) and return home. Thernstandard neoconservative “solufions” advanced by Allan Bloomrnand Bill Bennett—”Great Books,” a national core curriculum,rnan emphasis on assimilating immigrants —won’t work; thesernwere, in fact, among the tools used to subvert the older educationalrnsystem and to place us on our current path.. ..rnMulticulturalism is a fable, as is any American nationalismrnthat tries to deny or eradicate the European and regional culturesrnthat once made America strong. If America is to have a futurernas a nation, and not simply as a geographical region, thenrnwe must allow Anglo-American culture to bind Northern andrnSouthern, Western and Central and Eastern European communitiesrnin the United States in a revitalized American civilization.rnIt is time for the Prodigal Son to grow up, and to returnrnhome.rn—from Scott P. Richert, “The Multicultural Lie: The EuropeanrnRoots of American Life,” April 1998rn[Donald Warren]: You identify yourself with the intellectualrnroots of German conservative thought that is quite differentrnfrom National Socialism .. .rn[Jorg Haider]: I think it is very important to have a clear understandingrnof German and European histor’ on the main questionrnof National Socialism. It contained many different streamsrnof thought. There were socialist streams, and many peoplernwere executed for following this commitment. If the NewrnJULY 2001/59rnrnrn
January 1975April 21, 2022By The Archive
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