Occidentalism

Proponents of free markets, limited government, limited immigration, individual liberties, national pride and patriotism have been painted into a corner and described as opponents of multiculturalism.

We should stop wearing that label for the following reasons:

• We don’t in fact oppose multiculturalism. No one has a problem with the fact that America has more than one cultural group. We settled that issue long ago.

• We don’t even oppose cultural relativism entirely. We don’t care if South Pacific Islanders have a different view of cultural values, so long as they don’t try to impose them on us. Live and let live. We do and should reject any notion that our culture is just one among many, all of which are equally valuable and welcome to become part of our multiculture without change. If South Pacific Islanders come to live here, they will have some adjustments to make, and we don’t apologize for that.

• What we actually oppose is the leftist-Islamist alliance called Occidentalism

Occidentalism is the hatred of all things of Western culture, especially capitalism. It has a long history, but the present mixture of haters is composed of:

• Bitter-end socialists who think the wrong side won the Cold War
• Disaffected Westerners whose every act is motivated by shame over racial, colonial and imperialistic mistakes made in the past by the West
• Islamists.

An alliance of temporary convenience if ever there was one. The holy text for Occidentalists is Edward Said’s Orientalism.

The leftist-Islamist coalition has defined the Culture War in a way that we should reject. We don’t want to return to nineteenth century America. We don’t want to return to a society dominated by white Anglo-Saxon Protestants. We want Americans to be proud of America as it is now and of its history and traditions, mistakes and all. What we should resist is the message that America has been bad in the past, but can become something good in the future if it changes a lot.

We want to reverse the changes that message has brought about.

• We have to show how historically wrong it is to say our culture is just one among many, no better, no worse.
• We need to reverse the trend against patriotism and pride in our nation’s history and traditions.
• We have to learn to say no to illegal immigration and make it stick. It might also be a good idea to slow down legal immigration to give us some time to absorb.
• We must re-introduce the teaching of American history in our schools in a way that produces citizens who are proud to be American right now. We must teach world history in a way that shows liberal democracy to be a vast improvement when compared to the ways societies have been organized in the past.
• We must resist the trend that places Spanish on the same level as English.

We should resist the call to follow Europe’s lead in socialism and cultural relativism, especially in its acceptance of Islamic law. But most of all we should oppose Occidentalism. We should defend the culture of the Enlightenment, encourage national pride and patriotism. The West is the only part of the world where national pride and patriotism are not openly and enthusiastically celebrated.

Think long and hard about why that is true.

Originally posted on 5/15/09