OUT OF ONE MANY:

Call it fear: Europe's multicultural ideal has planted the seeds of its own destruction (EMANUELE OTTOLENGHI, Apr. 29, 2004, Jerusalem Post)

Perhaps Europe is right in its skepticism of American adventures. But it is wrong in presuming that multiculturalism offers a better alternative. There is, in fact, no multicultural society outside the West. And even in Europe, multiculturalism is under pressure.

As people migrate to, are absorbed by, and integrate into Europe, Europe is changing: As homogeneous nation-states give way to a supranational community of multicultural post-national states, the liberal gospel is already causing a backlash because it preaches inclusion of all by deriding the deeply entrenched ethnic and religious identities of some.

The real question is not how long before Europe can become a universal community of unburdened individuals. Rather, it is: What are Europe's limits of tolerance and willingness to accommodate diversity?

Social cohesiveness rests on common values, which are in turn a product of shared memories. Multiculturalism and cultural relativism obliterate that shared patrimony in favor of political correctness. But a collective vision of the future cannot emerge from denial of the past. A people forgetting its history will forsake its collective future.

Liberals cannot recognize the limits and the potential breakdown of their world view. Those limits are inherent in the parochialism of human nature, which frequently defies universal calls for a common humanity. Regrettable though it may be, one can only overcome parochial resistance at the price of changing humanity.

This is the dilemma facing Europe: increasing diversity undermines cohesion. Peoples increasingly separated by different cultural awareness, deeply attached to a specific value system, come to live alongside alien communities. More diversity makes it harder to find shared values, challenging common notions of membership in a community.

And, of course, the ultimate liberal ideal is that each person get to define their own values, at which point there is no longer a society, just a bunch of atomized individuals. For the Left the upside of this is that each isolated being is then completely dependent on the State.

Posted by Orrin Judd at May 1, 2004 7:16 AM