Self-Segregation Trumps Imposed Multiculturalism

Ilana Mercer, Liberty, Multiculturalism, Paleolibertarianism, Political Correctness, The West

“Originality is rare in punditry these days,” writes Joseph F. Cotto, who is “a scholar and columnist from central Florida.” “Every time a new narrative-of-the-day arrives, we take refuge in groupthink rather than thinking for ourselves. Not Mercer … [who] is one of America’s leading paleolibertarian voices, [with] “a prominent column on WorldNetDaily.”

Mr. Cotto recently interviewed this writer for the Washington Times’ community pages. You can read the interview, “Self-Segregation Trumps Imposed Multiculturalism,” at WND. Here are excerpts:

JOSEPH F. COTTO: This seems like one of the most polarized eras in American politics. Why do you think that our country’s political atmosphere has become so divisive?

ILANA MERCER: I think you are correct in your assessment regarding the unparalleled polarization of American society. Have you noticed how commentators on both sides of received political wisdom attempt to diminish the fact you articulate by referring to America’s fractious history? Nevertheless, this is a complex issue that is hard to answer briefly. I’ll try. In the introduction to F.A. Hayek’s “The Road to Serfdom,” economist Milton Friedman underscores this important point: “The argument for collectivism is simple if false; it is an immediate emotional argument. The argument for individualism is subtle and sophisticated; it is an indirect rational argument.”
Underway today in the USA is a monumental clash between individualism and collectivism; between the forces of reason and reality, against force and coercion. The “philosophical” differences between the Republikeynesians, on the one hand, and the Democrats, on the other, are insignificant. The first believe individual rights should be carefully calibrated by central planners; the latter believe these natural rights can be overridden.
There is also a cultural dimension to these irreparable divisions. We are today, thanks to social engineering, a deracinated and divided society. We are no longer what John Jay termed “a people descended from the same ancestors, speaking the same language, professing the same religion, attached to the same principles of government, very similar in their manners and custom.” There can be no unity without community. The glue of togetherness is gone, replaced by a flimsy, fluid, and thoroughly fake unity peddled by politicians. “Ideas” they call it. On the one day, it’s a crusade for democracy; on the next, it’s a war against racism.

COTTO: Multiculturalism is spreading rapidly across the Western world. This has led not only to cultural barriers, but tremendous religious and ethnic conflicts. What are your views on the subject?

MERCER: Multiculturalism as practiced in the West amounts to top-down, centrally enforced and managed integration. Show me a historical precedent where forced integration has worked. As it works across the Anglo-American and European spheres, one group (the founding, historical majority) is forced by self-anointed and elected elites—no contradiction there—on pain of public and professional ostracism, to submerge its history, heroes, customs, culture, language, and pander to militant minorities, who’ve been acculturated by the same elites in identity-politics warfare. …
… An interesting new book, reviewed by one Barnaby Rogerson, makes the point that the Levant of the 18th century was peaceful and prosperous (and surprisingly libertine), because it was made up of “a grid of self-governing communities.” Integration between disparate communities was not enforced. And surprise, surprise: communities freely chose to live in complete segregation. This freedom fostered “remarkable tolerance” among diverse communities across the cities of the Levant of that time. “Deals before Ideals, City before State, Trade before Politics,” as the reviewer puts it. This freedom of association was the source of strength. These autonomous ethnic communities were free of the top-down, punitive, forced integration that has become the hallmark of the 19th-century nation-state that usurped their authority. …

This interview, “Self-Segregation Trumps Imposed Multiculturalism,” continues at WND.

If you’d like to feature this column, WND’s longest-standing, exclusive paleolibertarian column, in or on your publication (paper or pixels), contact ilana@ilanamercer.com.

JOIN THE DISCUSSION, AND DO BATTLE FOR LIBERTY BY:

• Using the content-sharing icons on Barely a Blog posts.

• At the WND and RT Comments Sections, and on Facebook.

• By clicking to “Like,” “Tweet” and “Share” WND’s “Return To Reason” , and RT’s “Paleolibertarian Column.”

A Not-So Soft Fascism

Crime, Fascism, Government, The State

Dominating this week’s news headlines were two events: The hunt for Christopher Jordan Dorner and Barack Obama’s fourth State of the Union (SOTU) extravaganza. Both events involved forceful displays by what Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises called the Total State.

(Only the first event is the topic of this blog post. BHO’s SOTUs have been chronicled in “Man With The Reverse-Midas Touch” (2010), “Barry Soetoro Frankenstein: Spawn of the State” (2012), and in many blog posts. The president’s 2013 SOTU doesn’t rate a mention.)

Von Mises coined the term in his treatment of “totalitarian collectivist systems” exemplified by Nazism and fascism. The arc of totalitarianism, however, led Mises and others to the post-modern totalitarian state, which is characterized by a “soft fascism,” as Perry de Havilland of the British Samizdata blog calls the modern Managerial State.

But there was nothing soft about the way Loc­al, state and fed­er­al assassins went in for the kill in the countrywide manhunt for Christopher Dorner. Dorner, who is presumed dead, was a former LAPD officer with a grudge against the Los Angeles Police Department.

According to the Wikipedia timeline, the Navy veteran blew his stack and went on the lam after a killing spree in Southern California. He is alleged to have shot­ three po­lice of­ficers, one fatally, in River­side, and committed a double hom­icide on Sunday, in Irvine, murdering the daughter of a former Los Angeles Police Department captain (Randal Quan), also the lawyer who represented Dorner during his dispute with the LAPD. Ms. Quan’s fiance was also murdered.

I am not here saying that Christopher Dorner did not need killing. I’m asking you to jump a level of abstraction and look at the meta picture. The one killer syndicate (the state’s agents) converged on another lone assassin (Dorner), as the first group concentrated almost all the resources provided (at the point of a gun) by a third party (taxpayers), to eliminate the lone assassin with whom a personal score had to be settled.

The police force went in for the kill, Waco style. Dorner’s cabin did not combust, or “catch fire,” as media put it, but was incinerated with smoke devices and demolished wall by wall.

In the course of this demonstration of might, innocent bystanders were shot at, their vehicles rammed, and businesses entered and shuttered.

Does this sound like law enforcement, or like the actions of a private army run for the benefit of sectional interests?

Wolf’s Watergate

Journalism, Media, Objectivism, Pop-Culture

When Wolf Blitzer framed one of his upcoming news teases as “Watergate,” this morning, I thought he was being a Smart Alec about Carnival Triumph, the cruise liner whose “propulsion system” was “paralyzed” by a fire in the engine room.

The ocean liner was left “temporarily marooned in the Gulf of Mexico, subject to the whims of wind and sea currents.“

As to the delicate bouquet that is wafting from the Waste Liner:

“…the sanitary situation had already begun to deteriorate on board the Triumph. …the conditions have gotten so bad that they’re asking them to use the restroom in bags, and they were eating onion sandwiches …
Much of the ship’s electrical power went down in the fire, causing widespread malfunctions, including taking out sanitary systems.
Passengers have reported sewage sloshing around in hallways, flooded rooms and trouble getting enough to eat.
“It’s disgusting. It’s the worst thing ever,” passenger Ann Barlow told CNN.

But no. By “Watergate,” Wolf was “absurdly” and perfectly seriously wondering “if Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) pausing his State of the Union response for a drink of water would ‘break’ his career. The CNN chyron flashed “Career-ender?”

“So can a drink of water make or break a political career?” Blitzer asked.”

Just as you think that the remaking of “news” had reached an all-time postmodern low …

Messiah Stood Up By Media, Momentarily

Barack Obama, Fascism, Journalism, Law, Media

The saving grace of Big Media’s excruciating blow-by-blow coverage of the stand-off with LAPD of­ficer and Navy veteran Christopher Jordan Dorner is that it made the network nits forget about their date with Barack Obama.

That Obama’s fourth State of the Union extravaganza promises to be excruciatingly boring we already know. One other thing known about this SOTU—also the secret to his success—is that, as measured by the Flesch-Kincaid readability test, and “for the [fourth] straight address, the President’s State of the Union message will be written at an eighth-grade level.”

“‘You Can’t Fix Stupid.'” Last year, a “Smart Politics” study seemed to back Ron White’s aphorism.

A “Stalinesque extravaganza” that ought to offend “anyone of a republican (small ‘r’) sensibility” is how National Review’s John Derbyshire has described the annual State of the Union address. “American politics frequently throws up disgusting spectacles. It throws up one most years in January: the State of the Union speech,” writes Derbyshire in “We Are Doomed: Reclaiming Conservative Pessimism,” in which John (he’s a friend) goes on to detail how “the great man” is announced, how he makes an entrance; the way “the legislators jostle to catch his eye” and receive his favor. (This year, the most repulsive among the representatives staked out aisle seats for themselves, starting early in the morning.)
“On the podium at last, the president offers up preposterously grandiose assurances of protection, provision, and moral guidance from his government, these declarations of benevolent omnipotence punctuated by standing ovations and cheers from legislators” (p. 45). The president of the USA is now “pontiff, in touch with Divinity, to be addressed like the Almighty.”
The razzmatazz includes a display of “Lenny Skutniks” in the royal box. These are “model citizens chosen in order to represent some quality the president will call on us to admire and emulate.” Last year it was the family of the girl who was murdered by the Tucson shooter. This year’s “Lenny Skutnik” was Debbie Bosanek, Warren Buffett’s secretary. Bosanek is supposed to embody the Barf(fett) Rule, described by the Divine One thus: “If you make more than a million dollars a year, you should not pay less than 30 percent in taxes.”

More about this monarchical, contrived tradition in “Barry Soetoro Frankenstein: Spawn of the State.”

Here’s MSNBC’s “coverage” of Il Duce’s address.