Restoring America's Self-image...Is It Too Late?

                                             Restoring America’s Self-image … Is it Too Late?

                                                                          Published in Marietta Daily Journal Nov. 15, 2015

            Multiculturalism, one of America’s obsessions for at least two decades, is currently producing its harvest, and the fruit is bitter.  In perhaps what was a sincere effort to enlighten students and to teach respect for other cultures, education at every level has de-emphasized our own. 

            It’s reasonable to study other cultures.  In fact, we had better.  However, when we neglect our own, inject moral equivalency into the picture, and argue that western values are no better than anyone else’s, we have become blinded by a fuzzy notion of cultural equality. 

            Are the ideas of Lenin and Mao “equal” to those of Jefferson and Madison?  Is radical Islam “equal” to Judeo-Christian values?  Some better questions are what has been the fruit of Lenin and Mao’s communism? Of Jeffersonian and Madisonian thought?   Of Islam?  Of the Judeo-Christian ethic?  What does each of these world views say about individual freedom?  How does each view women?

            Americans have allowed their schools and colleges to shift from celebrating and promoting the best of western thought to honoring all thought.  Schools shy away from some of our most cherished traditions.  Consider how skittish school systems are regarding any mention of Christmas.  Fearfully and foolishly, they try to ignore or deny a centerpiece of American culture, all in the name of sensitivity, multiculturalism, diversity, or … whatever.  Is this crazy?

 Academia says emphasize openness and tolerance.  Tolerance, that is, for everything except our own values.  I know because I have been in the middle of the fray for over 4 decades, particularly at conferences around the country.  I and many others have done our best to counter academia’s anti-western, anti-American bias but have been terribly outnumbered.

            How so?  Because so many educators believe we should “teach all cultures and let students decide what is best.”  Because “if we stress so-called ‘Americanism,’ students will come to believe that Americans are superior to other nations.”  (I got those 2 gems at a conference of the National Council of Teachers of English over 2 decades ago.)

            The conference presenters who gave the above arguments need to ponder this question: From what did western culture, particularly America, spring?  The answer is it sprang from Judaism, Christianity and the best of Greco-Roman ideals.  And what has been the fruit of these 3 philosophical systems?  The fruit has been more individual freedom than in any other culture in the world, more alleviation of human misery and more opportunity for the pursuit of happiness.

            In a recent column titled “In Defense of Christendom,” the Wall Street Journal’s Brett Stephens began with the startling sentence, “The death of Europe is in sight.”  Asserting that Europe has already forgotten the roots from which she sprang, Stephens writes, “What is Europe?  It is Greece, not Persia; Rome, not Carthage; Christendom, not the caliphate.  Having ignored its inheritance, Europe wonders why its house is falling apart.”

            Strong words.  But do they not apply to America’s college English departments that argue there is no British or American literature, but just “literature,” or “world literature”?  To a growing number of English departments the names Shakespeare and Twain are embarrassments.  Shakespeare was “nativistic” because he loved “this blessed plot, this realm, this England” too much.  Twain was a crude frontier comic, nothing else.  Longfellow is a forgotten, dead white man.  C.S. Lewis?  Too Christian.

            Stephens says Europe “needs a new self-acceptance.”  So does America.  Because like Europe, we are allowing our religious and cultural heritage to slip.  In the interest of pluralism and multiculturalism, we are surrendering our very cultural identity.  Helping “the tired, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free” is one thing.  Changing our culture to be “sensitive” toward them is another. 

            Since the 1960’s, pop psychology has touted self-awareness and self-acceptance.  Much of this emphasis has been pure narcissism, but it contains a grain of truth.  Just as an individual must have a measure of self-love, so must a nation.  To love America and claim that she is exceptional is not to claim that we are superior.  It is to say, as Stephens puts it, “This is us and that is you.” 

            The character of America is changing, however, and changing fast.  Could we survive the massive influx of Muslim immigrants that Europe is now experiencing?  We could not and should not if those immigrants come demanding that we cut ourselves off from our western Judeo-Christian/Greco-Roman roots and become modern Persians.

            If immigration trends continue unchallenged or uncontrolled, Stephens’ fears will be confirmed.  The West will die.  America cannot be America if she is not true to her inheritance – religiously, culturally, and linguistically.

            Is this issue insignificant? Only if we believe Jefferson is no better than Lenin or that Christendom is no better than a caliphate.

Roger Hines

11/11/15