Posted on 04/06/2010 10:59:45 AM PDT by jazusamo
One of the most ominous developments of our time has been the multicultural dogma that all cultures are equal. It is one of the many unsubstantiated assertions that have become fashionable among self-congratulatory elites, with hard evidence being neither asked for nor offered.
But, however much such assertions minister to the egos of the intelligentsia and the careers of politicians and race hustlers, the multicultural dogma is a huge barrier to the advancement of groups who are lagging economically, educationally and otherwise.
Once you have said that the various economic, educational and other "gaps" and "disparities" of lagging groups are not due to either genes or cultures, what is left but the sins of other people?
Sins are never hard to find, among any group of human beings. But whether that actually helps those who are lagging, or just leads them into the blind alley of resentment, is another question.
None of this is peculiar to the United States or to our times. In centuries past, it was common in parts of Eastern Europe for Germans or other Western Europeans to be a majority of the population in various Eastern European cities, while the Slavic majority predominated in the surrounding countrysides.
Even in times and places where the Germans and other Western Europeans were not a numerical majority in Eastern European cities, or in Baltic cities like Riga, they were clearly an economic and cultural elite in business, industry and the professions.
They simply had the skills and education that most of the indigenous peoples of Eastern Europe and the Baltic did not have.
At that point, the German language, like other Western European languages, had a vastly larger store of written knowledge than the languages of Eastern Europe, which developed written versions centuries later than the languages of Western Europe.
One obvious way for individuals born into the local indigenous culture to advance themselves was to acquire the language and culture of the Germans, using the skills and knowledge available in that language to advance themselves. This is what many did.
What this said was that cultures were not equal, at least not at that point in history, and contrary to the multicultural dogmas of our time.
Nor was this path to individual and group advancement peculiar to Eastern Europe. In 18th century Scotland, the great philosopher David Hume urged his fellow Scots to learn the English language, in order to advance themselves, individually and collectively.
The net result was that Scotland went from being one of the most backward countries on the fringes of European civilization to being one of the most advanced countries in the world. A wholly disproportionate share of the leading British intellectuals from the mid-18th century to the mid-19th century were of Scottish ancestry, and the Scots ultimately surpassed the English in medicine and engineering.
Unfortunately, most intellectuals in most lagging groups did not urge taking the path that David Hume urged upon the Scots. More commonly, the intelligentsia have promoted the path of resentment of those on whom history had bestowed a more productive culture.
A rising, indigenous educated class in 19th century Bohemia and Latvia, for example, resented having to become culturally German in order to advance. Moreover, they resented Germans and worked to get their compatriots to resent Germans as well, even though the cultural disparities at the heart of economic and other disparities were not created by the Germans but by the Romans, centuries earlier, when they invaded Western Europe and put the stamp of their culture on that region.
But explanations of group differences based on historic or geographic happenstances do not provide emotional fulfillment. Some preferred theories of genetic differences and others preferred seeing the poverty of some as being a result of the sins of those who were more prosperous.
Multiculturalism enshrines the sins and grievances approach— and paints the poor into a corner, where they can nurse their resentments, instead of advancing their skills and their prospects. The beneficiaries are politicians and race hustlers.
"It is scarcely the same thing to put a man on the moon as to put a bone in your nose." —— NRO quoting from William Henry III.
....but the sins of other people?
Sins are never hard to find, among any group of human beings. But whether that actually helps those who are lagging, or just leads them into the blind alley of resentment, is another question.
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Leftists are seething with rage at the fundamental truths Mr. Sowell is making.
But they want to know this one thing: What are sins? The notion of ‘sin”; the idea that one can be a ‘sinner’ must be very confusing to them.
“Multiculturalism enshrines the sins and grievances approach— and paints the poor into a corner, where they can nurse their resentments, instead of advancing their skills and their prospects. The beneficiaries are politicians and race hustlers.”
Nutshell.
This is one example of an idea so stupid that only an intellectual could believe it.
You’re correct, and that’s the reason they’ve ignored him for so many years. :)
“Once you have said that the various economic, educational and other “gaps” and “disparities” of lagging groups are not due to either genes or cultures, what is left but the sins of other people?”
This essay is loaded with nuggets like this. His logic is crystalline and pristine. After listening to the tortured rhetoric coming from Washington, you can wash your ears out with this stuff!!
Excellent way to put it and so true! :)
I highly recommend all his books. The econ books are anything but “boring”...
I had to re-read “Conflict of Visions” after a couple of years of worldview studies, and it was like a whole new book again.
His latest, “Intellectuals and Society” is a very good distillation of “Conflict” and “Vision of the Anointed”, as well as “Cosmic Justice”.
ping also
Dr. Sowell is America’s greatest living intellectual ... maybe our greatest ever, at least in terms of practical benefit.
I’ve suggested that a homeschool curriculum could be nothing but math and Thomas Sowell. Maybe I’ll try it with the 4 little boys. Except for Frank, who is 10 months old, they can all read well enough to start “Conquests and Cultures,” if that’s what I have on the shelf.
Thanks for the pings to all three of the articles by Dr. Sowell. I appreciate your efforts.
I’d probably forget to seek out Dr. Sowell’s articles if it weren’t for your alerts. There’s so much out there to read I get lost in it all.
By all means, teach them “Sowell-based” economics.
We’re definitely doing that with our youngins.
What I need is a collection of writings by Thomas Sowell with no pictures of the man and no indications of race or ethnicity. I want to leave it on the coffee table to trap my 35 year old stepson. I guarantee that if he read some of Sowell’s writings he would say the man is a “white elitist” or some such garbage. The boy and he is a boy intellectually, is completely in the tank for Obama and crew.
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