Friday, July 15, 2016

David Brooks, "We Take Care of Our Own": Nice?



In his latest New York Times op-ed entitled "We Take Care of Our Own," David Brooks concludes:

"Unfortunately, the forces of multiculturalism destroyed that commitment to cultural union. That has led to Trump, who has upended universalistic American nationalism and replaced it with European blood and soil nationalism in a stars and stripes disguise.

The way out of this debate is not to go nationalist or globalist. It’s to return to American nationalism — espoused by people like Walt Whitman — which combines an inclusive definition of who is Our Own with a fervent commitment to assimilate and Take Care of them."

Brooks fails to take into account the November 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris, which left 130 dead and more than 360 wounded, and yesterday's attack in Nice, which left a death toll of 84.

France, once very much a party to "European blood and soil nationalism," attempted a pirouette and sought to assimilate Muslims from North Africa and the Middle East. The consequences are plain to see.

Will France maintain its "fervent commitment" to assimilation? Stay tuned.

More to the point, notwithstanding Paris and Nice, should America reassess whether assimilation in all instances is possible? Assimilation, as also evidenced by the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, can also come with a price tag steeped in blood.

1 comment:

  1. someone should tell David Brooks that multiculturalism is NOT assimilation.

    "...Over one-fourth of all state constitutions state that a system of public instruction is required because an informed and capable citizenry is vital to the preservation of a free and democratic government. ..." http://www.civiced.org/papers/ceay_campaign_tolo.html
    The clue is that it is ONLY "over one-fourth" NYC does not even allow the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools, although the American flags are usually somewhere.

    as if there ever was Walt Whitman's American nationalism...more like:
    Remember the Alamo while singing the Star Spangled Banner, in English.

    I spent a lovely week in 1997 in Nice, on the same street as the Bastille Day carnage, an attack by a murderous transnational ideology attacking the birthplace of the nation-state.

    ...

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