THE ROBERT W. WHITAKER ARCHIVE

BUSINESS AS USUAL | 2005-08-27

The United States is the only country on earth which has a first amendment protecting freedom of speech. The very concept of freedom of speech is alien to every culture outside the West, so multiculturalism is a good way to wipe out the whole idea.

But even in the West, Europeans have always taken it for granted that everything must be regulated, including speech. As I pointed out in "Two Europes, One America" the red (corrected) liberal states in the United States and Canada think exactly like Europeans. If Teddy Kennedy or the average American liberal sat down with the average European, they would not have a single point of serious disagreement.

Liberals and Europeans want to suppress diversity of opinion and they want to do it in the name of fighting racism and nationalism.

Of course.

This is as surprising to anyone who has the slightest grasp of political history as the sun coming up in the morning.

It is well known that generals are always fighting the last war. So France hunkered down in 1940 for another trench war like World War I behind its Maginot Line.

It is also true that civil libertarians are always fighting the last fight. When a "civil libertarian" talks about "dictatorship" he is looking for a German with a moustache talking about racism, nationalism and anti-Semitism. If we can just stop racism, nationalism and anti-Semitism, he says, we can be free.

And he is willing to go to any lengths in the name of freedom. So the state must use all of its power to suppress any mention of race or nationalism. In order to stop racism and nationalism and to preserve freedom, some freedoms will have to be sacrificed.