The Return of Ethnic Nationalism

Feb 26, 2008, by Patrick J. Buchanan:

In Africa last week, President Bush deplored the genocide in Rwanda in the 1990s, defended his refusal to send U.S. troops to Darfur and decried the ethnic slaughter in Kenya.

Following a fraudulent election, the Kikyu, the dominant tribe in Kenya, have been subjected to merciless assault. People are separating from one another and butchering one another along lines of blood and soil.

According to a compelling lead article in the new Foreign Affairs, “Us and Them: The Enduring Power of Ethnic Nationalism,” we may be witnessing in the Third World a re-enactment of the ethnic wars that tore Europe to pieces in the 20th century.

“Ethnonationalism,” writes history professor Jerry Z. Muller of Catholic University, “has played a more profound role in modern history than is commonly understood, and the processes that led to the dominance of the ethnonational state and the separation of ethnic groups in Europe are likely to recur elsewhere.”

Western Man has mis-taught himself his own history.

Writes Muller: “A familiar and influential narrative of 20th-century European history argues that nationalism twice led to war, in 1914 and then again in 1939. Thereafter, the story goes, Europeans concluded that nationalism was a danger and gradually abandoned it. In the post-war decades, Western Europeans enmeshed themselves in a web of transnational institutions, culminating in the European Union.”

Muller contends that this is a myth, that peace came to the Old Continent only after the triumph of ethnonationalism, after the peoples of Europe had sorted themselves out and each achieved its own home.

At the beginning of the 20th century, there were three multi-ethnic empires in Europe: the Ottoman, Russian and Austro-Hungarian. The ethnonationalist Balkan wars of 1912 and 1913 tore at the first.

World War I was ignited by Serbs seeking to rip Bosnia away from Austria-Hungary. After four years of slaughter, the Serbs succeeded, and ethnonationalism triumphed in Europe ...

At the end of World War II, Europe’s nations were more ethnically homogenous than they had ever been, at a horrendous cost in blood.

After 45 years of Cold War, the remaining multi-ethnic states – the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia – broke up into more than two dozen nation-states, all rooted in ethnonationlism.

As Muller argues, ethnonationalism may be a precondition of liberal democracy. Only after all the tribes of Europe had their own ethnically homogenous nation-states did peace and comity come. And what happened in Europe in the 20th century may be a precursor of what is to come in Latin America, the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

In China, Uighurs, Mongolians and Tibetans all resist assimilation. Tatarstan may be the next problem for Russia. In the Balkans, it is Kosovo. Serbs there and in Bosnia may emulate the Albanians and secede.

Americans, writes Muller, “find ethnonationalism discomfiting both intellectually and morally. Social scientists go to great lengths to demonstrate that this is a product not of nature but of culture. …

But none of this will make ethnonationalism go away.

Indeed, we see it bubbling up from the Basque country of Spain, to Belgium, Bolivia, Baghdad and Beirut. Perhaps the wisest counsel for the United States may be to get out of the way of this elemental force. Rather than seek to halt the inexorable, we should seek to accommodate it and ameliorate its sometimes awful consequences.

And we should look to our own land. According to Pew Research, there will be 127 million Hispanics here by mid-century, tripling today’s 45 million – and almost 100 million new immigrants. No nation faces a graver threat from this resurgence of ethnonationalism than does our own.

Look homeward, America.
Via NPI

Gotta love common sense. Give everyone their own space. What a crazy idea. Enough with diversity. OK, so some people do like diversity: I declare them a unique species in need of their own space too. Of course, this may involve giving away parts of your country - but better to cut your losses than to proceed with the demographic takeover and inevitable conflict. And some nations will end up with feral neighbours. But that's the best we can do, I reckon.

Unity is an essential asset to nuture for self-defence, and that is best done in isolation. So if your neighbours do turn out feral, at least you're defending from a position of strength.

4 comments:

KG said...

"ethnonationalism may be a precondition of liberal democracy."
Well of course it is. The multiculti zealots may not like it, but peace and democracy rely on shared cultural norms, a shared history and a shared allegiance to a nation's identity. The effect of mass immigration without pressure to assimilate is a rise in mistrust and suspicion and civil unrest.
But the PC multiculti crowd believe they can undo thousands of years of history and ignore commonsense and human nature.

Anonymous said...

KENYA, This is no different to what occurs whenever muslims reach a critical mass in whichever country they decide is right for the plucking.
The western media would have us believe that the trouble in Kenya is tribal when it is actually demands for sharia from the opposition leader Odinga within 6 months of him now having been given a role in government watch and wait!
ATLAS SHRUGS IS VERY WELL INFORMED ON THIS. Odinga is a cousin of Barack Obama.....YL

Islamic governments have targeted Kenya as a key element in the spread of Islam in Horn of Africa and ultimately the world. The Kenyan Diaspora including Presidential candidate Sen. Barack Hussein Obama has also played a part. The fall of Kenya into Islamist control would be devastating to anti-terrorist activities in the Horn of Africa, not to mention the potential for expansion of a caliphate. One has to ask, how fast will Kenya go Islamic and apply Shariah law?

Barack Hussein Obama – The Rise of Islam in Kenya

I have worked and traveled in the Christian and Muslim countries of Africa for more than 30 years. I have witnessed first hand apartheid in South Africa, the transition from Rhodesia to Zimbabwe, coups in Nigeria and Sudan, the rise of Al Qaeda, the growth of the Muslim Brotherhood and other key events. In spite of witnessing all these events, I believe that the recent events Kenya stand out as a watershed event signaling emerging resurgence of Islam in Kenya and the beginning of the open Clash of Ideologies between the Muslims and Christians.

The events unfolding do not represent a Clash of Civilizations, ethnic issues or a race issue, the conflict is between Ideologies – Muslim vs. Judeo Christian Ideologies and between Leftist/Marxist authoritarian (Liberal Fascism vs. democratic free enterprise.)

Kenya a Microcosm for Future Events

The battles occurring in Kenya are a microcosm of the future battles that will occur in the West and the United States elections as we witness the growth of Leftist/Marxist – Islamist Alliance striving to achieve “Change” and create a New World Order leading the formation of global Islamic kingdom of God. Whether it is by economic means through the formation of Islamic finance and economics and acquisition of Western assets via the Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs), military and political action, or terrorism, the goal is the same. The growth of Islamic Financial institutions and their Sovereign Wealth Funds applying Shariah law should be an early warning to this growing trend. See also: Sovereign wealth rules Financial Times, January 21, 2008.

Posted by Pamela Geller on Sunday, February 10, 2008 at 09:56 AM in Kenya's killing fields, White House 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

YORKIELASS..UK

Armed with Knowledge said...

An excellent post! I have added you to my links, and look forward to reading more.

Abandon Skip said...

KG, all true.

YorkieLass, thanks for the lowdown on Kenya.

EyeOfStorm, thanks. You've got some good posts on your blog - I shall steal some of them I think!