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? Urban Symphony: Rändajad | Main | It was the seventy-seventh richest country in the world. And it didn’t even exist. ?

May 11, 2009

Twilight

Christopher Caldwell discusses a post-war Europe where Europeans behaved "as if no one’s culture was better than anyone else’s." Such is the official cant across what remains of the West. Defy it at risk of persecution, prosecution and - inevitably - demonisation.

Particularly telling is a throwaway observation which should be obvious to anyone. Pity none of us are taught history any longer; we have so little time before the subject is no longer offered in a local vernacular.

Europe was an attractive place for immigrants. But attraction and admiration are not synonyms. The Ottoman empire and China both had a ‘‘power of attraction’’ for westerners in the 19th century. But it was not out of any admiration for their systems of government or their ideals of human rights that Europeans signed treaties with, settled in, and disrupted the national lives of those two countries. It was because they were rich places too weak to look out for themselves.

Unicorn farts and moonbeams will serve us badly now in the wrong quarters of our cities. Worse yet tomorrow in whatever quarter of the city is left to us.

This is not science fiction: "Run, you cowards! Kuffar!"

The race for the bottom: Toronto on a quiet weekend.

They dragged their kids with them, created a dangerous situation and disrupted the lives of countless people who had nothing to do with the Tamils and the problems in their homeland. If they thought that the protest would help gain Canada's sympathy, they have some learning to do. If anything, they likely guaranteed the police and the public have less tolerance than ever for a community that seems to have no sense of Canadian values, and no particular interest in the rights of anyone but themselves.

Freedom of speech and expression? Most Canadians have signaled they would not miss it; would not know what to do with it in the first place. But interfere with Toronto commuters at your peril.

Posted by Ghost of a flea at May 11, 2009 11:23 AM