Education, diversity, and culturism

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Diversity exists and we have a culture. Culturism emphasizes both of these truths. John Andrews reports that the "we" in the first sentence cannot be defined by the Colorado University Regent Paul Schauer. While Colorado University has ethnic studies, it has no Western Civilization program (which might explain the Regent's appauling lack of education). And this mindset results in, as the case here, a failure to define and promote ourselves - culturism. Our failure to promote Western Civilization is very frightening.

Sometimes definition by contrast is the clearest. That is why culturists must remind people of the very diversity concept they laud. Three execution style murders of students in Newark, New Jersey fall outside the pale of Western Civilization. But, Schaer might assert, that was an abberation from any cultural point of view, wasn't it? The answer is no; diversity is wide. Ethnic ethos are not just variations of politeness.

Violent cultures in which machismo and an early death are the norm exist. Much of Mexico is run by drug runners who commit brutal murders in a short and glorious life. This is an outgrowth of the general fatalism of the culture. It is not an abberation, it is a stable mutli-generational cultural way of life. If you celebrate diversity without qualification, you celebrate M-13 style death cults. Rejecting that lifestyle highlights appreciation for Western Civilizations sense of fair play, rule of law, respect for the individual, and optimism.

Somalis recently watched as a woman was brutalized and raped in their apartment building. Could brutalizing women be a part of a culture? Yes. Western Civilization allows women rights. Women in many long - stable cultures have been treated as livestock and slaves. Honor killings, female genital mutilation, and cultures where women cannot go outside without their husband's permission, exist. Tell that to the women's studies department and those celebrating ethnics. The Somalis were just practicing their ethnic culture in Western lands. Women's rights are a part of Western Civilization.

Recently a Muslim woman shot her husband because he was going to Morocco to get a second wife. Our laws cannot even accomodate such diversity. How do we marry the second wife? Can each sue for their part if he dies? Our laws are based upon expected cultural habits. What if women are to be kept in Hegabs and they are not allowed to take them off for driver's license photos? If people want to marry multiple women or not allow them to drive or have honor killings or wear hegabs in other countries, that is not our business. But it cannot happen in Western nations. Westen legal systems are based on western cultural assumptions. If you want to know about Western civilization look at the philosophical and cultural assumptions in our laws.

We do have a culture. It is progressive. It believes in the dignity of individual conscience. The application of the mind to problems of the world allowed us to create the modern life that we have helped spread around the world and allows those from around the world to come to Western nations. But that does not mean that global diversity is over. We have a specific culture that, are you listening Regent Schauer, stems from a tradition starting with Socrates questioning, moving to Jesus' belief in equality for all in love and potential, our Enlghtenment ideals getting us away from warlords and creating science, and - yes - progressive political movements.

Ours is a specific culture it has taken eons of struggle to create. It is not just the world's default. If we do not wish people to passively watch rapes, do execution style murders, and have multiple wives in this country we have to assert that these behaviors are wrong. We have to tell people, in essence, about Western culture. We need to announce the correlary truth that sustaining our culture requires people to apply themselves reasonably to the problems of the world, in a progressive, and law-abiding manner. We need to teach about our historic respect for the individual mind and its abilities. Without defining ourselves, without borders and laws, we can slip deep into the diverse natural tendencies of man. That is why we must teach Western Civilization.