Mexican Flu, Drop Out Rates, Our Culturist History and Culturism

We have a long history of culturist citizenship and immigration laws. Some were questionable. And some of them were good. All were unquestionably our right to enact and enforce. The Mexican Flu outbreak has killed at least 81 folks in Mexico City and infected many folks in the U.S. If we had a border fence it would allow us to screen out those with signs of disease. That, along with lunacy, likelihood to become a public charge, being an anarchist, illiteracy, criminal background, and eventually being from Eastern or Southern Europe were culturist grounds for exclusion from the country between 1890 and 1965. These immigration laws, along with Prohibition, Puritan Laws, the first and second Great Awakenings and the Abolition movement show our culturist historical tradition. We have long been a culturist nation. But the ability to exclude those with contagious diseases has long been a reason to have an immigrant inspection center like at Ellis Island.

The Mexican Flu is causing schools to be shut down in Mexico. Mexican President Felipe Calderone has arrogated powers to isolate those infected, perhaps a prudent move. When the Chinese had the SARS outbreak, they also isolate the inflicted. They quickly set up concrete quarantine buildings. They also restricted movement within the country to stop contagion. An authoritarian can do such things on a dime. And it worked. Sometimes individual rights considering the culturist rights of the larger population can have beneficial affects. SARS was whipped in China. We dod restrict immigration from China. This confirmed the culturist premise that you have no international right to be in America or an American citizen. Had the disease broken out in American populations, quarantine been imposed and movement restricted, the ACLU would sue because they think individual rights should override culturist rights. They misread the Constitution. And, as a result of their action, many more Americans would die.

Today I went to an Educational policy lecture. I saw two of the three panelists. They were good. They reminded me of what practice is. I haven’t taught in a public high school for a few years. And, it was, frankly, inspiring to hear one presenter passionately describe their after school program and another their personal intervention program. They showed results. But in 2007, NYC’s graduation rate had risen to 52.2%. As a culturist I have to notice only 23.5% of students learning the English language graduated. As above, we need to see what impact immigration has on key factors such as education levels, crime, terrorism, and engineering graduates. Engineering relates to education. As a historian of education, I realize that the drop out rate in the 1950s was 50% too. After the USSR launched the Sputnik Satellite, we emphasized science. As a culturist could argue that is what we need to grow economically. If we make schools harder and more drop out and more get higher skills by meeting the challenge, it might be worth it.

The casual use of the word “culturist” in the prior three paragraphs was exemplary. If we just drop the words ‘culturist’ and ‘culturism’ in to our conversation, they might spread. As you see above, they have analytical force. Culture comes up in conversation nearly all the time. Culturism is the opposite of multiculturalism. If we wish to challenge this underestimation of cultural impact, if we want to bring attention to the importance of culture, we need to start employing and spreading these words. I am a culturist. Someday I hope those in education will call themselves culturists. It would be amazing if someone called Lou Dobbs a racist, and he said, “I am a culturist, I believe in culturism not multiculturalism. Immigration laws are culturist not racist.” What if someone asked Obama the culturist question, “Do you take the culturist side and believe western civilization has a core traditional and historic cultural core to protect or are western nations just random collection of various cultures like multiculturalism says?” If you found this culturist analysis interesting, spread the word.