Culturist Praise for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

In his recent journey through America, calling for the elimination of Israel, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran made a bold and important statement.  Along with the 9/11/12 assaults on our embassies, and the subsequent rioting across the Muslim world, this speech has served as a clarion call to all who would think.  The West needs leaders who share Ahmadinejad’s geo-political philosophy.

While we take a globalist position, President Ahmadinejad and the leaders of the Arab Spring take a culturist position: they know they have a side and they stand up for it.  In his response to Ahmadinejad, President Barak Obama, by contrast, denounced politics that pit, “East against West; South against North; Muslim against Christian, Hindu, and Jew”[i] Obama is a globalist in that he takes no side in any international battles, he claims to speak for all of humanity.  We must rebuke this cultural blindness and realize, as Ahmadinejad, declares, that the West has a side in international affairs.

You must admire the extremes to which Ahmadinejad and him Muslim bretheren take their culturist stance. While in America, Iran’s President told CBS that Israel has no roots in the Middle East and must be “eliminated.”[ii] The twenty – one Arab countries surrounding Israel have a land mass of 8,368,272 square miles.  By contrast Israel covers 12,877 square miles.  In the whole Middle East a small sliver smaller than New Jersey is non-Islamic and the culturist Muslim world will not stand for it.[iii]  They back what has become the traditional majority culture in the Middle East - Islam.  Ahmadinejad and the Muslim world’s refusal to give up any of their territory should inspire us.

Instead, the West fought for the establishment of the Islamic state of Kosovo in Southeastern Europe.  We did so in the name of “human rights.” Ahmadinejad’s philosophy is better. Outside of necessary trade, Iran does not give Israel any money.  They know that non-Muslim nations are their competitors in a global battle for survival.  We, by contrast, give Palestinians money because we wish to avoid, by whatever means necessary, the impression that we are taking sides.  In his United Nations reply to Iran’s President, Obama declared that he supports Israelis and Palestinians alike.  Like Ahmadinejad, we must acknowledge that we have enemies and not support them.

Obama also champions the culture blind philosophy of multiculturalism.  As if channeling all other western politicians, in his United Nations response to Ahmadinejad, Obama declared, “we believe that freedom and self-determination are not unique to one culture. These are not simply American values or Western values – they are universal values.”[iv] As all multiculturalists and neo-cons, he boldly proclaims that cultural diversity does not exist, has no impact on politics, and has no place in our policy decisions.  This culture-blind logic, of course, underpins our continued efforts to turn Afghanistan into democracies and pumping of billions of our dollars into enemy regimes in the Middle East, as well as our culturally neutral border policies.

Ahmadinejad, by way of contrast, has been telling us that cultural diversity exists. During his visit to the United States he supported a move by an Iranian religious foundation to increase the reward for killing Salman Rushdie for blasphemy. He calls homosexuality a western disease.[v]  As such he proudly attempts to inform us that Islam is a different culture with different and opposing values to ours. Yet, our politicians deny cultural diversity exists, even while murderous riots denouncing free speech have spread across the Muslim world.  We must reject multicultural blindness for the culturist position, by beginning to notice the extent of cultural diversity and taking it seriously. 

President Ahmadinejad and the Muslims rioting across the Muslim world are trying to disabuse us of globalist and multicultural illusions.  We need to listen to them.  It is time to renounce the globalist vision that claims no international struggles for dominance exist.  We need to clear our palates of the multicultural lie that cultural diversity does not really exist or have any place in our policy decisions.  What our leaders call ‘universal values’ are not universal, they are western.[vi] We must take a culturist position.  We must heed Ahmadinejad’s culturist declarations that the West has a particular culture and Islam is against it, and adjust our policies accordingly.   

Dr. Press is the author of the book Culturism: A Word, A Value, Our Future.  He is also the inspiration behind the British political party the National Culturists.

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[i] National Journal Staff, “Full Text: President Obama's Speech at the United Nations General Assembly,” http://news.yahoo.com/full-text-president-obamas-speech-united-nations-general-102500744--politics.html, Sept, 25^th, 2012

[ii] Charbonneau, Louis, Reuters, “Update 6 – In New York, defiant Ahmadinejad says Israel will be ‘eliminated,’” http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/24/un-assembly-ahmadinejad-idUSL1E8KO5BL20120924, Sept. 24^th 2012.

[iii] The Israel Project, “Israel by the Numbers on the Eve of its 58^th Year of Independence,” http://www.theisraelproject.org/site/apps/nl/content2.asp?c=hsJPK0PIJpH&b=883997&ct=2356049, May 1^st, 2006

[iv] National Journal Staff, “Full Text: President Obama's Speech at the United Nations General Assembly,” http://news.yahoo.com/full-text-president-obamas-speech-united-nations-general-102500744--politics.html, Sept, 25^th, 2012

[v] “Iran’s President Ranges Far in Interview, Talks Israel, Slams Homosexuality, CNN, http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/24/world/meast/iran-ahmadinejad-interview/index.html, Sept., 25th, 2012

[vi] Charbonneau, Louis, Reuters, “Update 6 – In New York, defiant Ahmadinejad says Israel will be ‘eliminated,’” http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/24/un-assembly-ahmadinejad-idUSL1E8KO5BL20120924, Sept. 24^th 2012.

Culturism, Iran, Iraq, and Foreign Policy

Culturist Tensions with my Muslim Friend

My oldest friend, Geeta, is a Muslim. I just saw her for the first time in six years. Geeta came to this country when she was 13 - the Ayatollah chased her family out. Her clothes, drinking habits and relationship patters - her basic values - are highly Americanized. Geeta is a rock n roll woman and someone I care deeply about. When we were kids, our differences did not bother us at all. But current political realities made this visit tense at the edges.

Geeta just returned from a month-long travel; she guesses that eighty percent of Iranians resent the Iranian government and it imposition of Islamic law. The economy and infrastructure are so messed up that most Iranians need to have three jobs to make ends meet. Iran's development has fallen so low that they cannot refine their own oil and have to import gasoline! If you fought against Iraq you get a pension. If you didn't, you are impoverished. She said Iran’s conservative election results reflect corruption, not popularity. Most Iranians, she reported, love Americans and Western products.

Geeta's descriptions of Iran were meant to convey that Iran and Muslims are not inherently anti-Western. As her parents are currently in Iran, she worries about our wanting to bomb her country. She fears the demonization of Muslims. As a positive and contributing citizen, she resents being automatically considered a terrorist. Geeta's only terrorism has only been against me in pinball. Her concerns illustrate that we needlessly increase our domestic and international tension when we demonize people and nations. Many Muslims are good Americans and there is a real chance that Iran will someday be a relatively benign partner.

Cultural affiliation, though, are real. And assimilation has limits. Likely due to the political climate and the multiculturalism of her native Oakland, California, Geeta still identifies Muslims as her people and her country as Iran. She even calls Palestinians "my people." This need not be harmful. Geeta's voting could restrain our impulse to go to war. Geeta identifies with Iranian sovereignty and does not want Islam to spread. My culturist views also respect Iran's sovereignty and cherish our freedoms. If we follow culturist principles and do not needlessly antagonize Muslims domestically or internationally, citizen’s affiliation with non-Western civilizations need not be so bad.

We must be aware of cultural dynamics. Geeta’s description of Iran shows that twenty percent of the population can rob eighty percent of the population of their freedoms. If we invade Iran, as Geeta and any culturist can tell you, the percentage of Muslims that hates the West will rise internationally and domestically. If we target Iran's nuclear facilities – and I think we must - we should be careful to avoid jingoistic demonizing of Muslims at home and abroad. Such talk would needlessly and insensitively hurt Geeta’s feelings and increase the odds of destruction from the Muslim community.

While I could discuss the culturist principle of isolationism with Geeta, I thought it would endanger our relationship to explain the correlated culturist policy that we should safeguard ourselves by stopping all immigration from Muslim nations until worldwide Islamic terror has long ceased. Immigrants identify with their homeland. If twenty percent of immigrating Iranians or their children wants Sharia law, increasing their numbers endangers us. Such an immigration policy would safeguard us and tell people living here that we value our nation and culture.

Looking backwards, I should have discussed all aspects of culturism with Geeta. The discussion could have been a test case to see if explaining Western interests could minimize the hurt from discriminatory culturist policy. Had I appealed to protecting the U.S. from the Sharia law Iran has been devastated by, our relationship may have survived the confrontation. Having seen what she has in Iran, Geeta likely appreciates Western freedoms more than your Western average citizen.

I regret that political events have shoved issues between us that we never had to consider as teenagers. I love Geeta and dearly value our friendship. Perhaps, our nation will follow wise culturist policy and the world will be fraught with less cultural tension when we next meet.

Culturist Textbook Lessons from Iran

People’s little multicultural bubble has been popped and outrage and indignation have followed!! French researchers at Freedom House found out that women in Iranian textbooks are “not presented as independent individuals. Rather, they are a man’s wife, mother, sister, or daughter.” Worse yet, though minorities’ prophets are given some respect, the Iranian state is portrayed as Persian Islamic. The textbooks criticize the West and proclaim Israel and ally of the West and the enemy. The Middle East gets presented as sharing a common Islamic identity which is presented as the exclusive religion of social justice and the defender of the poor and oppressed both in Iran and abroad!!

Multiculturalists say that they believe in diversity, but when it hits them in the face they are shocked. They cannot believe that any textbooks “privilege” some “lifestyles” and are resolutely not “objective.” Multiculturalists very often confuse their little play pen for the entire world. In fact, some people believe in their religion so much that they conceive of others as heretics. But diversity exists. Many women believe female circumcision is proper. Diversity exists. Some people do not believe in Western civilization or its premises. Since multiculturalists despise privileging Western civilization, it is especially surprising that they did not expect textbooks in Iran to share in their sentiment.

Culturists realize that diversity exists. The views of nations in the Middle East do not shock culturists. Deeper yet, because culturists realize that there are sides they do not condemn the Iranian textbooks. From time immemorial, the rituals, initiation rites and textbooks of a society have been designed to introduce people to their society. Iranians’ behavior is normal. Multiculturalists saying we have no core culture to promote is what is abnormal and should be shocking to anyone who knows anything about basic cultural dynamics. We and Iranians have different views and different sides. If you did not know, the Middle East is Iran's turf and Israel is their enemy. It is sad that it takes a study of Iranian textbooks for multiculturalists to know that.

Multiculturalism is not the default position of humanity. Even in the West, the multiculturalists’ position is perverse. They become physically ill when people state that there are natural tendencies and limits to humans. Yes, women are largely shown in the home in Iranian textbooks. All cultures until Western civilization have considered the home women’s domain. We should celebrate our evolving vision. It is proper that we try to foster images of opportunity. But it is strange to expect other nations to teach our vision. Multiculturalists cringe at the thought that some people in our country may not be comfortable with half of the families represented in textbooks having same sex parents. At some point multiculturalists must come to understand that their vision is not the world vision.

Our textbooks should follow the natural culturist tendencies of the world. We should also teach that the Middle East is Islamic. Israel is on our side. Those who would destroy it are our enemies. The Muslim lifestyle is backwards, oppressive and ridiculous according to our values. Their treatment of women and gays are reasons to keep Islamic nations in check. They actually believe in theocracies and condemn freedom of speech. Not only that, but China is a racist nation that does not embrace democracy. Culturist textbooks would truly acknowledge diversity. They would note that we are different and special. They would also, ironically, safeguard women and gay’s freedoms better than the multiculturalist ones.