Dr. Samuel Huntington R.I.P.

Samuel Huntington has left us and he has left us a more enlightened. I saw this coming, I sent him an offer of a complementary copy of my book, Culturism, a year ago. His secretary said Dr. Huntington is too ill to read new books. This, of course saddened me. It did so because I consider Dr. Huntington the main scholar to have inspired culturism. His 'Clash of Civilizations' model is the culturist model.

Huntington's book, 'The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of the World Order" describes the post-Cold War world. During the Cold War the question was, "Which side are you on?" All nations either identified with the USSR or the USA. But after the collapse of the Soviet Union, that question no longer had meaning. The search for national identity then defaulted back to older sources. These sources would be ethnic, nationalist and religious.

When the Cold War ended many assumed that the world would become united under western precepts. There would be what Fukayama called the "End of History." Everyone would become globalist. We forgot about history as other nations saw their chance to reassert themselves. Huntington noted that even in economics, the basis upon which the democratic, capitalist union of the world was to happen, Australia was not let into the Asian trading organizations. We went globalist while others stayed nationalist and we have been stripped in the process.

When people assume the new global order, they fantasize it happening under an agreement on western values of democracy, individual rights and free markets. It does not occur to us that others imagine this union on an Islamic basis or happening via again acknowledging China is the center of the world. Huntington foresaw the demographic rise of Islam. He understood that history mattered and that both would resent the West's prominence. As in culturism, Huntington argued for respecting others' sphere of influence. In Asia that would mean not protecting Taiwan. With Islam that would require containment, not conversion. Huntington warned that our attempts to impose western values we imagined were global could aggravate the clash of civilizations.

In the Clash of Civilizations Huntington also talks about swing civilizations. He wonders if Russia and Latin America will become more like western core states or less. In recent years Latin America has become more democratic. But this requires the strength of a core state to promulgate such values. He shows that wars break out on fault lines. Fault line wars tend to lead to extremists, not moderates. The Clash of Civilization and the Remaking of the World Order is summarized under 'book summaries' under 'world history' at the culturism website, www.culturism.us. But I recommend buying the book.

Huntington's "Who are We?" also greatly influenced culturism. In this work he focused on Mexico forcing American demographic change. He worried about us becoming a 'cleft nation.' That is a nation with two different linguistic groups and historic allegiances. He pointed out how poorly this had worked out historically. It leads to Civil War. Furthermore, he relied on Ronald Inglehart's World Values Survey to show the importance of a futuristic, non-fatalistic values system to progress. More information on this important survey is at www.worldvaluessurvey.org.

It is frustrating that twenty years since the collapse of the Berlin Wall, people still do not recognize the Clash of Civilizations model has come to pass. Islamic aggression and Chinese dominance are no longer remote possibilities. The idea of America becoming an unstable cleft nation gets more entrenched with each day. Politicians all act as though sides are a thing of the past and all share the same values in the new global order. The words culturism and culturist are basically offered to provide an easy way for people to show agreement with Dr. Huntington. Even as we carry on, reading his works provides us with more ammunition. We will sorely miss this giant intellectual warrior.

Culturism, Loyalty and Barack

Divided loyalties should worry any political observer with a sense of culturism. Presidents must be born American citizens. If you're in the Congress or the Supreme Court there is no such requirement. The answer as to why brings us to recognize the importance of loyalty. Though some controversy reverberates in come circles, President-Elect Barrack Obama has American citizenship by birth. But there are still loyalty problems.

President-Elect Obama just barely got born here. His family globe-trotted and his father and step father were not Americans. He has a lot of foreign-born relatives. So now he has an illegal alien Aunt living in public housing in Boston. It would emotionally tear him up to enforce our border laws. Should he betray his aunt and send her back? Should he turn against his family to do his job as our Chief of State? Here we see the immediate impact of divided loyalties.

History has provided other evidence of the danger of diversity when it comes to loyalty. In 1846 the United States went to war with Mexico. When the treaty signing happened we had taken Mexico City militarily. It was an easy win. Today would we easily win a rematch of that war? We probably wouldn't. Why not? Divided loyalties.

This is natural. The other day I was discussing this with my classes here in New York. One fully Americanized student of Mexican -descent contributed, "you guys stole it from us." I brought his pronoun use to attention of the class. I joked about it and explained why it is dangerous. We need to discuss loyalty and teach about it in our schools.

Americanization programs met the last wave of immigrants. These sought to get immigrants to stay in and identify with America. This was a widespread culturist reform effort concerning loyalty. They used parades contests and public schools to teach about loyalty. Many people of Mexican descent already do identify with America. And replacing multiculturalism with culturism will help with increase that number. This is our best step forward.

In Europe, they have been at war with Islam for over one thousand years. So they must ask if in their case diversity is a good thing? Does diversity make them stronger and more able to win wars or the reverse? Americanizers recognized that some cultures were harder to assimilate than others. If assimilation does not work the only choice is border laws. But here loyalty comes back into play.

In a democracy the laws represent the will of the people. In a democracy, if demographics change to where people are more concerned with opportunity for peoples of other nations than the domestic one border laws must become lax or non-existent. And I pray that President - Elect Obama find it in his heart to put American interests above all else. And, though it will be hard for Barrack to send his auntie back, the only other choice is dismantling all of our border laws for sentimental reasons. I hope President - Elect Obama has the strength to put America first.

Culturist Election Results

Barrack Obama will be our next President. In some ways this bodes very well for our culture. There are also real reasons for concern and potential dangers from an Obama Presidency. We must productively address our culturist concerns and work to maintain our point of view. We are especially well placed to avert the dangers the Obama Presidency brings. And, ultimately, as proud Americans we must wish Obama the best of luck as the next President of the United States.

First the good news. We have a black President. This can help America shake its self-image as a hopelessly racist nation. Obama's election seems to be irrefutable evidence that we have moved beyond racism. It will also provide a sense of optimism to minorities. Rather than hating or resenting America for being racist, having a black President should help minorities to see that America is amongst the least racist nations on earth. This realization can aid culturists in their quest to teach Americans that differences in achievement have more to do with culture than race. Thus having a black President could make us prouder and more culturally aware.

While celebrating the cultural impact of Obama's being black, it would have been preferable for culturists if he did not have a Muslim name. Our leader having such a name normalizes an Islamic presence in our nation. It implicitly teaches us to consider cultural differences irrelevant. And while his color may help us to identify the Enlightenment roots of our Western culture, his name subtly undermines the recognition that we have specific Western culture to protect and promote. Culturists must point out that our lack of racism highlights our Enlightenment roots and Obama's Christianity confirms the other source of our Western civilization.

Obama's election creates some very real concerns. His having chosen a Muslim name and his affiliation with some powerful Muslim leaders indicates that he will not recognize that Western cultural is under siege. This will at very least lead to lackadaisical security. His affiliation with the racist Reverend Wright raises concerns that he may describe ours as a racist nation. Even more than other Presidents, he may label efforts to protect ourselves and our economic inequality as reflecting racial rather than cultural concerns. Both possibilities point to culturists needing to continue teaching people to distinguish the important variable of culture from the irrelevant one of race.

The biggest danger of Obama's Presidency comes from the power it could give to one lone nut or even an undercover Jihadist. Assassinating Obama would greatly destabilize America. We are very vulnerable now. Remind people that the West is great because of democracy and democracy is great because it makes for stable, flexible and peaceful governments. As many culturists blog on the right, we have a special duty to sternly denounce hysterics. As culturists we take pride in the fact that Western nations use ballots and words, not bullets. Obama's getting through office safely will help us showcase the greatness of America and democracy. Being a good American means monitoring and arguing with your President. But at the end of the day, it also means wishing him or her success in their attempts to improve America. As a culturist and an American, I hope Obama makes us all proud.