“Civilizationists”

The title of this article may immediately invite accusations of racism. Since nothing could be further from the truth, in my case, than such an accusation, let me begin with a crucial distinction, which I shall then explain: that between racial realism and what I will call ethnic memory. This distinction can help clarify a number of political disputes. Leftists will argue, for instance, that the United States and even European countries have always been multicultural. There is some truth to this in the American case, but ‘multicultural’ meant something different in the late 18th century than it does today. In those times, ‘multicultural’—the physical reality, not the later term—might mean Englishmen and Frenchmen, rather than Englishmen and Pakistanis, living side by side and creating a new nation. So one must be precise in one’s use of terms.

Elon Musk certainly knows how to grab you by the eyeballs and make you listen as he drops truth bombs on you. He may be the most interesting man in the world, although he doesn’t have quite the dashing good looks and smooth demeanor of the Dos Equis man.

As an autist, he doesn’t have the kind of slick charm and devilish demeanor of a Svengali who can charm you into anything. He has, instead, a keen intellect, an almost-charming bluntness, and an ability to see into dimensions of reality that are invisible to most of us.

We do not defend one civilization over another out of irrational passion. The West is not a football jersey we wear to compensate for our insecurities or our lack of personal identity. It is something closer to what the wise G. K. Chesterton said: “We are not asked to take off our heads when we enter the Church, but we are asked to take off our hats.” We do not adhere to Western values out of blind faith. We do so because there are a million reasons behind them.

Pic – Notre-Dame de Québec Basilica-Cathedral

LONDON — More than 4,000 delegates from dozens of countries gathered in London at the end of June for the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC) conference, a fast-growing international forum focused on family, faith, freedom, energy, democratic renewal and what its organizers describe as the moral decline of western civilization.

ARC is not yet well known in Canada. It was founded in 2023 and is closely associated with Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson, Baroness Philippa Stroud of the United Kingdom and former Australian deputy prime minister John Anderson. Its own material describes the movement as a call to “builders” and to those who choose “gratitude over cynicism.” Its critics describe it as a right-of-centre gathering that packages culture-war politics in the language of renewal.

Today, the word colonialism is treated almost like a curse word. Mention it in a classroom, on social media, or in many political circles, and you’ll immediately hear words like exploitation, racism, oppression, genocide, and theft. For many people—especially younger generations—colonialism has become history’s ultimate villain, the so-called “original sin” from which nearly every modern problem supposedly springs.

As a conservative, I’ve always thought this view was far too simplistic.

The AfD in Saxony-Anhalt has announced a ‘new patriotic cultural policy’ should it take power. The state’s cultural foundations … warn against a development that fundamentally calls into question the freedom of art, the openness of cultural institutions, and the democratically enshrined culture of remembrance.”

Thus begins a joint press release from the major state-funded cultural institutions of Saxony-Anhalt.

Saxony-Anhalt is the state in which the right-populist AfD is on course to win September’s election (it is currently polling at 38%, well ahead of all other parties, with a comfortable 13% lead over the incumbent conservative CDU).

Three years ago, the acting vice-chancellor of Cambridge University, Anthony Freeling, made a confession, widely reported in the British press. He confessed that he was baffled by “decolonization.” The word, he said, “has been misused to such an extent that I don’t think, if I’m honest, I can give an accurate definition.”

I sympathize — as, I strongly suspect, do millions of others. That’s because “decolonization” can mean a variety of different things, some of which make good sense, but others, very bad sense indeed. And the bad ones have smuggled themselves into schools and university departments under cover of the good.