The Sleepwalk of the West

France is the word’s most popular tourist destination. 80 million people visit annually; 25 million more than the second-ranking USA, 15 million more than France’s own population – who holiday in millions in their own country rather than go abroad, or have chosen to settle in France rather than in their country of origin. So… [...]

Much has been written these last few days on Claude Lévi-Strauss. Le Monde devoted four pages to the Grandfather of Anthropology, who has died aged 100. In an odd irony – after reams of praise for his insights into ethnographic diversity and the rich taxonomy of humankind – an unrelated article in the same paper [...]

Minorities get blamed for everything. They even get blamed for being themselves; for preferring their own culture. The criticism itself is made by those – claiming various degrees of indigenous status – who prefer their own culture, as perceived to have prevailed before the latter minorities threatened it. A third group has yet another preference, [...]

An FT article on Islam in France argues that a demographic “Eurabia” outcome is unlikely. I agree. However, the article is very optimistic about the piety of the average French Muslim, as well as the societal impact of multi-faith “mélange” (mix). On the first point, it seems to think that the 15 to 20 percent [...]

Dutch society was once very segregated. Guess, until when, the following was the case: … each of the four “pillars” had its own mini-society within the greather whole of Dutch society. Protestant people voted for a Protestant party, read Protestant newspapers, watched the Protestant broadcasts … Mixed marriages were frowned upon, and Catholic bishops and [...]

The cost of liberal democracy/capitalism is that there are economic losers. “Old” Labour was about tackling class, i.e. the injustice of grossly unequal income distributions. Even if Socialism’s not your thing, there’s still no reason why capitalism can’t be forced to accept corrective or attenuating measures such as social safety nets, meaningful regulation, exponentially progressive [...]

An anti-racist stance has to be consistent, otherwise it’s just… more racism. When I went on Anti-Nazi League marches with my schoolmates, the hope (as I understood it in my hormonally left-wing state) was for a colour-blind world of equal treatment and opportunity. All racial differentiation was bad. That was before Diversity(TM). Now, race – [...]

During the same Paris demonstration, placards were handed out showing historical icons of resistance to oppression. Mohamed Ali, Arafat, ML King, Sitting Bull… though the accompanying chants were only about contemporary objects of love/hate. Love: Hamas. Hate: Sarkozy. Strangely, Obama wasn’t mentioned. On a nearby wall was this (unrelated) sticker: I do not dispute the [...]

Strangely, some national anthems (e.g. European ones) are taboo – the mark of supremacist colonialism etcetera, whereas others are encouraged – noble expressions of cultural identity that we should all join in with. Here is the Algerian national anthem being sung during a demonstration at the end of my street in Paris. It contains lines [...]