Obeisance to authority has never been a notably human trait. Indeed, the impetus to flout authority seems to be implanted in our genes. As boys, for instance, we treated things forbidden—such as death-defying games of tag across the slick, moss covered tiles of the school roof—merely as challenges to do so as often as possible.
Lamentably, our seemingly inbred urge to flout authority does not dissipate with advancing years. If anything the older we get the stronger it gets. For most adults, I guess, our instinct to rebel is confined to exceeding the speed limit and ignoring our bosses’ explicit instructions.
Sometimes, however, it expresses itself in rather more destructive forms. One of the most in-your-face examples of it is to be found in the Russian Nihilist movement which came into being in the latter half of the 19th Century.
The Nihilists rejected all authority. And the name of their movement said it all. It was derived from the Latin word nihil, meaning “nothing”.
They claimed Christianity—at least in its Russian Orthodox expression—was abusive. And they accused the aristocracy of dominating the national economy.
Actually neither claim was true. Indeed, the Russian economy in the latter part of the 19th Century was, in virtually every industrial sector, the fastest growing capitalist economy in the world.
Moreover, the Duma—the national representative assembly—included a multiplicity of political parties, including socialists of various stripes.
The remedy the Nihilists advanced for all these ills was the wholesale destruction of the Russian state and culture. Their platform was essentially, “destroy it all, and something better will emerge.”
Someone, I can’t remember who, once observed: “Bad ideas never die. They always return to haunt us.” And one can detect a similar sense of nihilistic anger in the fad for “multiculturalism” emanating primarily from folks who consider themselves our intellectual elite.
The passion for “cultural diversity” has very little to do with the sentiments that inspired the Statue of Liberty and the eloquent prayer “For our Country” (BCP, Page 36), which petitions God to “fashion into one united people the multitudes brought hither out of many kindreds and tongues.”
Quite to the contrary, in fact.
“Multiculturalism” is not a program aimed at promoting the assimilation of immigrants from a wide spectrum of disparate peoples into our unique American culture. Nor, for that matter, does it aspire to create a new American synthesis of cultures.
What the promoters of multiculturalism want to do is to abandon and destroy the culture that gave birth to this nation’s constitution and shaped the “American way of life.”
Far from creating “one united people,” the goal is to shatter what remains of national unity and replace it with a vast spectrum of competing interest groups, some—but by no means all—reflecting racial and ethnic divisions.
In other words, “multiculturalism” is nothing of the kind. “Multiculturalists” are not united in their desire for a vast diversity of cultures. Like the Russian Nihilists, what unites their American counterparts is their hatred of the Christian culture that forged our nation.
As such, multiculturalism would benefit from a modicum of truth in advertising—starting with a change of name.
If they don’t favor the name “Nihilist,” perhaps “A-culturalists” would suit. Most of the folks who espouse “multiculturalism” reject theistic—and, most especially, Christian—culture in much the same way that “A-theists” reject God.
Or if they insist on having a “multi” in their name, “multibarbarism” more accurately sums up their beliefs. To be sure, “multibarbarianists” is a bit of a mouthful, but it definitely has a ring to it. Personally, I’d go for “multibarbarianites.”
America, thankfully, is a free country. People who live here are at liberty to espouse or reject what they choose. Non-Christians are in no way obliged to convert to the Christian faith—or even to show respect for it.
But before those who are not Christian rush to sign on with the forces of multiculturalism, they would be wise to consider the decidedly unpleasant consequences attendant on abandoning our Christian heritage.
“Multiculturalism” is based an underlying premise that the best of American culture is not Christian in origin, but rather originates from “self–evident truths.” This is, in fact, entirely fraudulent.
The vast majority of what we consider to be American virtues, hard-work, self-sacrifice, charitableness and the like, are what are best described as Judeo-Christian values.
Take, for example, the presumption of innocence that underlies our criminal justice system. Many, if not most, Americans seem to think that it is only natural for a person who has been arrested and charged with a crime to be presumed innocent until they have been proved guilty “beyond reasonable doubt.”
There is, in fact, nothing natural about it at all. Nothing could be more unnatural for a person who has been arrested for a crime to be considered not guilty.
After all, they were arrested in the first place on the basis of evidence indicating their guilt. Presuming a guilty person innocent until the case against them is proven makes sense only as an act of Christian charity. Otherwise it is simply chuckle-brained.
Similarly, treating people weaker than oneself, or poorer than oneself, or more stupid than oneself, as equals makes sense only if one believes that all men and women are equal before God, the creator of us all.
To assert that fundamentally unequal people are equal—outside the realm of the Divine—is simply a lie. Unequal people cannot be made equal merely by human beings asserting such to be the case. Truth, ultimately, will out.
Multiculturalism might help explain the rapid erosion of civility in our society. Indeed, it is worth asking whether the rising tide of crime, immorality and violence could be connected with the public disavowal of private Christian virtues.
Unlike their 19th Century Russian counterparts, America’s nihilists have not resorted to violence in an effort to impose their will—throwing bombs and assassinating the Nihilists adopted government officials.
But then seeing the progress they’re making without violence, there really wouldn’t be any point in them doing so. GPH✠
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