I've heard it suggested more than once that Europe's infatuation with multiculturalism and their deliberate importation of ''diversity" is an attempt to be one-up on America. Back in the Cold War era, when much of the West's journalistic establishment was already under the sway of leftism, there was a great deal of propaganda from the left focusing on the 'plight' of nonwhites in America, on the issue of 'racial prejudice.' (Remember, now, this was before the handy-dandy, all-purpose verbal assault weapon of ''racism'' had been devised. ) But I'm told by people who lived in the old Soviet Union then that they were often shown images of supposed 'police brutality' used against blacks, such as during the era of 'Civil Rights' marches and sit-ins.
The people in Europe also saw these images and probably read many newspaper articles on the unique evil of 'racial discrimination' in the United States. It is mostly due to that kind of thing that my former acquaintances in France told me that my country was 'fascist'.
So America was held up to the rest of the (liberal) West as a bad example: ''don't let this happen to you. Americans are bigots who hate others based solely on skin pigmentation." This was the message, explicitly or implicitly.
Here on our side of the Atlantic, the 'progressive' (read: rebellious, Bohemian) types often moralized about how 'open and liberal' Europe and even the supposedly rigid Soviet Union were on racial matters. We were told how Paul Robeson, the black opera singer, fled to the Soviet Union, where he was properly honored and respected by the 'colorblind' socialists and communists. We were told how Josephine Baker had to go to France to obtain the fame and celebrity she craved, being unappreciated in her country of birth because of 'bigotry'.
I think America's relationship with Europe has always been rather ambivalent. Our ancestors who came here to found their own societies had decided to begin anew, and to try to avoid what they perceived as the mistakes Europe made, to distance themselves in more ways than one from Europe. At the same time, there was not a wholesale rejecting of our European heritage, and America continued (perhaps foolishly, as it now appears) to receive immigration from Europe in later centuries. We grew to be a populous and powerful country, though we were still viewed -- and indeed, still are, to an extent -- by our kin in Europe as the country cousins, uncouth, lacking in real 'culture', green and naive, and not quite fit company. On the one hand, some were inspired by our Revolution here and instituted similar efforts in their countries. We were at one and the same time envied and resented.
It's often observed that the recipient of help often resents and even hates the one who dispenses the help. As we were compelled to come to the aid of Europe in two world wars, and to offer substantial financial help in reconstructing Europe after each war, we came to be resented more. Our GIs, stationed in Europe, were at once admired and disliked for their supposed arrogance or brashness.
As our power in the world grew, and as we were called on more and more to wield that power, whether punitively or helpfully, we seemed to become more and more the object of criticism and even hatred, not only in the Soviet Union and the Communist bloc countries, but in Europe, which was becoming increasingly socialist. As our country was identified with its wealth and prosperity and a somewhat crass popular culture, we became a symbol of all that socialists and Communists hated and wished to destroy.
At the same time, our popular culture was eagerly imbibed by people the world over; though they may claim to hate us, they bought our music and watched our movies and wore blue jeans. We have been loved and hated simultaneously.
And there is a sense of rivalry and competition. I've noticed an ambivalence among many of the British people I've known; they acknowledge that there is some similarity between our countries due to our common roots, but at the same time they eagerly distance themselves from us, seeming to disdain much about our culture and way of life, seeing it as inferior to the best of their culture. Any differences between us are seized on and emphasized, while similarities are played down or denied.
It could well be that as the media propaganda on American 'racial prejudice' seeped into Europe's consciousness, they began to see this point as a way in which they could distinguish themselves from us, from their yokel 'redneck' cousins, and to display their singular lack of 'racial prejudice.'
So when the former European colonies began to clamor and agitate for independence, when the European colonial empires disintegrated, their former subjects began to immigrate to the Mother countries, and according to socialist dogma, these people, regardless of their savage pasts, were to be treated as equals. It's easy to imagine that on the part of many socialists and other such utopian ideologues, they imagined they could create some kind of colorblind egalitarian societies where we had so publicly been seen to fail. This would be a feather in Europe's cap, if they could show us how it should be done, and if they could also 'prove' the validity of their colorblind socialistic dogmas. So they set out to conduct the big human social experiment: import lots of third-worlders, mix with European people, stir well with socialist propaganda and rhetoric, and voila, a multicultural 'rainbow'.
To be fair, by the same time, our country was also increasingly under the sway of liberal or openly leftist propagandists in every sphere of public life. The media, the intellectual classes, and the educational rank-and-file, and increasingly government at all levels became dominated by liberals and crypto-socialists, all piously pro-'integration.'
Britain had already begun her importation of what would later be designated as ''diversity'', meaning a congeries of unrelated, disparate, incompatible peoples, while we began in earnest only in 1965. We were late to the multicult party, so even now we are lagging behind the Europeans in this regard. While we have a larger nonwhite population percentage overall, that's been because of our already-existing black population, while the Europeans have had to start from scratch, as it were, in gathering their human menagerie of mixed multitudes. So they are probably working faster in terms of creating their Babel than we are.
They are certainly ''ahead'' of us on the road to Orwellian police-state, thought-control systems.
It must also be acknowledged that the Europeans were naive; they lacked our longstanding experience of 'diversity' and the realities of racial differences. While they had some experience via their colonies, that was decidedly different than having the 'diversity' living next door, and granted equal (or better) status in one's home country. Being a member of a White colonial elite in a decidedly class-stratified country was not much like our present situation, where multiculturalism is being promoted as a way of demolishing the existing order of things and even the actual dominant race of our countries.
So the Europeans, in their defense, had no idea of what might be the end result of importing lots of incompatible and often resentful and hostile aliens into their midst. They probably, like all good liberals and leftists, believed that good intentions and high-flown ideals about 'human brotherhood' and equality would see them through, and produce some socialist heaven-on-earth. And it seems that even now, many if not most cling to these delusions, in the face of the growing chaos and anomie of multiculturalism. Ideologues are handicapped when it comes to acknowledging realities that contradict their cherished belief system.
Even now, there seems to be quite a substantial layer of anti-American feeling in Europe, including the UK and Ireland. We can expect the media to be anti-American because the media are solidly leftist and globalist in their biases. But the common people, too, seem to harbor their share of anti-American feeling, even among the right-wing types one encounters on the Internet. So it would seem that much of Europe still has a rivalry or a sense of competition with us, and a desire to outdo us, to ''show us up''.
However it's hard to imagine that this kind of feeling could impel a people to commit demographic or racial suicide in the effort to outdo us or make us look bad by comparison. This would be carrying rivalry and competition to an absurd level.
Still, I'm at a loss to understand why the delusion of multiculturalism is so strong in Europe, and why they knowingly and deliberately introduced racial divisions into their own countries. We can blame it on leftism, but that only leaves us with the question of why anybody embraces leftism and multiculturalism?
I am also loathe to blame it on some kind of aberrant gene in Europeans, so what then is the explanation? Failing a better answer, I suppose I am reluctantly willing to consider that spite towards America may in fact play a part.
If any of my European or British readers care to comment, I'd be interested in other opinions.
