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The West’s refusal to champion its own values has created the very divisions multiculturalism promised to eliminate.

Tony Abbott has once again committed the cardinal sin of modern politics — saying out loud what millions of people quietly mutter over dinner.

His observation that multiculturalism has failed was greeted with the usual chorus of outrage.

The professional offence-takers reached for their smelling salts.

Academics produced lengthy explanations proving that the public hadn’t actually seen what they could plainly see.

Labor MPs reassured us that “diversity is our strength” — a phrase repeated so often it now sounds less like an argument than a hypnotist’s command.

“Look into my eyes. Ignore the terrorist attacks. Ignore the parallel communities. Ignore the growing social fragmentation.”

Tolerating the Importation of Intolerance

The problem isn’t that Australia has people from every corner of the globe. Immigration built modern Australia, and successful migrants have enriched this country beyond measure.

The problem is that somewhere along the journey we quietly abandoned assimilation in favour of multiculturalism — not merely as a demographic reality, but as an ideology.

Assimilation asks newcomers to become part of a common national story.

Multiculturalism increasingly asks the nation to become a collection of separate stories that occasionally share the same postcode.

As Ayaan Hirsi Ali observed…

“Multiculturalism should not mean that we tolerate another culture’s intolerance.”

That should be one of those statements so obvious it barely requires saying.

Yet in much of the West it has become positively revolutionary.

Because once multiculturalism becomes a sacred doctrine, every culture must be treated as morally equivalent — even those whose values openly contradict the freedoms that made Australia an attractive destination in the first place.

Freedom of speech? Optional.

Equality between men and women? Culturally relative.

Religious liberty? Well, let’s not be insensitive.

Roger Scruton warned precisely about this contradiction. He wrote…

“To offer toleration to those gripped by animosity to your way of life is to open the door to destruction.”

Western civilisation developed the remarkable ability to tolerate disagreement. It was never intended to tolerate movements determined to abolish tolerance itself.

That isn’t compassion.

It’s institutionalised naivety.

It’s like inviting termites into your house because excluding them would be discriminatory against insects.

The irony is almost Shakespearean.

The very societies that champion liberty have become reluctant to defend it.

We apologise for our history while importing people from places where questioning authority can still be a dangerous hobby.

We celebrate diversity but grow increasingly nervous about expressing distinctly Australian values for fear of causing offence.

Instead of encouraging integration, governments often subsidise separation.

Instead of teaching newcomers why our institutions matter, we reassure everyone that every belief system deserves identical respect — even when some openly reject the principles upon which liberal democracy depends.

National Suicide

No civilisation survives by believing itself uniquely unworthy of survival.

None.

This is why Abbott’s comments resonate with so many Australians. Not because they dislike immigrants, but because they love Australia.

They understand that citizenship means more than filling out paperwork.

A nation is not simply an economy with a flag attached. (And we can’t even agree on the flag!)

No, a nation is a shared inheritance of customs, laws, language and loyalties.

Without those common bonds, multiculturalism slowly becomes multinationalism.

A country becomes less like a family and more like an airport departure lounge: crowded, busy, economically useful — and inhabited by people with remarkably little reason to care about one another.

A society cannot endure indefinitely on GDP figures and food festivals alone.

Sooner or later, every nation must answer a simple question.

What exactly are we asking people to join?

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Republished with thanks to The James Macpherson Report.

Images via Adobe and Wikimedia Commons.