Thursday, December 15, 2005

The Victims of Multiculturalism

Melanie Philips points to an article from The Australian: Janet Albrechtsen: Racism is repulsive.

The article includes this paragraph:

Academic Amanda Wise from Macquarie University's Centre for Research on Social Inclusion blamed it on "John Howard dog-whistling on immigration" and "Bob Carr singling out the ethnicity of rapists"... Phil Glendenning of the Catholic Edmund Rice Centre went for the Howard quintet of apparent policy neglect: "Through Hansonism, the Tampa incident, children overboard, weapons of mass destruction and the unfair targeting of people of Islamic background over issues like terrorism and Iraq, Australia's young people are growing up in a culture of fear of the other.

It is depressingly familiar. How intellectually economical it is to be able to blame always the same people, the same system, that at the root of this and so much other violence are the actions of those same few people. While those who actually do the violence are encouraged to think of themselves as victims of injustice. And it is not merely the injustice of one person over another. It is racial injustice - "whites have power and wealth stolen from me." It is historical injustice - "European colonialism has made my culture weak and ineffectual." It is economic injustice - "the system keeps me powerless and poor." So why should the victim of racism, colonialism and capitalism respect the rules of those who benefit from that system? "As a victim of these monstrous forces, I can do nothing to better my situation. No, it is you who must give it all back to me - you owe it to me. You are wrong, so I must be right."
Tim Priest writing on the effect that Peter Ryan, a senior British police commander, had when he took over as NSW Police Commissioner.

[Police leaders] became more concerned with relations between the police and ethnic minorities than with emerging violent crime. The power and influence of the local religious and minority leaders cannot be overstated. Police began to use selective law enforcement. They selected targets that were unlikely to use their ethnic background and cultural beliefs to hinder police investigations or arrests. It was mostly Anglo-Saxons and Asians that were the targets, because they were under-represented by religious leaders and the media. They were soft targets.
(from
Quadrant)

The rule of law, which we in the West rightly laud as the sine qua non of a successful modern society, is overthrown. Multiculturalism, identity politics and the cult of the victim have played a great part.

Janet Albrechtsen also says,

Recognising human nature means that multiculturalism, though a fine sentiment, can only work if we unite behind a core set of values. Unfortunately though, that policy has become a licence for rampant cultural relativism. We are loath to criticise any aspects of cultures (except our own) for fear of sounding terribly judgmental and unfashionably un-multicultural. Instead, culture is talked about only as an excuse for abhorrent behaviour so that the offender becomes the victim.

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