The real enemy is change

Submitted by Dennis Cashen (United States), Apr 14, 2003 at 18:00

The ancient Romans often bemoaned the lack of 'dignitas' found in the younger generations; Cromwell, Hitler and Nixon all thought the world was going to hell in a handbasket. Osama and Omar are the same. What they see as westernization is modernization. The revolution in Iran rejected the cultural changes in Iranian society from 50 years of US presence, but could not reverse them.

Patrick Buchanan's 'death of the west' clarion call is the same principle in reverse. Rising Hispanic birth rates and massive asian and muslim immigration do not doom the American way of life, they guarantee it. Will it be the same waspish blue eyed blonde aryan nation Barbie/Ken in the next century? Probably not.

If you truly believe the American way of life is the best way, in a free marketplace of ideas, then the Americanized Hispanic or islamic American will defend it just as devoutly as the Euro-Americans of the last century.

Every immigrant group struggles to maintain the culture, mores and norms of the old country, but give them three generations and only the most superficial cultural notions remain. One can't complain about the evils of modern life on a cell phone.

Not with intellectual honesty. Change is what Osama and Patrick fear, and change is inevitable.

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