| Thursday, March 16, 2006 |
| What price liberalism? |
On the cultural hegemony "tolerance" front, comes a rather startling post on the Guardian comment site:
Initially this seems a case of "man bites dog". The Washington Post reports upon a regulation that came into effect yesterday. It requires that immigrants wishing to settle in the Netherlands for the purposes of marriage or forming a relationship will be required to take a "civic integration examination" before being admitted to the country. The examination is compulsory and the material to be studied is available from Dutch embassies. The package includes a film that applicants are obliged to watch. Included in the film are images of two gay men kissing in a park and a woman emerging, topless, from the sea and walking onto a crowded beach. The tolerant not tolerating intolerance? That's news! Of course, this being a "liberal" rule, there are exemptions to the policy:
"EU nationals, asylum seekers and skilled workers who earn more than $54,000 per year will not be required to take the 30-minute computerised exam. Also, citizens of the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Japan and Switzerland are exempt." What next? Forcing Muslims who wish to enter EU countries to draw their best cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad in a comedic, satirical or negative light? Yep. That oughta solve the culture clash problem...
It seems to me that liberal, Western societies are going to eventually have to come to grips with the fact of intolerance. There are those, who for religious or moral or other reasons, simply object to certain behaviors. You can't legislate them into accepting or embracing what they abhor, deep down. I assume these regulations are mostly aimed at the teeming hoardes of immigrants from North Africa, most of whom are Muslims. Well brace yourself for the lawsuits, Dutchies. If you look at the American, or the South African, civil rights movements, which are often breezily equated with modern day rights pushes, the message wasn't "love Black people." It wasn't "watch Black people make out" (or for that matter give us an Oscar, or else...) It was, let us live normal lives where we want, how we want, without institutional discrimination or interference from the state.
Europe has a problem: it has a population problem and it has a cultural problem (the U.S. has one too, just not quite as severe ... yet). It won't solve it with regulations like these (or the religious displays bans in France). Irradicating religiosity may sound good to secular humanists (and pro Danish cartoon selectivists, who don't apply the same standard Christian intolerance). But it's very impracticle -- and in some instances, downright dangerous -- in real life. Just ask anyone who knows anything about Waco, Texas...
Tags: Liberalism, Netherlands |
posted by JReid @ 1:09 PM   |
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