MULTICULTURALISM. Contrary to Israel, where a 2-state solution is impossible, a 2-state solution is quite feasible for the US or Canada. All imperial powers pass eventually out of the hands of the homogeneous ethnic group that created the state, n into the hands of what Pareto termed Class I elements, meaning a class of individualized self-promoting, wealth-seeking opportunists. As part of their push for individual ‘freedom’ n ‘self-actualization’, these people once in power invite into the halls of government the elites from alien or foreign peoples, formerly excluded as not belonging to the ethnicity that had created the state for themselves.
Although it is the cohesion n confidence of original ethnicities that lead to successful imperial expansion, with a feeling of cultural superiority n usually a feeling of obligation on their part to ‘civilize’ other peoples, once Class I types gain control, this confidence inevitably ebbs n those formerly excluded come to be seen as sufficiently civilized to wield power in the Mother Country itself with the original stock now relegated to second level citizenship. Thus, an internally cohesive ethnicity confident in its conquest / civilizing mission creates an empire but eventually relinquishes control n embraces multiculturalism. Sometimes the ruling elites become so decadent that they come to regard other ethnicities as no longer in need of civilizing but as more civilized than the original stock which created the formerly dominant civilization.
Multiculturalism follows from Class I types seeking to maintain their political n economic dominance over the polity. Empires always follow this playbook, as recognized by Ibn Khaldun in the 14th century to some extent with his concept of asabiyyah, or social cohesion. One tribe creates a powerful, expanding state; it sinks into hedonism n thirsts after wealth; it invites the elites of formerly ruled peoples who are gaining a worrying amount of power to join the established elites in the exploitation of the original stock rather than rebel or secede; the new elites marry into the older elites; no one any longer gives a fig for military defense, much less for further expansion as their business enterprises are their only concern; then the state fragments or splits as even the very notions of an ethnically cohesive society or of a unified imperial state are scorned.
Finally, a new internally cohesive ethnic group senses the weakness in its neighbor n uses its superior military to invade, or uses its superior reproductive rate to immigrate, n founds an entirely new state with new values n again excludes other ethnic groups, including the former dominant ethnicity which now finds itself ‘discriminated against’ or exiled, the conquerors bringing back to the fore what Pareto terms Class II values. So the cycle repeats.
Every empire known to historians has followed this playbook: cohesion; expansion; hyper-individualism; multiculturalism; fragmentation; collapse. Khaldun described 120 years for small states; I see the process occurring usually in about 250 years for large empires, though sometimes with an ‘Indian Summer’ when a revival of old values temporarily pauses the sequence of events. But these as history shows always prove temporary.
Ancient Rome grew strong under the Republic from circa 300 BCE to 50 BCE. Then the growing corruption of its elites made fabulously wealthy by Roman occupation of foreign lands resulted in extreme poverty for most Roman citizens, who saw that their own survival depended on joining legions to occupy still more lands. Caesar championed this military imperial expansion n launched the events that ended the Republic n inaugurated the Empire where the legions n their generals ran the state n the Republic died. To avoid rebellion, especially to avert the threat of all the rest of Italy uniting against them during the Social Wars, the Roman elites invited formerly excluded elites to become Roman citizens, n that IMO is when the Empire truly began. By 200 CE, multiculturalism was all the rage n every Roman ruler thereafter learned that he could only hold power by recruiting foreigners into the legions n winning battles against competing Roman legions led by their own would-be emperors. By 350 CE, most ‘Roman’ armies were no longer Roman in any ethnic sense or even Imperial citizens but most were being recruited from beyond the frontiers or from among migrating invaders, with citizenship promised as a bribe. Fragmentation n collapse soon followed as foreign mercenaries seized control over what little remained of Rome, holding the emperors hostage.
Russia was launched by ethnic Russians over a 250 year period, from about 1450 to 1710 when Peter the Great transformed it into a multiethnic empire. The Tsarist Empire was highly Westernized n lasted till 1918 when the Tsars’ tolerance n preference for multiculturalism led to the Bolsheviks, who were almost entirely ethnic minorities, seizing power n genociding millions of Slavs n Russians. Stalin launched an Indian Summer, retreating from multiculturalism n reestablishing ethnic Russian rule n reembracing ancient Slavophilism, which lasted until the final collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Today the remaining Russians seem to be trying to relaunch Russia as a cohesive Russian ethnicity, although under Putin Russia remains highly multiethnic.
The Ottomans began as an ethnically cohesive tribe in Anatolia in the 12th century. Enjoying a rapid reproductive rate – like all young expanding states, n unlike all shrinking states – the Ottomans seized Constantinople in 1453 n eventually occupied most of the Balkans n in 1517 began occupying the Arab lands of Egypt n North Africa. But around 1600 something happened. One, they stopped expanding. Two, they started becoming multicultural. I don’t just mean the Janissaries, who were former Christians recruited as a ‘Praetorian Guard’ to protect the Sultans, but rather that ethnic Turks ceased to enforce the dominance of the original Turkish stock over non-Turks in their economy n society. Non-Turks, including Arabs, Greeks, retired Janissaries, n Slavs, even slaves, began rising to positions of power n influence throughout the Empire, n before long even Christian foreigners entering Ottoman territory began to enjoy what was called ‘capitulations’, i.e., enjoying application of their own laws instead of Ottoman laws. That would be like a Muslim entering the U.S. n instead of having to obey U.S. law, being allowed to use only Sharia law… okay, maybe that’s not the best example because that is actually happening today in Britain.
In the 1600s a Ukrainian slave woman in the Sultan’s harem actually rose to de facto control over the entire Ottoman Empire, a queen in all but name. That’s multiculturalism in action. By 1900 the Ottoman Empire was so corrupt n decrepit that a few officers staged the ‘Young Turk’ coup in 1908 intending to launch an ‘Indian Summer’ by re-Turkifying the Ottoman Empire. Hardly anyone in the former regime lifted a finger to stop them n by 1919, in the wake of the First World War, there was nothing left for Turks, who once ruled the largest empire in the world, except one tiny province in central Anatolia, IOW back to where they had begun 700 years earlier. This is what Empire n multiculturalism, different words for pretty much the same process, always seem to lead to.
The U.K. survived as a cohesive ethnicity for longer than 250 years, mainly because their island status prevented any influx of foreign subjects when travel was expensive n difficult. The Empire lasted from 1700 to 1945. But as WWII ended, the U.K. emerged bankrupt n the U.S. made it clear that the days of European empires was over. In a last-gasp effort to retain some international relevance, Britain embraced the late imperial stage of multiculturalism, which is like hoping one disease will counteract another, by inviting growing numbers of former imperial subjects into Britain as British elites used them to cling to power, scorning its own original stock n condemning them to eventual replacement. Kenya n Northern Rhodesia were abandoned. The democratic state of Southern Rhodesia was actually boycotted by Britain who preferred a black-only ‘Zimbabwe’ under the illiterate psychopath Mugabe. India was cut loose, which promptly descended into civil war n split into India versus Pakistan, which itself after another civil war begat Bangladesh, n maybe now Baluchistan. All black African countries were abandoned by Britain to uneducated violent demagogues as Britain turned its back on tutoring Africans in peaceful self-government, n even South Africa with its millions of whites was thrown to the wolves, a territorial split being highly likely in its future. New Zealand will likely partition as the Maoris increasingly assert themselves. And Canada may now be disintegrating before our eyes while Ireland seceded n split long ago to avoid the oppressive rule of imperial Britain. Partitions, independence movements, secessions, n rebellions are the inevitable consequence of the late imperial stage of multiculturalism, which, though it may prop up ruling elites for a time, only guarantees imperial decline.
The U.S. is also not immune. One could say that the original American stock prevailed from 1610 to 1860, when after 250 years the Civil War replaced it with a new American Empire with multiculturalism already built-in. Or one could say that the final ratification of the Constitution in 1788 was the start of the imperial stage, making 2038 the terminus. Either way, by 1900 the U.S. entered the multicultural imperial phase in spades, which will inevitably lead to fragmentation, secession, or chronic rebellion until the country finally splits into two or more political entities.
The Trump episode, IMHO, is best seen as another ‘Indian Summer’ as the original stock temporarily pauses the rapid decline of the empire into fragmentation n collapse. But only temporarily. Imperial decline never reverses once it begins because a strong expanding state always arises from an ethnically cohesive founding stock with high reproduction, n when that is gone due to abortion, or otherwise fails to reproduce, or is adulterated, or simply fight among themselves, or even experiences a declining average IQ, it cannot reassert control until all non-founding stock are spun off n borders adjusted to align with ethnicity, as the Soviet Union did in 1991 n Turkey did in 1920 under Ataturk when the modern state of Turkey, which is not a multicultural empire, was born. Article by Sin City Milla for Sirius.Reviews
(Cover photo: Vandals sacking Rome, courtesy Alamy)
