If you do not reason why...

...your civilization will surely die. Another kind of holocaust denial (full text subscriber only):

...A recent study from the British government's Department for Education and Skills reports that teachers in some schools won't offer history lessons on the Holocaust or the Crusades because they don't want to upset Muslim students.

"Some teachers are reluctant to cover the atrocity for fear of upsetting students whose beliefs include Holocaust denial," says the report. The subject of the Crusades is avoided because the lessons would "contradict what is taught in local mosques."

History cannot be censored because historical reality offends the sanctimonious delusions of a particular group. As commentator Barry Rubin states, "Such behaviour constitutes a reinforcement of racism, intolerance and hatred in the name of a philosophy -- political correctness -- which is supposed to combat these things."

However, the matter goes far beyond the cowardice of political correctness. These teachers betrayed the deepest purpose of their profession. They surrendered their responsibility to reason and retreated before the forces of dogma and irrationality. And that underscores the most worrisome aspect of the situation: To the degree these teachers represent the postmodern mindset, they reveal the slow suicide of the West.

[...]

Civilizations seldom collapse because of external threats. They collapse inwardly from psychic self-surrender. The teachers and the human rights groups display all the attributes of spiritual suicide. They tolerate those who preach intolerance. They make respect for diversity their highest value even if it means social chaos and political disorder.

In the past, the West absorbed massive numbers of immigrants with reasonable success because those immigrants adapted to the host society's standards even while retaining their cultural practices. These societies are jeopardized if they are no longer willing to assert "western" values...

More pieces by Robert Sibley of the Ottawa Citizen can be found here.

Mark C.

Posted by markc at April 18, 2007 07:42 PM