You need an identity that is not based on ethnicity, not based on religion, but is based on shared political values
Francis Fukuyama, author of the new book The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment, spoke to Andrew Coyne of the National Post. He said;
“I really do think that it’s a bad interpretation of liberalism to say that we have to respect community values rather than the rights of the individual who lives in a liberal society.” And “In Europe, you have a number of countries that define citizenship in ethnic terms. I don’t think that’s an acceptable way for a de facto multicultural society to think of itself. You need an identity that is not based on ethnicity, not based on religion, but is based on shared political values. So in the United States, this is a belief in the constitution, a belief in the rule of law, a belief in the principle of human equality. You’ve got to get that civic understanding of nationalism.”
I could not agree more. I wrote a book about this. Back to the Ethic:Reclaiming Western Values. I suggest the present lack of civil discourse has developed over an error in nomenclature. Neither Canada nor America are multicultural countries. We are multi-ethnic countries held together by our common shared secular values which are firmly rooted in the ethic that all people are born with equal intrinsic value because all life is sacred. It is the ideal to which we strive that makes diversity and pluralism possible. And this value comes from the Judeo/Christian ethic that underpins all democracies. That ethic came from the dark-skinned Jewish people 3500 years ago, delivered in no man’s land, the desert because it was open to all and was later shared by Christianity. This ethic is separate from religion and ethnicity. It’s an ethic that has been promoted from John Adams,member of the Declaration of Independence committee and second president of the United States:
I will insist that the Hebrews have done more to civilize men than any other nation. If I were an atheist, and believed in blind eternal fate, I should still believe that fate had ordained the Jews to be the most essential instrument for civilizing the nations. If I were an atheist of the other sect, who believe or pretend to believe that all is ordered by chance, I should believe that chance had ordered the Jews to preserve and propagate to all mankind the doctrine of a supreme, intelligent, wise, almighty, sovereign of the universe, which I believe to be a great essential principle of all morality, and consequently of all civilization.
To Barack Obama who said on June 28, 2006, in Washington D.C.:
Secularists are wrong when they ask believers to leave their religion at the door before entering into the public square. Frederick Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, William Jennings Bryan, Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King—indeed, the majority of great reformers in American history—were not only motivated by faith, but repeatedly used religion to argue for their cause. So to say that men and women should not inject their “personal morality” into public policy debates is a practical absurdity. Our law is by definition a codification of morality, much of it grounded in the Judeo-Christian tradition.
Secularist, Immanuel Kant, with his categorical imperative, demonstrated that this ethic is rational and necessary for a freedom loving people/country.
I am first generation Canadian on my father’ side. I’m not white, nor European, nor Christian. But I have the right to be treated like “white, European, Christians” because of our ethic.I grew up in Toronto where Jews had not been treated as equals. They had been denied entry into many clubs and beaches. Jewish doctors had been denied residencies in hospitals. Signs “Gentiles only” or “No Jews, dogs or Irishmen” had been ubiquitous.Gentile only clubs existed into the latter half of the 20th century.
It is the ethic upon which our laws sit that made it possible for Jewish people to fight for the right it be admitted everywhere. And it is that ethic that made it possible for “people of colour” to be acknowledged as equal. In America, President Lincoln referred to the ethic of equality to end slavery and discrimination against black people. That it is taking so long to get that acceptance speaks to the strength of hate that had been taught in schools, homes and houses of worship. It is for that reason that we must be forever on guard against teaching hate for “the other” from any of our schools and our houses of worship.
It is the Judeo/Christian ethic that made it possible for women to march for equal rights, the right to vote and have their own chequing account. It is what made it possible for Harvey Milk to stand up for the gay community and demand equality. And Gay Rights took hold. There is no one group in the west that can be denied equal treatment under the law. These demands for equal rights under the law are not available in far too many countries around the world. And their cultures do not always mesh with ours.
Sadly, too many in the west are ignorant of this unparalleled ethic. We have stopped teaching ethics, and in particular, the ethic that promotes these freedoms; these inalienable rights.
The late George Jonas wrote “Don’t let Western civilization—the best and most humane form of civilization developed by mankind—perish by default .”
I think we’re still battling with cultural relativism taught by Franz Boas in the early 20th century. If all cultures are equal then Canada and America would allow the implementation of the caste system as is practised in India. There are far too many countries, today, who will not accept our value system. If women, Christians, Jews and gays demanded rights in 60 plus countries around the world they would be laughed at best, and at worst attacked.
I think too many people have been unfairly attacked for saying we are a country of diverse people, but not diverse cultures. I suggest that Kellie Leitch ( Screening for Canadian values: Are men and woman equal, and entitled to equal protection under the law?) and Maxime Bernier (extreme multiculturalism) tried to point out that we have common shared Canadian values and those values are what make diversity possible. Canadian values have opened the door to diverse people because we are firmly rooted in that Judeo/ Christian ethic. How many Americans have been labeled racist or Islamophobic for suggesting that all citizens embrace the one culture, today, that aspires to the value that all people are born with equal intrinsic value?
I think it is sad to refer to people who talk about these common shared values as populists which, today, is a derogatory term. In fact, I would say those of us who promote the Judeo/Christian ethic are Globalists, because we welcome all people from all over the globe as long as they embrace our ethic that all people are born with equal intrinsic value which makes possible ”…an identity that is not based on ethnicity, not based on religion, but is based on shared political values.”
From the Ethics of the Fathers: “Rabbi Tarfon used to say, it is not incumbent upon you to complete the task, but you are not exempt from undertaking it.”
